Exclusive GAME# 49: WARRIORS @ BLAZERS - JANUARY 29, 2017 - Quote Book

[SlyPokerDog]

HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS

On Lillard reaching 8,000 points and 2,000 assists:

“First of all, I want to congratulate Damian on his accomplishment tonight. The other nine guys who have done what he did tonight or in his career so far, eight of them are Hall of Fame guys. He’s had a great career so far and I don’t think any of us should take for granted what he’s done for the previous four years and what he’s doing for us now.”


“As for the game, I really liked the way we competed. We got down a few times, we battled back. It’s disappointing to come up empty but to get an open three at the end to win the game, we take that any day. I thought we really battled and it was very encouraging.”


What did you think of the free throw discrepancy?

“I didn’t like it.”


Did you feel like Golden State was more aggressive?

“I don’t know. I can’t explain the free throw disparity. I mean, I don’t know what it ended up but it was 29 to 9 at one point I know. Obviously, we didn’t go to the free throw line very much.”


Did you notice if Warriors denied McCollum and Lillard on last play?

“We didn’t necessarily execute as well as we could have to get one of those two guys the ball, but Evan was the third option and we needed to get the ball inbounds because we didn’t have any timeouts. So, certainly they made Dame and CJ a priority but Evan was able to get it.”

“Evan had a good game.”

 

[SlyPokerDog]

DAMIAN LILLARD

“We knew the kind of game that they play – the pace they play at, the kind of shots that they take, we knew that we would be able to get back in the game. We just had to stay with it. We weren’t playing great at that point in the game and we started getting going and like we thought the entire team, we would make a way to get back into it. We got back into the game and we made a game of it.”


On sequence at the end of the game:

“I mean, I think we ended up getting a great look. We executed damn near perfect – when you’re down 7 with under a minute to go and playing the foul game, getting quick shots. We executed that part of it perfect. The entire time we was trying to get a jump ball or go for a steal, we didn’t get one and then you get back down 2 and you get an offensive foul and you get the last shot of the game. That’s like the perfect situation anytime a team ends up fouling and going quick. We got our opportunity. The last play, I was trying to get the ball at the top of the key. Five seconds left, and force overtime. That’s what I had in my mind. But it was a close play for Mase to make that pass to me, and like I said, we ended up getting a great look. I think a couple years ago ET even hit that shot to beat us when he was in Boston. That’s a great look. You kind of got to live with that.”


Do you view this as validating that you’re playing better?

“I think we know within ourselves that we’re improving and we’re playing much better based on the last week, how we’ve played. We’ve won three games in a row and then coming into tonight, it’s kind of – not easy, but everybody is going to get up to play them. That’s the best team in the league right now. But we competed. We played a good game. We gave ourselves a chance up to the last shot. It just fell short. We’ve got a lot to take away from it positive and negative.”

 

[SlyPokerDog]

HEAD COACH STEVE KERR

On what he thought of the final couple of plays:

“I haven’t watched the tape so I don’t know if KD [Kevin Durant] pushed off on that play or not. The end of games are always chaotic, everybody fouls each other, everybody holds and grabs. The refs have an impossible job. I don’t really have a reaction until I can see the replays but we survived.”


On if he is satisfied with the win:

“Oh yeah, thrilled with this win. On the road, on a back to back, without Steph [Curry]. It’s a great win and I can see our guys didn’t have a ton of energy, they had to really gut it out. We had that big lead early and then we just kind of stopped playing the last four minutes of the second quarter and we had to rebuild from there. It’s a really good win, really gutty effort.”


On Andre Iguodala:

“Andre’s finish to the third quarter was huge and that really gave us the separation that we needed, especially on the road. The fourth quarter, to have I guess a 10, 11 point lead at the end of the quarter was big for us because they obviously made a really good push and got back in it but I thought Andre was brilliant. Andre always has a sense of when he needs to pick things up and be more aggressive offensively and he knew with Steph [Curry] out he needed to look for his shot early.”


On Evan Turner’s last shot:

“I was drawing up my play to run at the other end, thinking we were about to be down one. It looked good from our angle, I was right behind him and the shot was dead on line just a little short.”


His views on the political bans going on:

“I would just say as someone whose family member was a victim of terrorism, having lost my father. If we’re trying to combat terrorism by banishing people from coming to this country, by really going against the principles of what our country is about and creating fear, it’s the wrong way to go about it. If anything we could be breeding anger and terror, so I’m completely against what’s happening, I think it’s shocking. I think it’s a horrible idea and I really feel for all of the people who are affected, families are being torn apart and I worry in the big picture what this means to the security of the world. It’s going about it, completely opposite. You want to solve terror, you want to solve crime. It’s not the way to do it.”

 

[SlyPokerDog]

DRAYMOND GREEN

On tonight’s game:

Started off the game great, everything going well for us offensively and defensively. Then kind of let go of the rope the last five minutes of the second quarter and from there it was a dog fight. But we made the necessary plays down the stretch we needed to make on both ends of the ball to come out with the win.”


On the play of his team’s big:

“Zaza (Pachulia) has been amazing, and then (James Michael-McAdoo) and JaVale (McGee) have been coming in and giving us great minutes. You put those three guys together and their giving us a lot out of that position with the minutes that they play. It’s helped us out a lot, especially these last couple of weeks.”

 

[SlyPokerDog]

KEVIN DURANT

On the foul that gave Portland the last possession of the game:

“I like my money, so it was an offensive foul.”


On what Portland did to get back in the game at the end:

“When you’re up seven points late in the game you don’t want to give up threes. We’ll take the free throw game so we played the three point line. They’re a great three point shooting team and we didn’t want them to unlock the three pointer late in the game. We fouled Lillard on one, which was questionable, but late in the game they’ve got to give it to them and then CJ McCollum hit a tough one over the top of Klay (Thompson). For the most part they just got layups, because we were all spaced out, we didn’t want to give up a three. We also knew we could make free throws late in the game, so it was all part of the strategy. Late in the game you can’t protect the rim as much as you can throughout the game, because you don’t want to give up the three.”

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Postgame Notes - Jan. 29, 2017
Golden State 113, Portland 111
Game #49 • Home Game #23


TEAM

• Tonight’s loss marks the second time (2005-06) in the two teams’ 47-year history that Golden State has swept Portland in a four-game season series. The Trail Blazers have swept the Warriors in a season series of four games or more four times (1992-93, 1999-2000, 2000-01 and 2002-03).

• The loss snaps what was a season-high three-game winning streak for Portland.

• The Trail Blazers reeled off a 20-2 run over the last 4:46 of the first half to get within three at halftime.

• The Warriors’ six-game winning streak vs. Portland is the second-longest overall for Golden State in the series (7, 2005-06).

• Portland’s 37 fourth-quarter points set a new season high.


PLAYER

• With his second 3-pointer tonight, CJ McCollum passed Martell Webster for 9th on Portland's all-time list for 3-pointers made (407).

• After scoring 35 points at Golden State Jan. 4 and 28 points tonight, CJ McCollum has his two highest point totals against the Warriors over the past two games.

• CJ McCollum went 4-4 from the 3-point line in the fourth quarter.

• Damian Lillard's 12th point tonight is the 8,000th point of his career. He is the 11th Trail Blazer to score 8,000 points, all-time.

• The last three NBA players to record 8000+ points, 2000+ assists in their first five seasons are Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Damian Lillard.

• Mason Plumlee is the first Trail Blazer to record five straight double-doubles since LaMarcus Aldridge from Jan. 28-Feb. 7, 2015 (6). His streak is a career best.

• Maurice Harkless led Portland bench scoring with 10 points (5-9 FG) after missing the last two games with a left calf strain.

• Kevin Durant has scored at least 20 points in each of his last 11 contests against Portland, including seven games of 30-plus (three times this season).

• Sunday marked the first game that Steph Curry has missed this season.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

His views on the political bans going on:

“I would just say as someone whose family member was a victim of terrorism, having lost my father. If we’re trying to combat terrorism by banishing people from coming to this country, by really going against the principles of what our country is about and creating fear, it’s the wrong way to go about it. If anything we could be breeding anger and terror, so I’m completely against what’s happening, I think it’s shocking. I think it’s a horrible idea and I really feel for all of the people who are affected, families are being torn apart and I worry in the big picture what this means to the security of the world. It’s going about it, completely opposite. You want to solve terror, you want to solve crime. It’s not the way to do it.”

Malcolm Hooper Kerr (October 8, 1931 – January 18, 1984) was a university professor, whose speciality was the Middle East and the Arab world. Although an American citizen, he was born and raised, and died, in Beirut, Lebanon. He served as President of the American University of Beirut, a major institution of learning.

Death
On January 18, 1984, Kerr was shot and killed by two gunmen outside his office; he was 52. Years later, information regarding Kerr's assassins and their motives still remain uncertain, although an Islamic Jihadist took credit for the murder Yet some doubt remains as to the perpetrator. News of his sudden death, which was yet another tragic event in the Lebanese civil war, appeared world-wide in the media.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_H._Kerr

 

[Minstrel]

HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS

“We didn’t necessarily execute as well as we could have to get one of those two guys the ball...”

DAMIAN LILLARD

“I mean, I think we ended up getting a great look. We executed damn near perfect – when you’re down 7 with under a minute to go and playing the foul game, getting quick shots. We executed that part of it perfect.

I realize that they're talking about slightly different things (Stotts about getting the ball to Lillard or McCollum, while Lillard was talking about getting executing a catch-up sequence of events), I just found those funny to read one after the other.

 

[KingSpeed]

I didn't know that about Kerr's Dad. Steve must've been a teenager when that happened. Devastating.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

I didn't know that about Kerr's Dad. Steve must've been a teenager when that happened. Devastating.

THE STORY OF STEVE KERR'S FATHER'S ASSASSINATION:

Steve Kerr’s father was assassinated in Beirut in 1984.
And I had no idea what a small group of students at Arizona State University did to Steve Kerr two days later, when he was playing for Arizona.
It was despicable.
More on that in a moment.

Steve Kerr's father, Malcolm, was the President of American University in Beirut. He was shot in the back of the head while walking out of an elevator. It’s believed he was killed by Hezbollah gunman after getting orders from Iran.

Steve Kerr later told the Chicago Tribune:
“Before my father was killed, my life was impenetrable.
Bad things happened to other people.
I thought I was immune from anything like that, and so was my family.”

“Something like this opens your eyes.
It made me understand the pain that others experience, the effect that death can have.
It’s made me realize that millions of people go through these things.”

It was 3 am in the morning in January of 1984, when Steve Kerr got the call that his father had been killed.
Kerr was sleeping in his dorm room at the University of Arizona.
Two days later he played in a game against Arizona State.

His coach Lute Olson told him:
“You just need to take your time, and you can stay away from the game or whatever you want to do.
And he said, ‘Coach, the only time I can keep from thinking about my dad is when I’m playing basketball.’ ”

So that day he played against ASU.
And this is what happened during the warm-ups before the game.
A small group of the ASU students started chanting:
“Where’s your dad?”
“Your father is history.”
And “Why don’t you join the Marines and go back to Beirut?”

This was two days after his father was assassinated.
I don’t know how anyone could do that.

Kerr dropped the ball and collapsed on the bench.
He started crying.
But then he composed himself.
And went out and hit six straight 3-pointers in the first half.
Arizona destroyed ASU.