Exclusive GAME# 60: BLAZERS @ SUNS - FEBRUARY 24, 2018 - Quote Book

[SlyPokerDog]

· The Trail Blazers sweep the Suns for the first time since the 1998-99 season when Portland won all three games. This is Portland’s first sweep of the Suns in a four-game season series since the 1987-88 season. The Blazers have now won seven straight against the Suns.


· The Suns’ season-long losing streak extends to nine straight.


· The Trail Blazers have now won five of their last six games and 12 of their last 17 overall.

KEY RUN I
The Suns faced their biggest deficit of the game, trailing 60-50 with 11:10 remaining in the third quarter before going on a 26-5 run to take an 11-point lead at 76-65 with 2:41 left in the third. Devin Booker led the Suns with seven points during the 26-5 spurt with Alex Len and Elfrid Payton each scoring five points, and T.J. Warren scoring four.

KEY RUN II
The Trail Blazers trailed 93-78, their largest deficit of the game, with 7:26 left in the fourth quarter before going on a 19-4 to tie the game at 97-97 with 2:38 to play. Damian Lillard scored eight points and CJ McCollum scored seven on the run. The Blazers eventually took their first lead of the fourth quarter on Lillard’s decisive layup to go up 106-104 with :00.9 remaining.

KEY STAT I
The Trail Blazers committed just six turnovers (tying a Suns opponent season low—Jan. 14 vs. Indiana) as the Suns scored just nine points off turnovers. On the other end, the Suns turned it over 16 times leading to 22 Portland points off turnovers.

KEY STAT II
Entering the fourth quarter, the Suns were shooting 10-of-23 (43.5%) from three-point range while the Blazers had shot 3-of-22 (13.6%) from deep. In the fourth quarter, however, Portland shot 3-of-8 and Phoenix shot 1-of-3 with Damian Lillard shooting 2-of-4 himself after going 1-of-7 in the first three quarters. After the Suns outscored the Trail Blazers 31-16 in the third period, the Trail Blazers outscored the Suns 35-23 in the fourth quarter to complete a comeback from as many as 15 points down.

PLAYER/KEY NOTES
· Devin Booker scored 30 points, including 22 in the second half, and grabbed nine rebounds. This was Booker’s 17th 30-point game of the season, tied with Kyrie Irving for 7th most in the NBA. It was Booker’s 37th career 30-point game, tying Shawn Marion for 9th most in Suns franchise history.


· Alex Len finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds, his second straight double-double and team-leading ninth overall this season. This is Len’s first time with a double-double in consecutive games since two straight from Dec. 16-18. In five starts this season, Len is averaging 13.2 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.0 blocks.


· Elfrid Payton had 13 points, 11 assists and six rebounds, recording his fifth double-double of the season and his second in five games since joining the Suns. Payton is now averaging 16.8 points (52.4 FG%), 8.6 assists and 7.0 rebounds as a Sun.


· Troy Daniels scored 11 points, making 3-of-6 three-pointers off the bench. Daniels now has 23 games with 3+ three-pointers off the bench this season, tied with Leandro Barbosa (2006-07) for second-most in Suns history behind Mirza Teletovic’s 37 such performances in 2015-16.


· Blazers guard Damian Lillard scored 40 points, his third game with 40+ points this season, and grabbed 10 rebounds, his third game with 10+ boards this season, for his seventh double-double of the season. Lillard scored 19 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter, including the game-winning layup that left :00.9 remaining. It was Lillard’s second game-winner in the final second this season as he also hit a three-pointer with :00.7 left to give Portland a 113-110 win over the Lakers on Nov. 2.


· Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic had 14 points and 13 rebounds, his 15th double-double of the season.


NEXT PHOENIX AVAILABILITY: The Suns next have media availability in Phoenix after returning from a two-game road trip, on Thursday, March 1 with media availability at approximately 1:00 p.m.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS.................................................................................

(On tonight’s game)

“That was an incredible win. It was looking pretty bleak there in the fourth quarter. I was really proud how our guys kept competing and never gave up. Obviously Damian was huge; showed his leadership, showed his talent. He just did a lot of good things in that fourth quarter that got us over that hump. We overcame a horrendous shooting night for most of the night and found a way.”

(On defense on 5 second call)

“Mo was on the ball because Booker was taking it out but we knew they didn’t have any timeouts left so we gave it a shot and made some good reads and didn’t give them any outlets.”


“I told the team it was nice to have a teaching moment after a win instead of after a loss. I thought our effort was good, I thought Phoenix played really well. I thought Phoenix played hard and they competed. Jay did a good job with them, keeping them in the game. I told our team there isn’t going to be any easy ones the rest of the way, so it was a good teaching moment for us.”


PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS GUARD DAMIAN LILLARD.............................................. 40 POINTS |10 REBOUNDS

(On comeback in 4th)

“We got stops and were able to get out and make some momentum changing plays. Even though we started to make shots, Mo and Chief and Nurk, their activity on the defensive end pretty much changed the game for us.”

(On shooter’s mentality)

“I came into the game with that type of mentality and the ball wasn’t going in and sometimes that’s how the game goes, ups and downs, teams go on runs and things don’t always go in your favor but at some point the game is on the line and Coach can only do so much for us. Mo and Chief, you just can’t put guys in a position to do the kind of stuff they’re out there doing. You have to go out there and want it. I thought the activity: guarding guys, making them work, blocking shots and rebounding, that shows the will, the desire to win and it created opportunities for us to go down on the offensive end when we weren’t set, attack and get downhill and we were able to get it going. That was part of my mentality as well, to go out there and get it done.”


PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS GUARD CJ MCCOLLUM........................................................ 21 POINTS | 4 ASSISTS

(On the defense on the 5 second call)

“I was guarding the in bounder. Before we went out, coach looked at us and said they don’t have any more time outs. If they don’t get this ball in, they can’t call a time out. I just tried to take away Booker. I saw how they were set up and I just guarded him normal and when I turned and saw him run to half court I just shaded toward him. I knew it would take a lot of time for him to get in front of me and even if he would have got the ball he wouldn’t have been close.”

(On Dame’s game winner)

“Once he squared up there was about four and a half seconds left and I knew he was going to try to get downhill. He made a tough lay. That was tough with the right hand. It was in impressive finish. I knew they weren’t going to call a foul. We work out a lot. Pre practice, post practice, summertime: the amount of reps we get, the amount of reps he gets, I expect him to finish down the stretch, I expect him to be great and that’s what we need from him.”

 

[SlyPokerDog]

PHOENIX SUNS HEAD COACH JAY TRIANO................................................................................................

(On Lillard carrying his team down the stretch)

“I thought so. He had 28 in the second half. I don’t know if we could have guarded him much better, other than the last play where we gave him a bit of an angle. The other plays he made tough, contested shots and I thought we did a pretty decent job, but he’s an all-star for a reason.


(On the Suns responding well after a tough game last night)

“I thought we played the way I would like us to play more often.”


(On Shaquille Harrison’s debut)

“I think he’s a point guard who has length so he can challenge, he knows how to keep guys in front of him. I thought his defense was good. We didn’t play him a lot of minutes, but when he was out there, he was out there for defensive reasons and I thought he was good.”


(On what happened to the Suns’ offense after being up 13 with six minutes to go)

“I thought they were really aggressive on Book, they put a longer guy on him, they put Harkless on him, made it tough for him to get by. We kept setting screens and they started doubling, making him give it up or take tough shots. At the end we finally just started slipping guys out so he had freedom to go, and that’s how he scored the bucket to take the lead.”


(On the Suns’ improved defense from last night)

“I thought we were better defensively, we were a lot more aggressive, we were into guys, we were more physical than we were. I asked them to play the way we did in the second half last night and I thought we did that.”

 

[SlyPokerDog]

PHOENIX SUNS FORWARD DEVIN BOOKER………………………………………………30 POINTS | 9 REBOUNDS

(On what led to the Blazers late comeback…)

“It was just tough. They made it hard on us and that’s what we expect from a playoff team. We’re a young team, still learning those late-game situations and for us we haven’t been put in that situation many of times and I’m pretty sure they’ve been in there a lot more than us.”


(On how the team responded from last night’s game despite the loss tonight…)

“We came out, we played early on. That was the biggest thing for us, but still, no moral victories for us. We have to win. You learn winning by winning. There’s no way around that. We played well today, let’s move on from that. We have to finish games out like that.”


PHOENIX SUNS GUARD TROY DANIELS…………………………………………………11 POINTS | 2 REBOUNDS

(On drawing a five-second violation at the end of the game…)

“It was a tough spot to be in. We had no timeouts. I didn’t see anybody open. If I did, I would have thrown it obviously. I’ve been in that position a lot of times, but like I said, it’s tough to be in that position when you have no timeouts. You learn from it and you get better. It is what it is.”


(On if he was trying to pass to Devin Booker coming off a screen…)

“Yeah. We wanted to give Book the ball for the last-seconds and they knew we didn’t have any timeouts, so my mad double teamed his man and nobody else got open. So it was a tough position, like I said, for me to be in.”


(On what happened offensively that led to losing the lead late in the game…)

“They went on a run. It was tough to hit back. It was tough to stop the bleeding, but teams are going to go on runs. Portland, they went on the last important run. That’s the reason why they won the game.”


PHOENIX SUNS GUARD ELFRID PAYTON…………………………………………………….13 POINTS | 11 ASSISTS

(On positives to take away from this game based on last night’s performance…)

“Definitely can take away some positives but as a young group, we’ve got to figure out how to win these types of games.”


(On the difficulty of guarding Lillard…)

“He’s tough. Somebody’s looking for his shot, his teammates are looking for him to make those shots. It’s tough. It’s a team effort and everybody has to pitch in.”


(On his mindset on defending Lillard on that last shot…)

“My thought process was usually late in games, he likes to pull up. So I’m playing the drive for the most part. I felt like my help was with pushing him left, which it was. That’s why Book was there and able to contest the shot. He just made a tough shot.”

 

[Strenuus]

I'm confused. CJ said he was on the ball for the 5 seconds, but Stotts said Mo was.

WHO WAS IT?! :MARIS61:

 

[KingSpeed]

I'm confused. CJ said he was on the ball for the 5 seconds, but Stotts said Mo was.

WHO WAS IT?! :MARIS61:

Mo was on Booker.

 

[Strenuus]

Mo was on Booker.

Why is CJ lying to us?

 

[H.C.]

Why is CJ lying to us?

He's not.
Booker came up from a down pick trying to receive the ball 25-30ft at the top.
CJ guarding the in bounder was looking and denied the initial pass.
Which forced booker further out 35-half court.
CJ denied that and Booker cut in front leading to a 5s call.

 

[SIeepwalker]

I'm confused. CJ said he was on the ball for the 5 seconds, but Stotts said Mo was.

WHO WAS IT?! :MARIS61:

Stotts got it wrong