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HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS
What did you think of Lillard in fourth quarter:
“He was clutch. Obviously he made his free throws. We were struggling without him, but it seemed like he made every big play that he had to.”
On CJ’s performance
“He really had it going in the first quarter. I left him in to see if he could build on the quarter, so I kind of messed with the rotation a little bit. He really had it going. I thought not only for him, but the way he was getting it was in the flow. We had 12 assists because there was some movement involved, not just him playing one on one, I thought it was team oriented. And then Dame in the second half. We rely on those two guys to score for us. We can’t necessarily rely on them to get 71, I don’t know if we can get 71 between them every night.”
On Harkless:
“[Harkless] just keeps doing what he does. I think he’s very comfortable out there doing a little bit of everything. He’s floating on the perimeter, driving to the basket, offensive rebounds, good around the basket – as I said before the game, it just seems like he picked up where he left off last year and he has a lot of good momentum going.”
Were 20 turnovers due to fast pace game, or?
“Obviously you give Phoenix some credit because they’re an aggressive team. They’re like their coach, they get into guys and play hard and play physical and see what they can get away with. Some of it was their defense and some it was our poor decision making and then throw in a couple offensive fouls.”
DAMIAN LILLARD
What clicked late after the game was tied?
“I think it was - we had a little bit of a letdown, started giving up some offense rebounds, had a few turnovers. They got it going a little bit. They’ve done it in almost every game they’ve played in, they’ve competed really hard. They compete really hard. They’re a tough team to play against. Once it got to that point, player’s got to play. You’ve got to just get it done, and that’s what I did. We went out there, I thought we started playing a little bit harder. Sometimes they made shots, sometimes we got called for fouls, but we made plays offensively and we challenged them on the other end as well and we were able to pull it out.”
Do you look at this as a positive or a negative that you let go of an 18 point lead?
“It’s something that we need to work on. We’ve talked about it, just being able to play the way that we want to play for longer spans of time. We’ll play really well for seven minutes and then in four minutes, we’ll give up a 15-2 run, kind of give up everything we just worked for. We’ve got to continue to work at that. The good thing is we’re able to find a way to win games while we work on that, so I think that’s much better than losing games and saying we’re working on ourselves. You go to film, you continue to watch and learn and figure out what’s going on and see what’s necessary so we don’t put ourselves in those positions. Tonight they made some tough shots, we got called for fouls, we fouled a lot, but most importantly we got the win. Now we’ve got to go into this game tomorrow and lock in and try to get another one on the road.”
What did you think of CJ’s first quarter?
“I mean, he was CJ. He looked special out there. He was scoring, it was tough layups, pull up jumpers, threes, making plays, rebounding the ball, he played another great game. Once again in the first half, when you see a guy going like that, it’s my job to continue to feed him, and let him just let him continue it. We rode that out, built up a pretty good lead, had a big first quarter. Once he kind of cooled off a little bit, that’s when I started to get a little more aggressive and try to find my way, and fortunate for me, I was able to do that.”
What did you think of Lillard in fourth quarter:
“He was clutch. Obviously he made his free throws. We were struggling without him, but it seemed like he made every big play that he had to.”
On CJ’s performance
“He really had it going in the first quarter. I left him in to see if he could build on the quarter, so I kind of messed with the rotation a little bit. He really had it going. I thought not only for him, but the way he was getting it was in the flow. We had 12 assists because there was some movement involved, not just him playing one on one, I thought it was team oriented. And then Dame in the second half. We rely on those two guys to score for us. We can’t necessarily rely on them to get 71, I don’t know if we can get 71 between them every night.”
On Harkless:
“[Harkless] just keeps doing what he does. I think he’s very comfortable out there doing a little bit of everything. He’s floating on the perimeter, driving to the basket, offensive rebounds, good around the basket – as I said before the game, it just seems like he picked up where he left off last year and he has a lot of good momentum going.”
Were 20 turnovers due to fast pace game, or?
“Obviously you give Phoenix some credit because they’re an aggressive team. They’re like their coach, they get into guys and play hard and play physical and see what they can get away with. Some of it was their defense and some it was our poor decision making and then throw in a couple offensive fouls.”
DAMIAN LILLARD
What clicked late after the game was tied?
“I think it was - we had a little bit of a letdown, started giving up some offense rebounds, had a few turnovers. They got it going a little bit. They’ve done it in almost every game they’ve played in, they’ve competed really hard. They compete really hard. They’re a tough team to play against. Once it got to that point, player’s got to play. You’ve got to just get it done, and that’s what I did. We went out there, I thought we started playing a little bit harder. Sometimes they made shots, sometimes we got called for fouls, but we made plays offensively and we challenged them on the other end as well and we were able to pull it out.”
Do you look at this as a positive or a negative that you let go of an 18 point lead?
“It’s something that we need to work on. We’ve talked about it, just being able to play the way that we want to play for longer spans of time. We’ll play really well for seven minutes and then in four minutes, we’ll give up a 15-2 run, kind of give up everything we just worked for. We’ve got to continue to work at that. The good thing is we’re able to find a way to win games while we work on that, so I think that’s much better than losing games and saying we’re working on ourselves. You go to film, you continue to watch and learn and figure out what’s going on and see what’s necessary so we don’t put ourselves in those positions. Tonight they made some tough shots, we got called for fouls, we fouled a lot, but most importantly we got the win. Now we’ve got to go into this game tomorrow and lock in and try to get another one on the road.”
What did you think of CJ’s first quarter?
“I mean, he was CJ. He looked special out there. He was scoring, it was tough layups, pull up jumpers, threes, making plays, rebounding the ball, he played another great game. Once again in the first half, when you see a guy going like that, it’s my job to continue to feed him, and let him just let him continue it. We rode that out, built up a pretty good lead, had a big first quarter. Once he kind of cooled off a little bit, that’s when I started to get a little more aggressive and try to find my way, and fortunate for me, I was able to do that.”
