Kings at Blazers, 3/28/2016 - Quote Book (1 Viewer)

[SlyPokerDog]

HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS

“Well, it was good to get one like that. I was disappointed with the way we started defensively in the first quarter, but the second and third quarter, defensively we were very solid. Offensively, we were pretty good most of the night, the last five minutes withstanding. It was good to not extend the minutes and move on.”


On getting rest for some players in the fourth quarter:

“It’s good that they get a run, but it’s, obviously not having to play hard minutes in a tight fourth quarter game makes it easier.”

“Obviously it’s good to rest the guys and tomorrow will be basically an off day, we’ll do a little work on Wednesday. But yeah, that’s always a positive.”



On importance of rest at this point:

“At this point of the season, when you get two days off in a row, if you can take that one off – we just had Sunday off – it’s a tough part of the season. Everybody is taking about rest and tired and fatigued and all that, but it’s the reality of the league at this time of the year. We’ve got four in five nights coming up so it makes sense to give them time now.”



How do you feel Harkless is fitting in with new role?

“Pretty well. He compliments the group. He’s playing with a lot of confidence, he’s giving us some energy, he’s helped us get off to some good starts lately. I liked the way he and Chief were able to do some switching and take different matchups. I don’t know tonight with them not necessarily having their guys is indicative, but certainly the last few games, he’s helped us at both ends.”

 

[SlyPokerDog]

CJ MCCOLLUM


On playing Kings with lots of players sitting out:

“It’s different. Obviously they had a lot of guys sitting out tonight for various reasons, but there’s a lot of NBA players in this league that are very capable of playing at a high level so I’m sure a lot of those guys on Sacramento were relishing the opportunity to perform and they played hard. We just tried to come out and play hard.”



Did recent close game against Sixers affect how you came into this game?

“Yeah, I mean this is the NBA so regardless of who comes out there, guys can play. It just depends on their situation, depends on their role, and what’s being asked of them, but when you see a team sit out three or four starters, you know other guys are going to be aggressive. You never know what kind of plays they’re going to run because the entire offense changes once Cousins goes out the game, once there’s no Rondo, once there’s no Rudy Gay. So there’s less isolations, more pick and rolls, more fast break opportunities.”

 

[SlyPokerDog]

ALLEN CRABBE

What did you like most about that win?

“Our defensive intensity. I feel like this could be a game where we could take it lightly, or take plays off and we had kind of some slippage in the first half. So we addressed those things in here at halftime and made sure we came out in the second half with more intensity and turned them over, made sure we were careful with the ball because we had a few turnovers ourselves, and just made sure we executed the right way.”



On mindset coming in after close game against Sixers:

“We just knew that regardless of them not having their starters, we knew that it’s still NBA players, we know that they’re all still capable of making an impact on the game. If we gave them any daylight, or gave them any confidence, we knew that they can come out and give us a game, so that was one thing we really talked about before the game to make sure that we take their confidence and hit them hard when we first came out.”

 

[SlyPokerDog]

HEAD COACH GEORGE KARL

On how he feels the team performed overall:

“Kinda funny, the thought I told the team after the game is I saw how our offenses got in the third quarter. They got in control. They missed layups in the second quarter, a lot of easy baskets. I thought we were playing at a pretty good level after the first quarter, then we kinda lost our confidence offensively for two quarters. Then, we finally started making shots and our defense somewhat improved throughout the game. Portland has got a bunch of gunslingers. You give them a little space and they punish it. I thought they played very, very well. Early in the game, they made shots. We weren’t playing bad defense, we just weren’t playing good enough defense. The way they play sometimes is…they catch you—catch you in that no man’s land or the half-a-second slow reaction. They shot the ball so well in the first half that their confidence was off the charts. But, I just thought as the game went on…we got in control of them a little bit better, but not as much as they got in control of us.”



On Seth Curry taking over for Rajon Rondo:

“Seth had a solid game. I think the whole thing for us, we needed probably our guards to make basketball plays for each other, other than what we got done tonight. I thought we made some good plays but we never made the kind of plays like the extra pass play, the extra-together, kind of “we” play that motivates a team that has to overachieve to be good. We never got that kind of karma.”

 

[SlyPokerDog]

SETH CURRY

On how he thinks his game is coming along:

“It’s coming along well. I mean, just getting more confident, getting more of a feel of how to play out there, and just getting to know my teammates a little bit more. So just getting better every game.”


On whether he’s more comfortable at the one or the two:

“I’m comfortable with both. I mean, I think that’s the thing about my game, I can play the one or the two, I can play off the ball, score with the ball. So I think I was just able to show that I can make plays off of the dribble, hit the pick n roll a little bit tonight, so it’s helped me get some experience doing that.”


On how he played tonight:

“I think I played okay. Just making plays, trying to be more consistent from game to game and like I said, just go back and watch this tape and try to figure out different ways to get better. I think we got better as a team as the game went along, but they played well, they made a lot of shots, so it was tough stay with them.”


On his defensive matchups tonight:

“It was tough to guard. Two good guards, their offense is predicated on just getting up shots and they do a good job of screening for them, so it’s tough to guard them and they know they’re going to get their shots every single game the same way. It was a good matchup and a good learning experience for us.”

 

[SlyPokerDog]

TEAM

• The Trail Blazers have won 14 of their past 16 games at the Moda Center (four straight). Portland is 24-12 overall at home this season.

• Portland is 20-10 over its past 30 contests.

• Over the past 42 games, Portland is 24-1 when leading at the half, and 2-15 when trailing after two quarters.

• The Trail Blazers improve to 31-7 when leading after three quarters this season (21-3 at the Moda Center).

• Portland is 12-2 against Sacramento at home since the 2008-09 season. The Trail Blazers have now won six straight home games against the Kings.

• The Trail Blazers have won all three of their games against the Kings this season, marking the third straight time that Portland has won the season series over Sacramento.

• Portland is now 20-5 this season when its opponent scores less than 100 points.

• Six Portland players scored in double figures, marking the seventh straight game in which at least five Trail Blazers scored 10+ points.

• Portland’s 11 three-pointers in the first half fell one short of the franchise record for three-pointers in a half (four times, twice this season).

• The Trail Blazers’ bench outscored Sacramento’s reserves, 46-24, marking the 26th time in the past 37 games that Portland has accomplished that feat (+196 pts). The Trail Blazers are 26-18 this season when their bench outscored the opposing reserves (23-11 since Dec. 3).

 

[SlyPokerDog]

PLAYER

• Damian Lillard passed Kiki Vandeweghe for 13th on Portland’s all-time scoring list (6,701 points).

• CJ McCollum tonight became the eighth Trail Blazer ever to record 1,500+ points and 300+ assists in a season (Drexler, Lillard, Petrie, Wicks, Owens, Roy, Thompson).

• Allen Crabbe scored 21 points tonight, and has now averaged 14.7 points in three games against the Kings this season. Crabbe has scored 10+ points in all three of those games.

• Tonight represents the fifth time that Allen Crabbe has scored at least 20 points in his career (all coming this season).

• Maurice Harkless finished with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, marking the sixth time in seven starts this season that Harkless has had at least 10 points. Harkless has scored in double figures in four straight starts.

• Al-Farouq Aminu scored 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting, and has now scored 10+ points in four of his past five games. Aminu has averaged 17.0 points over his past two games.

 

[42N8Bounce]

PLAYER

• Damian Lillard passed Kiki Vandeweghe for 13th on Portland’s all-time scoring list (6,701 points).

Dame only needs 45 more points to pass Damon Stoudamire (6,745 points) for 12th on Portland's all-time scoring list. Duckworth is #11 with 7,188 points.