DAMIAN LILLARD
The third quarter was something we haven’t seen as much this series – what happened?
“I thought a lot of the looks were similar looks, just had to make shots. I think sometimes as a shooter, the shots just don’t fall then you start trying to make shots a little but too hard. You start trying too hard to make shots, maybe take a few tough ones and then that just makes it a longer night sometimes. I think over the course of the series or at least after game one, just haven’t seen the ball go in consistent enough. My job is to stay aggressive, keep doing what I do and tonight, shots fell.”
You’ve never been in a game seven, what are you expecting?
“I mean, I think it’s always people saying people have never been in a game seven but it’s basically a game where only one team is going to make it out. It’s your last opportunity to play, so facing elimination is what it is to me, that’s going to be my approach. We was facing elimination tonight, the only thing that’s going to change is it’s going to be on the road. It’s for our season, for all the marbles. For me, I’m not going in there saying I’ve never been in a game seven, I’m going in there saying I know what this team is capable of. I know what I am and who I am as a player and I’m going in there to get the job done. I’m not concerned with it being a game seven or whatever. It’s not game seven of the Finals, so it is what it is.”
What did you think of Collins tonight?
“I thought he was great. For him to be coming over and helping on a lot of the penetration, some of the mismatches on the block that they were looking to exploit with Millsap and contesting shots, blocking shots, boxing those guys out, limiting the second and third opportunities for them, just playing with confidence. Got to the free throw line and made free throws, took open shots, went up strong to the rim and it was a dunk or he was getting contact, but I just think his aggressiveness, how sharp he was mentally in the rotations and a lot of the adjustments we wanted to make, I think that was the most impressive thing that he did. A lot of people on the outside they just look for made shots, missed shots, the obvious stats but it’s a lot of stuff that you walk through in shoot arounds, that you go through when you watch film and changes that way, just positioning and stuff that you want out of players, and I thought he was really good in that way. So a lot of people might not notice those things but as his teammates, we notice how sharp he was in those things that we wanted to do.”
What does it mean to have Nurk on the bench and has he told you how hard it is to watch?
“He’s a part of the team so having him there, it feels more complete. Sometimes you look down there and when he’s not there, you’re like, man you could tell somebody’s missing, a player is missing. He’s also a talkative person so you feel his presence. Today was actually the first time that he said to me, when I was sitting next to him on the bench, he said, ‘Man I wish I could play with my broken leg. I would go out there right now and get hurt again if I could.’ And I was like, man, this dude is crazy. It was right after they showed him on the screen and the crowd went crazy, he must have got one of those feelings again and that’s how he was feeling at the moment I guess.”
Do you hear the crowd and seek out momentum shots?
“Coach, sometimes in the huddle, he’s saying give our crowd something to get behind because we know that we’ve got a great home court. We know our fans get into the game, we know how much they care. For me, I’m looking up saying, alright, we’re on a run, they’re a possession away from taking a timeout. You’re not going to kill them in the third quarter, you’re not going to kill them with eight, nine minutes in the fourth quarter, but you can get that crowd going. A few times I looked up, three-, four-, five-point lead, if I come off a screen and get a look, I’m going to raise up and it’s going to be eight, make them call a timeout, crowd going to go crazy. For us you look for those, well for me, I’m looking for those moments where it’s like, okay this could be a moment where they call a timeout, get our crowd behind us because I know how it feels being on the other side, the visiting team and the crowd is going crazy, you’ve got to call a timeout and it’s like, you’ve got to regroup and now you’ve got to go in the huddle and have these conversations, so I guess that is true, I look for those moments.”
As the leader, what kind of things do you hope to say to your guys to make sure they’re at their best for game seven?
“I think the number one thing is, not the number one thing but the number two thing is to get rest, stay off our feet, rest our bodies, make sure that we do that part, and the number one thing is have our minds right. Don’t overthink, don’t make it some big crazy deal or anything like that. We’re going to play a basketball game. It’s a big game and we’ve won on their floor before and we know what type of mentality we had when we did that. We’ve got to go out there, be tough, be physical, be sharp in our scouting report, play for each other, play with each other on both ends and just put the pressure on them. Make them earn everything on their offensive end and then when we get the ball, make sure that we get shots up. Value each possession, don’t go out there turning the ball over, playing into their hands where they get an opportunity to get their crowd involved. So that has to be our mentality, to just be sharp, be physical, go in there ready to take the game because the only way it’s going to happen is us going in there and taking it.”
Hood has been good in this series – how much easier does it make it for you and CJ to have a consistent scorer on the wing?
It’s huge because obviously coming into each, whatever game or series it is, CJ and I, we know the attention we’re going to get. We know teams are going to come try to take us out, we know that teams are going to give a lot of attention on our pick and rolls, if it’s an iso, anything that we’re doing, we know we’re going to see bodies. When you’ve got another guy on the wing that’s making threes, posting up, scoring in the midrange, drawing fouls, doing all these things, it gives the other team something else that they have to worry about to where it takes a lot of pressure of us, to where it’s not as much pressure to score the ball, it’s not as much pressure to make something happen because you’ve got another guy out there with 25 points. After the game, I said he’s probably been our most consistent game over the course of this series. I feel like all six games, he’s had a good game, so we’re going to need him to continue that game seven.”
