Postgame quotes: Blazers 107, Lakers 98
BLAZERS POST GAME QUOTES
Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2010 – Final Score: Portland 107, L.A. Lakers 98
COACH NATE McMILLAN
“I thought it was a great win for us in the sense that we played great basketball tonight. To beat the Lakers, we needed this type of effort from start to finish from both groups. Defensively, we played the way we’ve talked about. We need to play that way and be consistent with that – being physical, making them work. Offensively, we got the movement tonight. We attacked; I thought we pushed the ball. Both units played well. “
“You can go down the list of every guy that played and they did something special. From LaMarcus having to guard Bynum. I thought Martell played one of his best games as a pro tonight having to guard Kobe and keep him in front of him and stay focused on the offensive end of the floor. He rebounded the ball. Brandon accepted the challenge tonight and stepped up and played well… Howard again. Our young guys DC and Jeff came in and played with some energy. Then Bayless came in – 21 points off the bench. And my main man Miller played great basketball. It was good. We need to play that way and we got that game.
“The main thing is to try and deny him his catch. Towards the end, we had control of the game so they were giving it to him up the floor and he was putting his head down. Kobe took 37 attempts tonight. Just stay in front of him and make him shoot the ball. He can do that, but try and keep him off the free throw line.
“We were great attacking and getting to the free throw line tonight. That’s the game we want to play. When we play that game attacking the basket, rebounding the ball, and moving the ball, we’re normally in good shape.”
BRANDON ROY
“Anytime you play the Lakers, everybody is excited about it. I keep saying sometimes your best defense against the best player in the world is to attack him so I just wanted to be aggressive the times he was on me and try to wear him out as much as I could on that end. I think Martell did a great job defensively. We got a huge win.”
On what the win says about the Blazers:
“It says we are going to keep fighting. We are going to keep scrapping. We played with a lot of effort tonight. Really, that’s the only way we’re going to beat the Lakers – if we come out and play with a lot of energy. I think we did that tonight so I’m proud of these guys. But again, it’s still the middle of the race so we’ve got a lot of work to continue to do and have to look forward to Cleveland on Sunday.”
“…It feels good, it gives us confidence. At the same time, we did a great job of playing a full 48 minute game. It does give us confidence going into Cleveland, but again, we’ve got to start from square one and play the same type of basketball.”
ANDRE MILLER
“That we pretty much kept them under control the whole game – that’s what I liked most. The times I’ve played against them, they’ve got a star over there that’s going to get it going eventually. I’ve been on some teams with guys who can defend and Martell Webster played really good defense.”
“We talked about staying aggressive on offense. Our defense has been a little bit up and down throughout the season but we showed signs we could play defense. Tonight we did that a little bit.”
MARTELL WEBSTER
On defensive effort:
“It wasn’t necessarily me going out there trying to show something, but I’ll tell you one thing – it’s easier to get motivated when you’re playing a team like that and a player like that. I kinda took it – I had my heart on my sleeve a little bit. I wanted to prove that I could get down, to myself, and guard him.”
On coach calling it (one of) his best game as a pro:
“Thank you coach, appreciate it. I heard him say it and I really appreciate that. If that’s the best one…it’s not going to be the only one. I just want to kind of ride that, use it as a stepping stool and motivation and carry over into this Cleveland game.”
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LAKERS POST GAME QUOTES
Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2010 – Final Score: Portland 107, L.A. Lakers 98
COACH PHIL JACKSON
ON GAME
“I think we were inordinately aggressive in the second and fourth quarter. They got on top very early and you can’t have a discrepancy like we had tonight in the foul shots…I think there are some calls that were bad. You’re always going to have calls that are bad but we just didn’t understand the relevance of what it is to the game. We had some bench players that aren’t used to playing in that situation at times and they don’t understand the gravity of it.”
ON PLAYING IN PORTLAND
“(sarcastically) I just mark ‘L’s on the season right away when we come up…they played very well tonight you have to give them credit for what they do, I don’t think we played exceptionally well, we just cant seem to match the energy. We don’t do a good job of it.”
ON LOSING TRENDS
“I haven’t been happy with our defense both nights (tonight and vs. Clippers). Both clubs aren’t 100-point ball clubs, more like 90-95 and we gave up too many points.”
Andrew Bynum
ON GAME
“I think defensively we got to be more solid. Everybody is missing assignments from top to bottom and it’s causing us to get frustrated I think…We got to do better defensively. I just think we’re not playing smart. Guys out there are definitely trying we’re just not playing smart.”
ON LOSING IN PORTLAND
“We got to go out and try and break the curse, it’s hard. It’s really hard for us to win here.”
