Postgame quotes: Jazz 106, Blazers 95
Official postgame quotes following the Portland Trail Blazers’ 106-95 defeat to the Utah Jazz on Wednesday at the Rose Garden.
BLAZERS POST GAME QUOTES
Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010 – Final Score: Utah 106, Portland 95
COACH NATE McMILLAN
Thoughts on first half defense:
“There wasn’t much defense. We gave up a 37 point quarter. Our starts the last two games have been bad and to give up a 37 point quarter, they basically just dominated that quarter. Points in the paint – they just attacked us and we had no answer for that. Offensively, we missed our shots and I thought that probably affected us on the defensive end of the floor. You start thinking about that. They were just aggressive tonight.”
“It was a bad start. I thought [we] fought for three quarters but to dig a hole and to try to fight out of that is tough.”
“I thought the next three quarters we fought but just ran out of gas.”
“We played a very good team tonight and we didn’t knock down shots. We got 92 attempts at the basket tonight. We didn’t shoot the ball well. Some of those shots that Martell has been shooting didn’t fall tonight. Miller – all of our guys early weren’t knocking down shots. Defensively, they attacked the paint in transition early and that was the difference. Some of our guys on the bench weren’t knocking down shots and we dug ourselves a deep hole.”
“We did have some open looks that we normally knock down, but I thought execution, setting screens, we didn’t get to that until the second half setting screens and really freeing each other up, playing together. When we dug ourselves that deep hole, we tried to get it back by ourselves at times. Then the second half, we kind of settled down and played better basketball.”
On Batum:
“I thought he was good. He made his shots. He was the one guy that had something going in that first half. Defensively, the second half he was able to do a pretty decent job of controlling Williams. He was the one spark in the first half for us.”
ANDRE MILLER
“From the start, they set the tone.”
“We got a slow start. We played decent for almost 3 quarters. We talked about how every game is going to be close the rest of the season with teams knowing where they are if the playoffs were to start so they definitely came out and hit us hard.”
“They thrive on getting paint points and that’s what they did. They had like 25 paint points in the first quarter so that’s tough to rebound from when you’re giving up easy baskets.”
JERRYD BAYLESS
“We tried to fight back in but when you dig yourselves trhat big of a hole it’s very tough to get back into the game. We have to figure out how to get off to better starts and we’re going to do that.”
“We’ve just got to get back to better starts. I think we showed a lot of fight in the last three quarters, especially in the second half. If we get off to better starts, I think we can win this game.”
Are there changes that need to be made?
“Nope. We’re just got to play harder in the first couple minutes. We’re going to correct it. We had a couple up and downs early in the season. We’re going though and up and down right now. We’re going to figure it out and then get it back together.”
On Batum:
“Nic played great. We know what Nic can do. Nic was a started all last year so he’s doing great for us and he’s coming off the bench and hopefully he can keep on doing the things he’s been doing.”
JAZZ POST GAME QUOTES
Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010 – Final Score: Utah 106, Portland 95
COACH JERRY SLOAN
ON GAME
“We got off to a good start. Our defense I thought was pretty good, we got involved in the open court and got some easy baskets and our confidence kind of built up. Usually the Law of Averages catches up with you a little bit and with the way we started you’d expect them to come back into the ball game, but fortunately, we were able to weather that a little bit and make a couple of shots. We had some turnovers that looked like we were going to keep them in the game with those.”
ON DIVISION WIN
“It was an important game because we beat them once in our place and we play them again, and hopefully we can compete against them the next time we play because you never know what come out at the end of the season. You’d like to win a tie-breaker if you’re involved in that. We’ve been in those situations over the years and we’ve come up short, and we’d like to try and win that.”
ON DEFENSE
“Defensively we had to try to double Aldridge some and try to get the ball out of his hands and that helped us I felt because we’re not big enough to guard him, we’re not quick enough to guard him in some instances, when he gets the ball down in the post if we don’t give some kind of help. We tried to double him some.”
DERON WILLIAMS
ON GAME
“That was our best start of the season by far especially on the road to come out like that; we just had a lot of energy. Some we were lacking early in the season on the road. Attacking people at hope, and I thought we did that tonight…It was a good thing we built that lead, we had them playing uphill the whole rest of the game. We knew they were going to make a run. They’re a good team. We just had to withstand that and get stops down the stretch when we needed to.”
ON DEFENSE
“I think it was a great call by coach to start doubling (Aldridge). He was scoring pretty much every play down the court. We went after him early and made him give it up and it took them out of their rhythm a little bit.”
ON WINNING IN PORTLAND
“It’s very important. This is a place we struggle. I think we had to take advantage of Brandon being out tonight. We couldn’t just think we were going to win because he is out and I don’t think we did that tonight. We came out here and played like he was on the floor.”
KYLE KORVER
ON GAME
“They’ve been playing really well this year, with our without guys. This is the NBA, it’s a game of runs and we had a really good start and we needed it obviously.”
ON BIG SHOTS
“I was pretty excited about the last one because I turned left when I shot it. I’ve been like Ben Stiller in Zoolander for like 3 months, I’m all rights. So I turned left on that one and was able to hit it. It felt good.”
