Postgame notes, quotes: Blazers 109, Clippers 87
Official postgame notes and quotes following the Portland Trail Blazers’ 109-87 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday evening at the Rose Garden.
BLAZERS POST GAME QUOTES
Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010 – Final Score: Portland 109, L.A. Clippers 87
COACH NATE McMILLAN
“I thought it was good. It was a good game coming off a break and executing defensively as well as offensively. It’s always nice to see these guys knock down shots. Coming off a break like that, you’re trying to get your legs and get your timing. I thought our guys did a nice job.”
On Roy:
“I talked to him before the game and I thought he needed a little push as far as getting out there. He was more concerned with conditioning than his leg. We talked about managing his minutes. He decided to go and once he went, he thought he felt it a little bit so we decided to pull him at half and go with Rudy in the starting lineup [for the second half].”
On Webster:
“The shooting has been great and we need that. We’re going to need him to continue to shoot the ball like that. Defensively, he’s working to improve in that area. A lot of times he’s drawing the assignment of the best offensive wing and that’s an area where he’s given the effort and working at that. He gets that – he’s definitely going to help us. He’s a good rebounder, his stroke has been there most of the year, and that’s a big weapon on the floor when you have guys double teaming LaMarcus and you have Brandon out there.
On trade’s impact:
“You can’t control it. You talk about that; we’ve talked about that over the years. Things happen. As I told the team today, we talked about this opening night, we were somewhat lucky to have the number of talented players in that locker-room to start the season off. It’s going to be very difficult with contracts and salaries to keep this type of group together. It’s just really difficult to do that. We probably had one year to do it and I was hoping that we could take advantage of that. Unfortunately, we didn’t have that opportunity because of injuries and then it comes down to making business decisions…. It was a good move. We needed a center, we lost both of ours. To give ourselves a chance to stay in this race, we needed a big and we got what we feel is a pretty good big.”
On Camby helping in areas Blazers need:
“We won pretty much everything except the boards and I thought at times, they got to the basket fairly easy so yeah, we do need him. What he brings to the floor, we are missing – a guy that will rotate and defend the basket as well as rebound and block shots. We need that. We were trying to get that from Greg and Joel and at times we did, but that’s his strength. I’m looking forward to getting him out there.”
On looking fresh following the break:
“Normally, you are a little rusty coming back after that many days off, but only 9 turnovers tonight. We did a good job of taking care of the ball. We did a good job of moving the ball and we shot the three-ball good tonight.”
LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE
“We came out from the start and I thought guys felt fresh tonight. Our guys looked fresh and we made shots, played good D and got a win tonight.”
On Webster:
“He played well. I thought he played under control, made a lot of smart plays down the stretch and I think that’s what we need from him. Every game, he’s growing and getting more confident.”
On inside game playing off of outside game:
“It’s been good to me having the capability of knocking down that shot has made it easier to get to the basket, easier to get to the line because guys are thinking I’m going to shoot it. It’s been good to me lately.”
On defending Kaman:
“Just doubling him, just try to find him, double him quick, and never let him get comfortable. I felt like he never really established himself or felt comfortable.”
CLIPPERS POST GAME QUOTES
Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010 – Final Score: Portland 109, L.A. Clippers 87
COACH KIM HUGHES
ON END OF GAME
“I think the group out there got tired. They played terrific, we run a lot of seven up with the offense spread. Bobby Brown ran it very well. Our defense was pretty active but those guys went on a pretty long run, I thought they played with good heart and good resolve and they just rant out of gas and when we subbed in the guys that replaced them didn’t have the necessary energy and committed a ton of turnovers. I think we had 27 points off turnovers (against us), they had eight, that’s a 19-point difference – that’s the game.”
ON KAMAN
“I think it was frustration on his part. He got doubled frequently and any time we had any kind of pick action for him sliding in the post they doubled him. We didn’t do a very good job of spacing the floor for him, and he did a poor job of finding the open guys. Frequently he was on his back foot falling away from the pivot and you have no pace in your ball when you make that kind of pass, so hit outlet passes had no zip on them so they were intercepted.”
ON GAME
“My only issue tonight was our total lack of taking care of the ball…We talked about the fact that for both Webster and Fernandez half of their shots are threes, they were aware of that, and sometimes it was sinking fell on the weak side by a small, but many times our smalls got lost….We have to find a post up game, they took Craig Smith out of the post-up game and clearly they took Kaman out of the post-up game. I like they way we rebounded. We’ve got to trust each other more on offense and in early offense not go so much one-on-one, I think that led to a lot of turnovers. We’ve got to play in the structure of our early offense rather than go too much one-on-one.”
ON CAMBY
“We’ll miss him tremendously. We’ll miss his calmness, he’s going to be there on the weak side sinking and filling, he’s going to take a lot of pressure off guys defensively. When they get beat he’s going to clean it up, so it makes us a much better defensive team.”
CHRIS KAMAN
ON GAME
“We did a good job at times, just not the whole time and that’s kind of been a consistent theme this year for us. It’s a long season, there’ are still a lot of games left for us we got to try to come out and play the right way the whole time but this is a tough one. Everything just didn’t seem right out there. A couple of guys said the same thing, it’s just a whole new system we’re trying to go through and figure out everybody and all get on the same page again and try to deal with the trade that went down. It’s kind of difficult. I’m disappointed in my effort, it’s just tough, I couldn’t get going and they didn’t really do anything special I haven’t seen in any other games but I just couldn’t get it going in the new offense, it just didn’t seem right. I don’t know if it’s from the break or what it was but it seemed a little off, It’s a disappointing loss.”
ON CAMBY
“Defensively, that’s been our strongest player. He’s a rebounder and shot blocker, but I thought DeAndre came in and did a great job, getting rebounds and getting all those dunks.”
ERIC GORDON
ON END OF GAME
“We just made a couple of bad plays where they converted on them and they started to hit a lot of threes towards the end. They just caught fire for a minute, which we couldn’t come back.”
ON CAMBY
“He’s a guy in transition that helps us on offense and defense. He’s one of our main leaders on our team, even though he doesn’t get publicity like a lot of other guys do, he’s a helper.”
POSTGAME NOTES
Portland 109, L.A. Clippers 87
February 16, 2010
— Tonight marked the 101st consecutive Trail Blazers sellout at the Rose Garden (including playoffs), dating back to Dec. 21, 2007.
— Martell Webster tied a career high with 28 points tonight, with half of those points coming in the fourth quarter … Webster also connected on a career-best seven 3-pointers (of 11) … He now sits tied for fifth league-wide with 109 treys made this season … He scored 20 or more points for the 10th time this year, with eight of those games coming since Jan. 2.
— The Trail Blazers have now won three straight meetings with the Clippers held at the Rose Garden and five of the last six meetings between the teams overall.
— Portland’s 21-13 record against the Western Conference this season is the West’s fourth-best conference mark.
— Portland’s 56 games played so far this season is an NBA high … Portland’s 55 first-half games were its most since equaling that mark in 1979-80, while its 29 home games before the break were the most since 1976-77, when the Trail Blazers won the NBA Championship.
— Portland nabbed a season-high 15 steals tonight … The Trail Blazers recorded six steals on eight Clippers turnovers in the first quarter alone … Los Angeles recorded just two steals (both in the fourth quarter), tying a season low and matching a Trail Blazers opponent season low.
— The Trail Blazers won by 20 or more points for the fifth time this season, with Portland’s largest loss of the season coming by only 17 points.
— The Trail Blazers improved to 6-3 with a starting lineup of Webster, Aldridge, Howard, Roy and Miller … Portland last used the lineup in Roy’s last appearance, Jan. 20 at Philadelphia.
— LaMarcus Aldridge scored 15-plus points for the 15th consecutive game, the longest such stretch of his career … He has reached 20 points or more in 10 of the past 15 games.
— Andre Miller led Portland in assists for the 29th time this season, including 16 of the past 25 games (inc. ties) … He notched his team second-best sixth double-double of the season.
— Dante Cunningham has now scored in double figures in three straight games, accounting for three of his four career double-digit scoring efforts.
— Portland gained 17 points from the foul line tonight (25-8) … On the season, the Trail Blazers have now made 114 more foul shots than their opponents, better than two more per game.
— After the Clippers scored the game’s first four points, the Trail Blazers used a 16-3 run to take a 16-7 advantage, and never again trailed in the game.
— Los Angeles’ 21 turnovers tied a season high for the Clippers and tied a Trail Blazers opponent season mark … Portland gained a 27-8 advantage in points off turnovers.
— Los Angeles has lost all four of its games under interim Head Coach Kim Hughes, who replaced former Trail Blazers Head Coach Mike Dunleavy.
