Postgame notes and quotes: Jazz 93, Blazers 89 OT
Official postgame quotes and notes following the Portland Trail Blazers’ 93-89 overtime loss to the Utah Jazz on Sunday evening at the Rose Garden.
BLAZERS POST GAME QUOTES
Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010 – Final Score: Utah 93, Portland 89
COACH NATE McMILLAN
“You hate to make comments and not see the film, but I felt like I’ve always felt, that if you play with this game, this game will come back and get you. What I mean by that – if you lose your focus and don’t play the game the right way, it will come back on you. I thought the third quarter, we took some shots, we started to relax offensively. I thought defensively, we knew they had to make a run. We started to give up some easy baskets, and got caught up in fouling. You have an opportunity to put a team away, you never allow them to gain confidence and I thought some of our shots that we took in that third quarter against that zone and their defense, we lost our rhythm. They got momentum and all of a sudden you lose a little bit of confidence and you can’t make a shot.”
On fourth quarter:
“You’ve got to play the game the right way for 48 minutes. Regardless of what the score is, whether you’re up 20 or down 20, you’ve got to play together. You’ve got to execute. You don’t give a team any life at all by gambling or getting loose or you stop the things that are working for you. They got in and they got aggressive. They started pounding us on the boards. We gave up 11 offensive boards in the second half. Offensively, we had shots that we didn’t knock down those shots and you give up a game like this.”
“If we are serious about really making a run, we’ve got to act like it and we’ve got to play like it. We’ve got to have guys step up. We’ve got veterans; we’ve got guys who’ve been on the team. We’ve got to show that in what we do out on the floor and the moves we’ve made and having guys back, if we’re serious about making a run down this stretch, that’s got to show in our play.”
On Boozer’s tip in at the end of regulation:
“You’ve got to get that board. You get that board and it’s a ballgame. They beat us to the board. Boozer, their bigs, came in and, again, they had 11 offensive boards and outworked us the second half. Williams got a pretty decent look. I thought Nic got a hand in his face, you force the miss and you’ve got to finish that with a rebound. That’s the second half – you’ve got to make plays. To win the game, you’ve go to do that, you’ve got to make the play that’s there.”
BRANDON ROY
“Every game is tough now that we are losing. This one is even tougher because we had the lead for most of the game and just didn’t make the plays down the stretch to put them away… We have to go back and watch some film, but it was a number of things: free throws, missed open shots, and then gave up a big offensive rebound down the stretch. I’m sure if I go back to the film, there’d be a number of things we could do better.”
On fourth quarter struggles:
“This is the first competitive fourth quarter I’ve been in in a long time, but watching, it seems like we get a little stagnant on offense, not as much movement as I think we had earlier in the game. We’ve got to try to clean that up.”
“They kept fighting hard. They didn’t let up at all. They kept pounding it inside. We had shots, we just didn’t make shots. I missed some free throws down the stretch. It was just an all around lapse down the stretch.”
“We’ve got to win this game. This is a home game before we go out on a five game road trip./ Every game is big so we’re trying… I think guys came out to play. They just outfought down the stretch of the game. If we want to get into the playoffs, we’ve got to do better than we did tonight.”
JAZZ POST GAME QUOTES
Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010 – Final Score: Utah 93, Portland 89
COACH JERRY SLOAN
ON GAME
“They really got after us in the first quarter of the ball game. They took us out of our offense; we allowed a lot of it. They pushed us around. We finally fought back a little bit and got back in the ball game. You always have a chance if you stay with it…It was a fun win because our guys finally got in and did things to help each other. They passed the ball better. We got in trouble because we’re so small we couldn’t rebound with them. They got all the offensive rebounds, which really hurt us as we were trying to come down the stretch. We even gave up an offensive rebound to Roy, a great player who can make plays, he missed the free throw and he gets in back again so those things, you can’t afford to keep making plays like that.”
ON COMEBACK
“We played Deron Williams on him (Roy) some to try to keep him from running all over us. I thought Deron did a great job trying to keep him in front of him trying to make him shoot over him, and that’s all you can do, try to keep him off the free throw line…I’m not going to quit until the game’s over, I never have done that…I always think you have a chance to win, that’s what’s fun about this game, you put a lot into it and you get a lot out of it. I thought our guys put a lot more into it the second half than what they did the first and I think they got something out of it, so that was nice to see.”
CARLOS BOOZER
ON GAME
“We didn’t give up, that’s the biggest thing, we fought back, a lot of teams in this league probably wouldn’t have done that being down 25, but we did a great job of staying together as a group, fighting on defense. Our defense is what got us back in the game. Once we did that we felt like we had a chance.”
DERON WILLIAMS
ON GAME
“When you’re down the way we were, and to be able to fight back and hang in there, it speaks a lot about our maturity and our ability to fight.”
ON DEFENSE ON ROY
“I thought it was definitely important. He was getting fouled a lot before I switched on to him and I wanted to just play him the best I could without fouling him, defensive him, and make him hit some tough shots.”
ON STREAK
“We’re feeling real good. Hopefully we can keep it up. The first half wasn’t anywhere where we want to be in any aspect of the game but the second half was more like it. They shot 51% at halftime and we were able to get it down to 35 in the second half. We definitely did a better job in the second half defensively on them.”
POSTGAME NOTES
Utah 93, Portland 89 (OT)
February 21, 2010
— Tonight marked the 103rd consecutive Trail Blazers sellout at the Rose Garden (including playoffs), dating back to Dec. 21, 2007.
— The Trail Blazers lost despite leading by 25 points (64-39) for the first time since Nov. 16, 2007, at Philadelphia, when Portland led by 25 points (41-16) in the second quarter and lost, 92-88 … Portland never led by more than two points in any of the first three meetings between the teams this season.
— Utah earned a season sweep over Portland for the first time since 2005-06 and just the third time in the 36-year history of the series.
— Nicolas Batum matched a career high with nine rebounds, achieved three times now, all this season … His eight defensive rebounds are a new career best … Batum led all players with 14 points and seven rebounds (tied) in the first half, making both of the game’s three-pointers in the opening half.
— Portland’s 58 games played so far this season mark 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’s 21 offensive rebounds tied a season best … Portland recorded nine offensive rebounds in the third quarter alone and 15 in the second half.
— The Trail Blazers’ 10 blocked shots are its most since opening night, Oct. 27 vs. Houston.
— Portland’s 10 points in the fourth quarter are its fewest in any single quarter this season … The Trail Blazers shot just 2-for-17 from the field during the period.
— The Jazz went on an 8-0 run in overtime to take a 91-86 lead and never trailed again.
— Utah did not make a field goal in the third quarter until 6:45 remained, as Portland began the period on a 14-1 run.
— The Trail Blazers went on a 17-1 run between the first and second quarters to take a 31-14 lead with 11:11 remaining in the second quarter.
— Marcus Camby grabbed double digits in rebounds for the first time as a Trail Blazer and 34th time this season overall in his second game as a Trail Blazer … He recorded all eight of his offensive rebounds in the second half.
— LaMarcus Aldridge scored 15-plus points for the 17th consecutive game, the longest such stretch of his career … He recorded his 19th double-double, equal to the rest of the team’s combined total.
— Brandon Roy’s 23 points tonight are his most since netting 34 Jan. 10 vs. Cleveland.
— The Trail Blazers fell to 1-4 in overtime contests this season … The Jazz are 2-0 in extra time.
— Portland’s 27-14 lead after the first quarter is its third-largest advantage after the opening period this season and largest since Jan. 13 vs. Milwaukee (31-16) … The 14 points tied a season low for Utah in the first quarter.
— Carlos Boozer tallied a career-high 23 rebounds tonight … His eight offensive rebounds tied a career best.
— Utah’s current seven-game road winning streak is tied for its fourth-longest such streak in franchise history and longest since 2001 … The Jazz are now 17-2 overall since Jan. 9.
