Postgame notes and quotes: Blazers 101, Raptors 87

Official postgame quotes and notes following the Portland Trail Blazers’ 101-87 road victory over the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night.

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(31-25) TORONTO RAPTORS, 87 vs. (34-26) PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS, 101 at AIR CANADA CENTRE
Wednesday, February 24, 2010

QUOTES
NATE MCMILLAN (Head Coach)

Thoughts on tonight’s game…
Well, coming off a back-to-back, I thought we had some heavy legs but the focus was there. We didn’t want them to get off to a good start because they are a team that are really tough to play against if you allow them to get off to a good start. The fact that (Chris) Bosh wasn’t here we certainly wanted to try and take advantage of that. I thought our guys got off to a good start. Our legs were heavy and allowed them to make some shots and get some transition baskets at the last two minutes of the of the first half. But both units were good. I thought our bench Rudy (Fernandez) and (Jerryd) Bayless those guys did a nice job of coming in and providing some scoring and they had some pretty fresh legs.

Thoughts on taking care of the ball…
Well, I love the fact that as a team in the past two games we have only had 11 turnovers. That is always a key for us. We want to play fast and play aggressive but you have got to take care of the ball. We don’t want our guys hesitant and I think in the last two games they have done a nice job of taking care of the ball.

Thoughts on the play of Rudy Fernandez…
I thought it was great. I thought he shot the ball (well), he was aggressive defensively attacking the basket. Again, we needed some fresh legs and I thought he and (Jerryd) Bayless provided that.

BRANDON ROY (10 points, one rebound)

Jarrett Jack really got their team going…
It was an all around effort. We had guys step up tonight, LaMarcus (Aldridge) played a lot of minutes last night so I think it was key tonight that Jerryd (Bayless) played with a lot of energy, Rudy (Fernandez) and Nic (Batum) played well. It is important especially on back-to-backs that we have guys stepping up and I thought the all around team effort was the reason we won this game.

Before tonight Toronto scored 100 points in 20 consecutive games…
I didn’t know that it was 20 consecutive games, but before the game coach said we averaged 104 points so we knew it was important to run them off the three-point-line and take away their easy baskets. We just wanted to make them score over the top of a hand each possession and tonight we did a good job of that.

A little bit of luck that Chris Bosh was out of the lineup…
Definitely, Chris is All-Star, he is a very talented player and that team needs him. We had to change our schemes a little bit because he wasn’t playing. He can get that ball in the post, on the wing and isolate which puts bad positions so tonight we could change that a little bit.

ANDRE MILLER (18 points, ten assists)

Thoughts on the game…
We got off to a good start and they made their run and we were able to hold them off. Definitely a good win for us.

What did you do different in the second half?
They got into a rhythm at the end of the second quarter and the third quarter. We were able to pull away at the end of the third and get a 10 point lead. They definitely caused us some problems with the pick-and-roll but we were able to stop them from getting into the paint and force them to take jump shots.

JAY TRIANO (Head Coach)

Thoughts on the number of turnovers…
We were sloppy with the ball. You can’t blame it on anybody; we didn’t take care of the ball very well. This is a team that doesn’t score a lot of fast breaks [points], but they get 20 of them because we turn it over and they turn those turnovers into fast breaks. It is tough for us to win games when we only take 76 shots, but when you turn it over you are not going to get the same number.

Thoughts on the intensity…
I thought we were playing schemes more than we were with our energy. We didn’t make the second effort plays; the late close outs or the securing of the rebounds. It wasn’t a lack of effort, that jump we usually get, that second burst of energy just wasn’t there. They were more physical, shot the ball better, took care of the ball better than we did and they were better defensively; it is tough to win games when you have that.

Thoughts on the play of Brandon Roy and Andre Miller…
Post-ups, isos (isolations), whatever; we tried different guys on them, we tried different looks and we couldn’t stop them. They were better than us tonight.

HEDO TURKOGLU (24 points, four rebounds)

I guess you showed Portland why they wanted you?
I don’t look at it that way. I just tried to do my best, get myself going and try to help the team get a ‘W’. I wasn’t thinking like that at all. I wish we could have finished with the ‘W’ and I could of felt much better.

Thoughts on the game…
We just let them get easy baskets. I don’t know how much they had in fast breaks. I think they are last in the NBA in fast break points but tonight they had too many easy points. We let them get easy baskets and when teams get easy baskets it helps them to play better basketball. Tonight we were really trying to do too much I guess. Instead of looking for what’s best for our shot people tried to do too much. We are a good team, an unselfish team. We tried to find the extra man but sometimes we have to look at our shots too and when it’s good we have to take it. Overall, we had a bad game. The good thing about the NBA is that we have 25 or 26 games to go.

JARRETT JACK (18 points, eight assists)

Thoughts on the game…
We didn’t do a good job of taking care of the ball early and it helped them establish the lead that they had at halftime. It’s tough to recover when you give the other team an extra possession.

Not scoring 100 points, is this a result of Chris Bosh’s absence?
Portland plays a slowed-down brand of basketball and they do not average anywhere close to 100 points. They got the game at their pace. They did a tremendous job of hitting their shots and we weren’t able to run out as much as we like.

KEY STATISTICS
Updated Records: Toronto 31-25, Portland 34-26
Scoring: Hedo Turkoglu, 24; Brandon Roy, 20
Rebounding: Evans/Johnson, 8; Fernandez/Miller, 7
Assists: Jarrett Jack, 8; Andre Miller, 10

QUARTER-BY-QUARTER
• First Quarter: Portland 32, Toronto 24 … Portland shot .619 (13-for-21) from the field and Toronto .500 (10-of-20) … Portland outscored Toronto 18-10 in points in the paint … Portland converted six Toronto turnovers into eight points, compared to no points off two turnovers for the Raptors … Brandon Roy led all players with eight points … Jarrett Jack had seven points, three assists and two rebounds.
• Second Quarter: Toronto 23, Portland 21 … Portland went on an 11-0 run mid-way through the quarter to take a half-high 17-point lead (51-34) … Toronto went on a 9-0 run to end the half … Toronto outrebounded Portland 14-6 … Hedo Turkoglu led all players with eight points.
• Third Quarter: Portland 25, Toronto 21 … Toronto shot .533 (eight-for-15) from the field in the quarter … The Trail Blazers outscored Toronto 6-0 in second chance points and 4-0 in fast break points … Portland outrebounded Toronto 11-7 … Jarrett Jack led all players with nine points.
• Fourth Quarter: Portland 23, Toronto 19 … The Trail Blazers outshot Toronto .450 (seven-of-20) to .333 (six-of-18) from the field … The Trail Blazers had 13 rebounds and the Raptors had 12 … Andrea Bargnani led all scorers with six points.

HIGHLIGHTS
• With the loss Toronto falls to 31-25 and 21-8 at home … Toronto had won nine of its past ten games at home … With the win, Portland improves to 32-24 … The Trail Blazers have won three straight and four of the past five versus Toronto.
• Toronto had scored at least 100 points in 20 straight games coming in to tonight’s game, nearly tripling the previous franchise-high for consecutive games with 100 points (seven games, March 5 – March 16, 2008) … Over that time, Toronto was 14-6 and averaged 107.7 points.
• Portland scored 17 points off 16 Toronto turnovers, while the Trail Blazers allowed seven points off eight turnovers
• The Trail Blazers are the third consecutive Raptors opponent to make more field goal attempts. Over that time opponents have made 255 field goal attempts to 221 for Toronto.
• Portland’s bench outscored Toronto’s 35- 24 points … The Raptors had outscored opponent benches in three straight games by a combined score of 114-62.
• Hedo Turkoglu registered a game-best 24 points in making eight-of-nine from the field and five-of-six from the line.
• Jarrett Jack recorded a team-high eight assists to go with 18.
• Amir Johnson and Reggie Evans each had eight rebounds to lead all players.
• Brandon Roy scored a team-high 20 points and added five assists and five rebounds in 37:45 minutes.
• Andre Miller dished a game-high 10 assists and scored 18 points en route to his seventh double-double of the season.
• Rudy Fernandez made six-of-nine from the field for 17 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists.