Postgame quotes and notes: Blazers 101, Mavericks 89
Official postgame quotes and notes following the Portland Trail Blazers’ 101-89 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday evening at the Rose Garden.
BLAZERS POST GAME QUOTES
Thursday, March 25, 2010 – Final Score: Portland 101, Dallas 89
COACH NATE McMILLAN
“I just thought we played a good, complete game. From start to finish, our defense was good tonight. We were the aggressors. Other than that 6-0 start, after that, I thought we got aggressive on both ends of the floor. Defensively, this time of the year, you’re making adjustments. We played this team a little different as far as our schemes against Terry and Dirk. I thought our guys did a great job of executing the defensive game plan. It’s always good to knock down shots and tonight when the shots were falling for us, we get more aggressive, more excited about playing defense. We’ve seen that go the other way, but from start to finish, I thought our guys played good basketball.”
On Camby:
“I think it’s a matter of him getting used to how we want him to play that center position. Tonight, he got in the paint, he was ducking in, making himself available. Again, teams are double-teaming and leaving guys open. He got rewarded tonight. He was in the paint, got to the free throw line, was knocking down his shots and got a rhythm. Defensively, part of the game plan was to get him on Dirk some and we thought he did a good job using his length against Nowitzki.
“We take tonight’s game and show that we can play with those guys that are ahead of us. Tonight, definitely a game we needed desperately and a very good team. We’ve had success against them, but a very good team. They’ve been hot and it should give our guys confidence to go on the road this weekend and try and take care of New Orleans.”
On scrappiness:
“This was a team effort – you can just go down the list of guys. I thought they all played well. 25 assists tonight – we shot 50 percent for the game. Good ball movement – did a good job of taking care of the ball. Defensively, we disrupted enough to take some of their guys out. It wasn’t just Camby on Dirk, it was L.A. Our switches – we had some schemes we wanted to run if we had mismatches. Terry tonight, we did a good job of Nic and Rudy chasing him around. It was a solid team effort in both groups tonight.”
BRANDON ROY
“We knew they were going to be a good team and this was going to be a good game, we just wanted to protect our home court. It’s always fun when you steal two on the road early, and now it was our chance to protect our court. They’re still a good team, they’ve got a lot of weapons offensively, so I thought we did a good job of holding down the fort.”
On defending Dirk:
“We did a good job. LaMarcus and Camby did a good job switching off, crowding him. He likes to get that elbow and lift. We crowded him all night and really forced him into some looks he didn’t like.”
On balanced effort:
“That was a great night. Our bigs did a good job all night of rebounding and being aggressive in the middle of that zone. They’re the key, if they’re aggressive in the middle, it makes teams come out of that. Of course they did a good job of rebounding. Me and Andre did a good job of pushing the ball – just an all around good effort.
“It was important – it’s just important to win right now but it feels good that you can beat a team that’s second or third in the Western Conference. This was a huge win for us. We’ve got to put it behind us and go on to New Orleans and try to get another one.”
Is team finding its rhythm?
“It’s tough to say. We’re just going to continue to take it one game at a time. I thought this was a great game bouncing back from our game in Phoenix but we’re going to go one game at a time. We’re not going to look at the next ten, we’re just going to look at New Orleans and try to play good basketball there.”
MAVS POST GAME QUOTES
Thursday, March 25, 2010 – Final Score: Portland 101, Dallas 98
COACH RICK CARLISLE
ON GAME
“They played well and we need to play better, I think it comes down to that. I think tonight they were more aggressive in the second half and they did a great job defensively down the stretch; they took us out of a lot of stuff and we need to be more aggressive offensively and execute better and work to create shots…They were extremely aggressive, particularly in the fourth. It’s frustrating to our team when we’re unable to get clean looks at the basket.”
ON BLAZERS
“We had zero fast break points and they had 16, to me that means two thing: you need to get more stops to get in transition to get quality looks at the basket and we never had them under 50% the whole game and that was a problem for our running game. When you get beat 16 to nothing on the break it’s tough to win.”
SHAWN MARION
ON GAME
“We just need to learn from it and give them credit, they took this one. We need to come back here next week; and that’s how you got to look at it…They did a good job of jamming and stopping us early and keeping the pace of the game, which you’ve got to give them credit for that.?
ON TEAM
“We have a very deep and talented team and on any given night you can call on a certain guy to get the opportunities he can have a really good night and that’s all it boils down to…we have a balanced attacked, J-Kidd is our point guard and he’s going to control the floor and tempo of the game and try to get everybody involved the best way he can and coach will call the plays.”
JASON KIDD
ON GAME
“They did a good job of jamming the ball and taking that aspect of the game (fast break) away. Also, when you make shots, that takes away the running game, so lessoned learned, and we have to understand what we have to do next time and that’s a big part of our game: getting out and running.”
ON BLAZERS
“It’s the bottom line, they beat us three times and for us and this point in the season it’s not about 3-0 or 4-0 it’s about us getting better for the next step and I think we can look at this game and understand that next season this is how teams will play us and it’s good that it happened now and not next season.”
POSTGAME NOTES
Portland 101, Dallas 89
March 25, 2010
— Tonight marked the 108th consecutive Trail Blazers sellout at the Rose Garden (including playoffs), dating back to Dec. 21, 2007.
— With tonight’s win, Nate McMillan passed Mike Dunleavy for third place on Portland’s all-time head coaching win list (191).
— Portland now sits in a tie with San Antonio for seventh place in the Western Conference (by games) but remains percentage points behind the Spurs.
— The Trail Blazers now lead the series, 3-0, and have guaranteed a series win over the Mavericks for the first time since 1998-99 (3-0) … Dallas had won 18 of the last 20 games between the teams heading into this season … The last time Portland won at least three straight games against Dallas was from 1997-2000 (eight) … Portland’s 12-point margin of victory is its largest against Dallas since a 112-95 win in Portland on March 28, 2003.
— Portland has now won six of its last seven games and nine of the last 11 to improve to 43-29, a season-high tying 14 games above .500 … The Trail Blazers are only two games behind their 72-game pace from 2008-09 (45-27).
— Portland won its fifth straight home game, one shy of its longest home winning streak this season (six, Nov. 6-25).
— The Trail Blazers are now 12-5 after the All-Star break … Portland’s 22-8 second half last season marked a franchise best (by percentage).
— Portland improved to 10-2 with its starting lineup of Nicolas Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge, Marcus Camby, Brandon Roy and Andre Miller, including a 5-0 mark at home … The 12 games are the most of any starting unit this season for Portland.
— The Trail Blazers are now 27-16 against the Western Conference this season, the fourth-best record in the West … Portland is 11-9 against the seven other West teams currently in playoff position.
— Portland has not turned the ball over more than 10 times in any of the past five games … The Trail Blazers have now forced more than 10 turnovers in 19 consecutive games.
— The Trail Blazers have now recorded at least as many steals as their opponents in 17 of the last 18 games, gaining a 146-82 advantage in the category in that span.
— Portland limited an opponent to fewer than 100 points for the 51st time this year (38-13), the most by any team in the Western Conference.
— Portland outscored Dallas in fastbreak points by a count of 16-0 … The last time a Trail Blazers opponent did not score on the fastbreak was Dec. 27, 2008 (vs. Toronto).
— LaMarcus Aldridge, Marcus Camby and Andre Miller all recorded double-doubles, marking the first time since April 8, 2008, that Portland has had three players notch double-doubles in a game … Camby’s double-double was his first as a Trail Blazer, while his 17 points were also his most while with Portland.
— Dallas’ nine free throw attempts are a season low by a Trail Blazers opponent … The Trail Blazers have now made 223 more free throws than their opponents this season, good for a 3.1-point advantage per game.
— Portland has scored 60 points or more in the first half in three of the past five games and seven times overall.
— The Trail Blazers improved to 13-1 this season when scoring at least 30 points in the first quarter, including 12 straight wins dating back to Nov. 20 at Golden State.
— Portland followed Dallas’ 6-0 run to open the game with an 11-2 run of its own to take an 11-8 edge, and the Trail Blazers never again trailed in the game.
— Martell Webster has tied a career high this season with 42 steals (2007-08).
— Nicolas Batum’s second 3-pointer tonight was the 100th 3-point basket of his career.
