Postgame notes and quotes: Blazers 112, Hornets 101
Official postgame quotes following the Portland Trail Blazers’ 112-101 road victory over the New Orleans Hornets on Saturday.
New Orleans vs. Portland
March 27, 2010
Trail Blazers Post Game Quotes
Trail Blazers Head Coach Nate McMillan
On the game: “Turnovers, that’s the key to our game every night, making sure that we take care of the ball. We won the rebounding game and won the free throw line. If we do those three things it’s going to give us chance to win. The last quarter we gave up a big quarter but for the most part, we took care of business early. Defending these guys, they can score and we were knocking down our shots. Two games don’t make a season, but we’ll take it. Whether you win or you lose, you want to try to get better your next game out. We’ll try to look at some things tomorrow and get ready for Oklahoma City.
On guards Brandon Roy and Andre Miller: Roy was efficient again. I think he was 5 of 7 the other night, tonight his shots were falling and it looked like he was in a good rhythm and was pretty much in that rhythm the whole night. Offensively they all had a good rhythm; I thought Andre Miller did a nice job of running the team, getting guys the ball, and executing the game plan.”
Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy:
On how he felt early in the game: “Coming in I didn’t feel over aggressive I just wanted to make some key plays. Early in the game they put Thornton on me and I just wanted to get something going towards the basket. When my mid-range game is falling like it did tonight I think it’s going to be tough to defend and I just wanted to take what they gave me.”
On shooting percentage of starting 5: “We were pretty efficient tonight, I thought Aldridge did a good job in the post and Camby did a good job getting rebounds and put backs. Andre is a tough cover because you have to double team him and put smaller guys on him. We did a good job making shots and that’s how you have to play sometimes to win on the road, we just need to carry that over to tomorrow.”
On resting in the 4th quarter: “It was good, I know my minutes were kind of high after about three quarters so it was good to get some rest in the fourth quarter especially when we have a big back to back and an early game tomorrow.”
New Orleans vs. Portland
March 27, 2010
Hornets Post Game Quotes
Hornets Head Coach Jeff Bower:
“It was an incredible performance by Portland especially as far as execution and high level play. Roy played extremely well, as usual. Portland is a very controlled team as far as pace. It was a similar performance as to how they played against Dallas their previous game. I give them all the credit in the world to play that well and shoot that well particularly by their starting unit. Those starters shooting was outstanding tonight.”
“Important thing is to develop and grow as a team as well as individually from the players. That of course is our objective over the next few games we have left. Above all else we understand the need to compete and prepare and play the game and build some momentum so we can finish out the season strong. We won’t go into a game without the intention of wining. We want to win them all. Will we? It’s unlikely but we want to prepare and win every game.”
Hornets Forward David West:
On the loss: “I thought we just didn’t have a good enough effort defensively. I thought they hit some pretty tough shots. We decided tonight, I guess t not give up much resistance in terms of defense.”
On Reality of Being Eliminated:“I think because from being a ballplayer, we’ve kind of known were we stood for the past two weeks just knowing the uphill fight we had. so I just think that when it comes down to it, you got to just be honest to yourself, be honest about the situation. We have not been focusing on the big picture as much as we have been trying to look at each individual game. That’s what we been doing. Now everybody should understand what we are in terms of our team, with the situation we are in and try to finish on a positive note.”
Hornets Guard Chris Paul:
On being out of the playoffs: “It’s tough, after last season, we wanted to come back this year hungry. We understand that now it’s all about next year.”
On injuries vs Defensive play: “Injuries. I understand, they are something you have to deal with, but at the same time we know we have to get better as a team, regardless of the injuries, we have got to get better.”
POST GAME NOTES
New Orleans Hornets (34-40) vs. Portland Trail Blazers (44-29)
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Hornets 101, Trail Blazers 112
TONIGHT’S KEYS: Brandon Roy made his first 6 shots and finished 12-of-14 to score 28 points. The Blazers shot 57.3 percent, which was the second highest by a Hornets opponent this season (.588 vs. GSW 3/8. The Blazers made 18 of 20 shots going from the 6:30 mark of the second quarter to the 4:08 mark of the third quarter. The Hornets shot .586 from the field, which was one-one thousandth behind the Hornets high for FG% in a game this year (.587 vs. GSW Mar. 8). Portland finished two field goals behind their season-high of 45 made field goals.
QUICK HITS
The Blazers starters shot 76.7 percent (36-of-47). The entire team shot 64.9 percent (37 of 57) on two-point field goals.
Darren Collison was 10-of-10 from the floor. The most amount of made field goals with 100 percent field goal percentage this season in the NBA was Dwight Howard (11-of-11). The most consecutive made field goals in a game by a Hornet is 11, done twice (Dell Curry vs. TOR Nov. 2, 1996 and Anthony Mason vs. ORL Feb. 17, 1997) – both Curry and Mason were starters in those contests.
Collison has now made 11 straight field goals over the past two games – the record for consecutive field goals made is 14 by Brad Miller stretching from Mar. 24, 1999 to Mar. 28 1999.
Chris Paul had 10 assists – it was the first time since Jan. 29 vs. CHI that Paul dished 10 or more assists (12 in that game; game of injury that caused him to miss next 25 contests).
Marcus Thornton had scored 10 or more points in 20 straight games. He finished tonight with 8.
Eleven Trail Blazers scored in the game, leaving just Jeff Pendergraph as the only active player who did not score for Portland.
Hornets starting guards were 5 of 15 from the field – the Blazers starting guards were 16 of 20.
James Posey made a team-high 3 three-pointers. It was the first time since Feb. 6 at CHA that Posey drained three from behind the arc.
The Hornets practice tomorrow at the Alario Center from 10:30-12 p.m.
The Hornets will play the Los Angeles Lakers at New Orleans Arena on March 29 at 7 p.m.
Listen to the game on KMEZ 106.7 FM
