Postgame quotes and notes: Blazers 88, Kings 81
Official postgame quotes and notes following the Portland Trail Blazers’ 88-81 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday evening at the Rose Garden.
BLAZERS POST GAME QUOTES
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 – Final Score: Portland 88, Sacramento 81
COACH NATE McMILLAN
“Well we got the win. Of course, we know we can play better and we’re going to have to play better than we did down the stretch to win games, our remaining games.
On Camby:
“I thought he was huge. We don’t win the game tonight if he doesn’t make some of the plays he made. He had a baseline jumpshot, he had two blocks. He got on the floor for a loose ball on the defensive end of the floor, which I thought gave us some life. Those were big plays. We got some stops and enough stops to score some baskets and eventually get control of this game and put it away.”
On expecting this type of play from Camby going forward:
“We’re certainly hoping for that, but again, we’ve got to have everybody. We’ve got to have everybody if we’re going to get to that level of play that we want to get to. Everybody has to play with the same focus, the same intensity, the same scrappiness. Once you get that as a unit, we’re going to be stronger at the defensive end of the floor. He made some plays. We need everybody to be focused in on stopping, okay, controlling the ball. Then if there is a breakdown, then you have a guy like that who can cover for some breakdowns. But collectively, we’ve got to do a better job.”
On cold stretches:
“We missed shots. I thought Rudy and Martell… they had a 10-0 run and we were missing some shots. You’ve got to make shots. From what I can recall, they looked like pretty good shots. Rudy missed a lay-up, a floater, and I think Martell had an open look during that time. You’ve got to put teams away and you’ve got to make shots. We’ve seen this before. Until I look at the film, I can’t say exactly what happened, but I know we missed some open looks. You’ve got to make those shots.”
On Batum:
“I thought he was better tonight guarding a penetrating guard or a guy that’s penetrating. He made his adjustments. He didn’t get too excited about the match-up of him and Evans and he played him solid. I thought he kept him in front.”
Roy scored 19, but did not “carry” the team; is that a positive?
“Yeah, when you win it. We’re going to need him. We’re going to need LaMarcus and we’re going to need all our guys. We’re still in this race and we’re going to have to play much better than we did tonight.”
BRANDON ROY
“We didn’t dominate this game like we wanted to come out, but we’ll take the win. We’ve got to continue to improve. I thought our defense got better, but offensively, we weren’t very good tonight.”
“We had a couple leads there but we didn’t do a good job of putting them away. We let them start the fourth quarter with a 10-0 run. We can’t let them start quarters like that and we’ve just got to do a better job of putting them away.”
On defense late:
“When they came out and went on a 10-0 run, we had a 11 point lead going into the fourth and it was a chance for us to try to take a lead and we didn’t, so we said that was their run, we’ve got to tighten up defensively and we’ll give ourselves a chance to win this game.”
“You always are concerned with how you’re winning, but right now we’re in a tight race so we’re taking these wins. We know we have to get better if we want to make a push and win a game in the playoffs.”
On Camby:
“He did great. He kept talking – he talked all night defensively and came over and blocked shots. He gave us a huge presence down the stretch of that game. He didn’t give up anything easy and that’s big when you’re going down the stretch. You don’t want to give them anything easy in the paint. Marcus did what we brought him here to do and that was to dominate the middle.”
KINGS POST GAME QUOTES
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 – Final Score: Portland 88, Sacramento 81
COACH PAUL WESTPHAL
ON GAME
“We played a really good team and we had a chance to win in the last few minutes and came away dry. I thought that our poise offensively down the stretch offensively left a lot to be desired, I thought Marcus Camby, even though his stat line wouldn’t knock your eyes out really dominated the game for them on the defensive end and was very much the difference from where I sat…A lot of good things but not good enough. We have to have better poise down the stretch. We have to learn how to avoid cheap fouls that put them on the line and how to get to the line ourselves…I thought Marcus Camby was a big impediment to our offense. We did get some good shots but we didn’t knock them down, which you have to do. They are a tough defensive team and they tightened it up and we didn’t respond.”
ON END OF GAME
“I don’t think we moved it like we needed to in the fourth quarter, the last five minutes especially. I thought we were standing around too much, we were fighting the shot clock too much, we had forced shots, and it was not as smooth as it needs to be to get a win against a team like the Blazers.”
ON DEFENSE
“I thought our defense was pretty solid for the most part. We got hurt a few times for the most part because of our offense turned the ball over and they got fast breaks. I thought we did OK on the boards, there were a few times that we should’ve gotten the ball and didn’t. I thought we got one more rebound than they did totally. Our defense was reasonably good and gave us a chance to win the game
ON BRANDON ROY
“We had different players on him. Tyreke most of the time, but Francisco had him a lot, Dominic McGuire had him some and Donte Greene might have had him a couple of times. He’s a great player and he’s always going to have an impact on the game.”
SPENCER HAWES
ON OFFENSE
“We have to not let pressure defense like that take us out of the system when it’s set up to thrive against that kind of stuff. We have to be aggressive, be strong with the ball and take something like that apart…We’re still getting to know each other and continuing to evolve as a team on that end of the floor.”
CARL LANDRY
ON GAME
“We just didn’t convert or execute down the stretch and that is something we have to learn how to do, being a young team, we have great talent in this locker room, we just have to learn how to execute down the stretch when the game is on the line…We’re just young, we don’t have that much experience, but we practice every day, and you can see that on the court, that we are growing, we just have to learn to play together. We have four new guys in this locker room, we just got to adjust and learn how to execute down the stretch.”
POSTGAME NOTES
Portland 88, Sacramento 81
March 9, 2010
— Tonight marked the 105th consecutive Trail Blazers sellout at the Rose Garden (including playoffs), dating back to Dec. 21, 2007.
— Portland is now a season-high tying 10 games above .500, achieved only one other time (37-27).
— The Trail Blazers have now defeated the Kings in five straight meetings, tied for Portland’s second-longest streak against any team (11, Minnesota; 5, New Jersey/San Antonio) … Each of the last four games in the series have been contested at the Rose Garden.
— Portland did not score 100 points for the first time since Feb. 21 vs. Utah, snapping the team’s seven-game run of reaching the century mark, its longest such streak since an eight-game run Feb. 23-March 7, 1995 … The Trail Blazers averaged 105.0 points during the seven-game stretch.
— The Trail Blazers recorded at least as many steals as their opponents for the 12th consecutive game, posting a 109-56 margin over that stretch … In the 12 games, Portland has turned the ball over just 132 times while its opponents have totaled 205 turnovers.
— The Trail Blazers improved to 24-15 against the West, the conference’s fourth best record.
— Portland limited an opponent to fewer than 100 points for the 46th time this year (34-12), tied for the most by any team in the league … The Trail Blazers have now won 41 straight games (18-0 this year) when allowing 88 points or fewer, dating back to Nov. 14, 2008.
— Portland’s 88 points are its fewest in a win since winning in Dallas, 85-81, on Dec. 22.
— The Trail Blazers are now 21-4 at home when shooting at least 42.5% from the field … Portland is 0-9 at the Rose Garden when failing to reach that mark.
— Portland’s 66 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.
— The Trail Blazers have been outscored in the third quarter just once in the past 13 games.
— LaMarcus Aldridge’s fourth rebound tonight was the 2,000th of his career.
— Rudy Fernandez has now made a three-pointer in each of the last nine games, his longest streak this season … He set an NBA rookie record last season by making a trey in 33 straight games from Dec. 7 to Feb. 22.
— Nicolas Batum made his first six shots from the field, first missing at the 2:46 mark of the fourth quarter.
— Martell Webster reached double figures in scoring for the first time since scoring a career-high tying 28 points Feb. 16 vs. L.A. Clippers … Webster scored eight points in the second quarter alone.
— Marcus Camby’s five blocked shots are tied for the most by any Trail Blazer in a game this season (Greg Oden, Oct. 27 vs. Houston).
— Portland had five players in double figures in scoring after only three quarters.
— The Trail Blazers opened the game on a 12-2 run before the Kings bounced back with a 21-4 run to take a 23-16 lead.
— Sacramento opened the fourth quarter on a 12-1 run to tie the game, 74-74, but never led in the final period.
