Trail Blazers vs Kings Saturday, 12/08/12 AT 07:00PM

Postgame Notes And Quotes: Rough Start At Home

12/08/12

Written by: sarahhecht

Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012 Final Score: Sacramento 99, Portland 80

POSTGAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS
“Sacramento played harder and better than we did. We were outscored offensively all night, whether it was turnovers, finishing at the rim or spacing. It was just a rough night on both ends.”

What was most disturbing?
“Well nine turnovers in the first quarter got us off to a bad start. That set the tone for the rest of the game. We battled back and tied the game but I thought that was a loose, complacent start that I don’t know if we just thought we were going to come back or not, but I thought that set the tone. We struggled offensively all night except for a little bit of a spurt, but that was probably the most disappointing part at the beginning.”

On Batum playing with injury
“He tried, he just didn’t have it. You could tell he wasn’t as aggressive as he normally is. I wasn’t sure whether he was going to come back in the first half, loosen it up in the second half, and he gave it a go, but he just wasn’t right.”

On long chat with Leonard during time
“He needs to be a defensive presence. He needs to have a presence in the paint. I thought on the one play he could have bothered the shot and then the next play, I thought he could have gone after the rebound a little bit harder. So he just needs to be aggressive in the paint, rebounding, blocking shots, changing shots.”

On start to home stand after long road trip
“Long home stands are tough because you’d like to think you can go in and rattle off some wins, but it’s not that easy. Coming back from a trip is tough. That’s not an excuse, but just like we wanted to get off to a better start on our home trip, you want to start a home stand with a win.”

DAMIAN LILLARD
“They came in and they were ready to play. We didn’t have a lot of energy and they just outplayed us and beat us.”

“They got too many easy buckets, they made some tough shots. We let them get too many easy shots. We didn’t make enough shots, turned the ball over too much. There was a lot of things – it all added up. At the end of the day, we’ve just got to be ready to play.”

On playing without Batum and Matthews:
“It’s tough. When you have Nic and Wes on the wing, teams have to honor their ability to knock down threes and their ability to get in the paint and make plays for other guys. When they went down, it was kind of like every time I got in the paint, more attention was on me without them on the floor. Of course it was tough.”

LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE
“Definitely a tough night for us. We started off kind of sluggish, especially myself. I just felt like it was one of those nights where I couldn’t find my legs. I was tired. We fought back in it, but we ended up letting it slip away from us.”

On turnovers
“We were just trying to make stuff happen. Guys were trying to make plays and lost the ball. They were doing a good job of clogging the paint so a lot of our looks were outside of the paint. We didn’t make the right reads early.”

On seeing Batum and Matthews struggle with injuries:
“You just hope that they’re ok. You don’t need those two guys out for any time. You don’t want those guys to have anything serious wrong with them.”

POSTGAME NOTES

- The Trail Blazers now leads the series with the Kings in Portland 76-18. It’s Sacramento’s first win at the Rose Garden since a 96-81 win on Jan. 24, 2011.
- Damian Lillard tied an NBA record for consecutive games with a 3-pointer to begin a career (20), tying Rudy Fernandez, who accomplished the feat in 2008 (Elias).
- Sacramento’s 13 points scored in the second quarter is tied for the fewest points scored in any quarter by a Portland opponent this season. In the same quarter, the Trail Blazers held the Kings to 3-of-22 shooting.
- Sacramento scored 34 points in the third quarter, the most points scored by a Trail Blazers opponent in the third period this season.
- JJ Hickson finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds, his 10th double-double of the season. Hickson is one of 11 players with at least 10 double-doubles this season.
- Hickson has led the Trail Blazers in rebounds in 11 games this season.
- LaMarcus Aldridge (17 points, 10 rebounds) recorded his seventh double-double of the season.
- Aldridge has registered three consecutive double-doubles, his longest such streak of the season.
- Luke Babbitt tied a season high with nine points, and grabbed a season-high seven rebounds.
- Babbitt is 7-of-13 (53.8 percent) from beyond the arc in the last three games, after going 2-for-5 from long distance tonight.
- Damian Lillard tallied nine assists tonight. It is Lillard’s sixth game this season of at least nine assists, and he is averaging 8.75 assists over the past four games.
- With a block tonight, Meyers Leonard has blocked at least one shot in five straight games.