Trail Blazers vs Magic Sunday, 02/10/13 AT 03:00PM

Postgame Quotes: No Magic For Portland

02/10/13

Written by: sarahhecht

February 10, 2013   Trail Blazers 104, Magic 110

HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS
“I thought the Magic played harder. They outplayed us at both ends, and they deserved the win. They executed well. They set good screens. They ran in transition. They went to the boards. They did everything that you need to do to win a game and they did it better than we did.”

On whether he’s more concerned about the Magic’s offensive rebounding or Trailblazers defensive effort:
“I don’t know if it’s more or less anything. They executed well and got their shooters open. They were unselfish and moved the ball well. That’s three games in a row where defensively we’ve been a step slow, and it’s hard to win games like that.”

On what he attributes the loss to:
“They executed well. They scored over a hundred in Cleveland. They scored over a hundred against us in Portland. I don’t know. Maybe they just play well against us. I don’t know, but they executed well. I thought their bigs passed the ball well. They changed up their offense through different looks whether it was pick and rolls or getting (J.J.) Redick or Arron (Afflalo) off the screens. So they had a variety of looks, and like I said, I thought they executed very well.”

On whether he Magic executed better than the Trail Blazers tonight:
“It goes both ways. I thought they executed well and we didn’t necessarily defend that well. It goes hand in hand. Certainly I think we could have defended better, but I said, they executed well, got shots in the paint. They didn’t shoot the three that much. They go to the rim.”

On Gustavo Ayon’s performance:
“He made timely jump-shots. He passed the ball well. In some of their sets where [had a] he pass that lead to a pass. He has good basketball instincts. And he was physical on the boards. He was aggressive. He did a little bit of everything.”

On defense late in the game:
“They ran a play mid pick and roll where they moved their bigs around. And our coverages weren’t as sharp as they needed to be. We made an adjustment at halftime. Did better job with that play in the second half than we did in the first half, but we weren’t consistent with it.”

On what he wants to fix before next game:
“We’ve been making good strides defensively. From the start of the season we had progressively gotten better, and these last three games we’ve let some things slide. Our pick and roll defense, our transition defense. We’ve got to get back to square one as far as emphasizing those things, and executing those things.”

JJ HICKSON
On Coach’s message:
“We can’t get out played. A team like us can’t afford to get out played. We haven’t had that edge that we have had throughout the season.”

“Teams come out and shoot over 50% from the field. We kind of come down and try and trade baskets.   Good teams don’t do that. Good teams get stops…and they rely on their defense to win games for them. That is something we have to do consistently is play defense.”

On Gustavo Ayon’s performance:
“They played great team basketball and executed in the half court. The whole team played harder than we did and it cost us the game tonight.”

“You have to play harder and you have to play defense.”

NICOLAS BATUM
“That is the third game in a row we have played bad defense. We played very bad defense again tonight. They got their rhythm early in the game.”

DAMIAN LILLARD
“I thought they were the same shots I get almost every game. A lot of them rattled in and out. I think I missed my first six early and it was tough to get into a rhythm and they just didn’t fall. They played me the same way they played me the last time. I came off and got some looks at the rim. A couple of second chance points they threw it out to me and I got wide open looks and they didn’t go. They just didn’t fall for me.”

“I wouldn’t say it was my worst game. It was my worst shooting game probably. I thought I got a couple of deflections and I know I had a lot of assists so I still impacted the game somewhat. I just didn’t make the shots that I normally do.”

“They (Magic bench) came in and impacted the game. They came in and played hard and gave their team a lift by making shots. They just played really hard as a team. I thought it was more than just the bench. They flew around, attacked the glass, got second chances and really executed their short action on offense. It was everybody out there. It was Harkless, JJ Redick came in and knocked down some shots. They came in there and really lifted the team.”

“He (Jeffries) told me there are going to be games like this. I am going to have a long career and it is a long season. It is not realistic to go a whole season without a couple of poor shooting games and he is right. We lost the game and that is the biggest thing. You just have to get ready for the next one.”

“It is disappointing when you get the looks that you always get and in a pretty close game. If I make five of those shots we probably win the game or have a chance down the stretch. It is just disappointing.”

“We have two more games on this trip. Miami will be a tough one and New Orleans plays well at home also. It is not like we can’t win the next two games and finish this trip at .500.   There are things that we can fix. If things were going south that means guys are not playing hard and we think that we are better than we are. We have spurts that we just let down and teams take advantage of it.”