What They Said! Blazers vs. Grizzlies 11-13-15

Grizzlies Head Coach Dave Joerger

On the game:

“It was good for us to get a win. There were stretches where we were much better defensively and got a couple shots to fall down tonight.  Marc Gasol was tremendous.  Jeff Green was fantastic and aggressive.  Those things are very positive.  They (Portland) have some guys that can really score.  I thought Marc really was an anchor for us defensively.  He held everything down covering people and helping people.  Those two guards (CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard) come in averaging, I think, 48 or 49 a game between the two of them.  Decent job on them.  They’re a young, athletic team.  They beat us to four or five loose balls.  We kind of self destructed and kind of shot ourselves in the foot in the last couple minutes with some defensive breakdowns and some fouling.  When you’re having a little losing streak, it feels good to get a win any which way you get it.”

 

On Mario Chalmers:

“I thought he was really good.  I saw some stuff that’s fun that he and Mike Conley can be able to do together and get Mike off the ball and get him moving a little bit.  Mike just gets so worn down.  He has such a large responsibility of making plays and playmaking.  I thought that what Mario gave us was 19 minutes.  I probably played him 10 more than I thought I would, because of not knowing a lot of stuff, but he was aggressive.  He defended well.  Guys like playing with him, and I thought he did a real nice job for us.”

 

On subbing out Tony Allen for Courtney Lee for defense:

“It wasn’t at a point where there was going to keep being stoppages in play, and it was tough for us to score.  I wanted to go offensive.  CJ McCollum went up and got a layup, and he’s a good player.”

On the end of the game:

“I was thinking we had a chance to win by 10 or 12.  It feels good.  It felt terrible that (Al-Farouq) Aminu hit a three right there.  He (Zach Randolph) made a great play.  Zach doesn’t quit.  Every time he comes into a huddle, he’s like, ‘Man, I should have had that offensive rebound.  I can’t believe I didn’t get that one.’  You know what?  He got the biggest one for us tonight.”

 

Grizzlies Center Marc Gasol

 

On Zach Randolph being in the right place at the right time:

“Yeah,I think Courtney (Lee) missed that one on purpose. Courtney made a great pass to Zach.”

 

On Mario Chalmers’ first game with the Grizzlies:

“From what I saw tonight, I loved him. He’s feisty. I already knew how he played, of course. I know what kind of guy he is, how serious he takes it and how competitive he is. I’m glad to have him. He fits right in. Defensively, I loved him. He was disrupting plays and making guys very uncomfortable.”

 

On his jump shot falling tonight:

“The ball went in. They were giving me the jump shot tonight and the ball went in.”

 

On being aggressive:

“I like to be, but at the same time, I want to get guys involved and I want to get other teammates more confident and more shots.”

 

Grizzlies Forward Jeff Green

 

On tonight’s game:

“We were up 10, five minutes to go. We allowed them to get to the free throw line and get easy points. They gained a rhythm, but the game is made of runs. Like I said, we just stuck with it and stayed together. We got the bucket at the end. Z-Bo (Zach Randolph) came up big for us.”

 

On Mario Chalmers:

“We’ve all got confidence. You look at his track record — the guy is a champion. He won a couple championships in Miami and made huge shots throughout his career. To have him come behind Mike (Conley) is big. Those two out on the floor together, with either one of them out there, we have somebody who can run the general spot for us and get it done.”

 

 

Grizzlies Guard Mario Chalmers

 

On his first game with Memphis:

“It was a great welcome. I was surprised by the fans. I thought there’d be a little bit of booing in there, but they made me feel right at home so that was a good thing about it. My teammates made me feel comfortable and the coaching staff made me feel comfortable. It can only go up from here.”

 

On the Grizzlies’ spacing:

“Being in the Miami system, there’s always spacing on the perimeter so that’s what I’m used to. We’ve got two great bigs with Marc (Gasol) and Z-Bo (Zach Randolph) so if you feed those guys and you make the defense react to them you have an open shot.”

 

 

Blazers Head Coach Terry Stotts

 

Opening statement:

“I thought it was a terrific effort, especially in the fourth quarter. To fight back in a game like that was good to see. We just couldn’t take advantage of a couple opportunities. It seemed like they scored, I don’t know how many points, in the last five seconds of the shot clock. Just finishing possessions at the defensive end was a challenge for us at times. In the fourth quarter, we were pretty good at both ends. As much as it is disappointing to lose a game like this, there was a lot of good effort out on the court.”

 

On Zach Randolph’s game winner:

“We defended everything pretty well. Chief [Al-Farouq Aminu] got a tip and Allen [Crabbe] got the block, and then Z-Bo [Zach Randolph] got the last one. It was a well-defended play. It kind of typified a lot of our possessions, where they were able to finish it off at the end.”

 

On if last-second losses hurts worse than others:

“None of them feel good, believe me. Losing like this or losing by 30, none of them feel good.”

 

On how the team played without Meyers Leonard:

“I thought Chris Kaman did a nice job with his starting minutes and filled that role well. As far as rotating players, it’s just kind of on a feel, with how the game is going and what we think can work to keep us going.”

 

On Al-Farouq Aminu’s shooting:

“I think he probably shoots more threes after practice than anyone. He shoots them well and he shoots them with confidence. I think shooters have to be ready to shoot. I think that difficult shot is shooting one that you just faked. Sometimes you can’t shoot and he’s got to be ready to shoot, and I’m glad he was ready on that last one.”

 

Blazers Guard Damian Lillard

 

On tonight’s game:

“It’s tough man. I thought we defended really well down the stretch. We took the lead and it came down to one stop and we got the stop. Z-Bo (Zach Randolph) is just a handful on the glass and he was able to get one last rebound and get a game winner.”

 

On his injured thumb:

“I don’t think it affected the way I played, it affected the way I shot the ball. I couldn’t shoot with as much force as I usually do so I was missing short, just shooting the ball too softly.”

 

On looking for his shot down the stretch:

“I would have but C.J. (McCollum) was getting in the paint and getting fouled so that’s kind of what we went with.”

 

On turnovers:

“It is going to hurt us every time. When you take 22 opportunities away, you are basically beating yourself. Tonight we turned the ball over a lot. We knew coming in that they were a physically defensive team and they try to get their hands on balls. That is something that we just have to keep working and getting better at. Time and time again, the more we turn the ball over, the less of a chance we give ourselves to win games.”

 

On the positives of tonight’s game:

“The last couple of games it’s been that fourth quarter where we’ve been falling apart. Tonight we actually put something together. We got a lot of stops and we picked it up on the defensive end to take the lead. They come down and miss a shot and they win it on an offensive rebound and a put-back. I think that is something that we can work with.”

 

On his injured thumb:

“I’m not going to blame nothing on my thumb. If you’re out there and playing the game, you need to get it done.”