Tag: Nate McMillan

What Spurs, Trail Blazers said after Friday’s game

Here’s a sampling of the post-game comments from both locker rooms after the Spurs’ 99-83 victory over Portland Friday night.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich:

(On turnovers in the first quarter)

“Well, I thought we obviously did a better job in the second quarter. In the second half I think they had 36 points or so, and you’re not going to do that very often. I thought we earned it. We competed well. We had a lot of guys that competed defensively and rebounding wise in the second half and it generated a lot for us. Then Tony (Parker) ran the show and kept us even for the whole game. We had some individual performances by guys that were really great. Obviously, Tiago (Splitter) and Danny Green did a great job. Kawhi (Leonard) had a wonderful all around game. We got a lot of good play to go with the defense, so it worked out for us tonight.

(On assessing Kawhi Leonard’s defensive I.Q.)

“Well he definitely has a knack defensively. He has a good nose for the ball. He seems to understand what is going on out there and he reads situations pretty well. That is a nice natural gift.

(On Tiago Splitter’s improvement from last season)

“He has the same exact skills that he had last year. He is just healthy and he’s playing. He is more confident. That is the one place where his game has changed from the past, but everything else is the same. He has been doing this for years in Europe and everywhere. He is a blue-collar guy who just does the basics really, really well. He is a great competitor.”

(On the absence of Marcus Camby)

“He is a tough nut to crack down there. He is really good. He had a couple of blocks before he got hurt and it certainly does change things on the boards for them and defensively.”

Spurs forward Tiago Splitter:

(On the bench stepping up tonight)

“Yeah, we did a pretty good job coming off the bench helping the guys ands playing hard. We played hard defense. Gary (Neal) played like the point guard and Danny (Green) brought energy and  it’s hard to match-up against us.”

 (On the performance of the young players on this team)

“Yeah, when you’re going to play against Portland, you have to play hard and that’s what we did. They played tough and physical, we have to do that.”

(On the turnovers in the first quarter and making it up in the second half)

“Once again, there were a lot of turnovers like you said, but we run the floor well. We made easy buckets and we had great defense. If we play like this every night, it’s going to be tough to beat the Spurs.”

(On the match-up against LaMarcus Aldridge)

“He’s a great player. We tried to guard him from having a great night of shooting, yet he made some unbelievable shots. We got the win and that’s what matters.”

Spurs forward DeJuan Blair:

(On what worked tonight for him and the team)

“It was by just playing defense. We played great defense despite starting out sluggish, but we came out in the second quarter and really started playing. It was really good.”

(On whether fatigue played a major factor in turnovers in the first half)

“No, it was just through not being strong with the ball. We let the ball get away from us a couple times but we got it together in the second quarter. We played a heck of a game as we played pretty good defense in the second half.”

(On the match-up against LaMarcus Aldridge)

“LaMarcus is a tough matchup as he’s a great player. I tried to play him as good as possible and we came out with the victory. I had a lot of help as Tiago (Splitter) played him great. It was wonderful.”

Portland Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan:

(On what happened during the stretch of the game)

“We got to play with a purpose out there. I think we were just kind of freelancing with what we do and we got to work together on both ends of the floor. Defensively, even though we got off to a pretty decent start, offensively in the first quarter we had 31 points but we gave up 27. Then offensively, we stopped recognizing what was working, which was going inside to L.A. (LaMarcus Aldridge). We got to understand how we want to play, which is from the inside-out and play out of that. I thought we went away from that.”

(On the team’s defense after Marcus Camby’s injury)

“(Marcus) Camby is basically the backbone of that defense. He kind of anchors a lot of things and you know, for us we’ve been in that kind of situation before. Kurt Thomas has to come in and play, and LaMarcus (Aldridge). We can slide him to the five but he got into foul trouble. Injuries are going to happen, so we need to be more aggressive. They out-rebounded us tonight. They don’t have any monsters in the paint. Tim (Duncan) is good and (DeJuan) Blair does a good job, but that’s not a lot of length. Rebounding is about work and we know that. We need to be a better rebounding team, so everybody has to play a part in that. I thought there were some times where we were assuming a teammate was going to get the board.”

(On the team’s effort in the game)

“We got to understand what we need to do and we got to do it. We’ve done it. I thought tonight we got a little away from what we were supposed to do. Defensively, as well as offensively, I think everyone wants to put up numbers, but we got to play within our offense and it’s not ‘first opportunity, take the shot.’ It’s not a run-and-gun system. We need to get some execution, some type of rhythm and we didn’t get that tonight.”

Portland Trail Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge:

(How would you describe the game?)

“It was a tough loss. We had control of both halves and then we just let it slip away. It wasn’t even their starters tonight. Their second unit came in tonight and played big for them. They put pressure on us, crashed the boards hard and they just had more energy than us tonight. We had control, we just didn’t stay solid.”

(What changed for you guys in the game tonight toward the end?)

“I think in the first quarter, I was definitely rolling so it was a little bit easier. Going into the second half, they doubled and forced me baseline so things were not as easy as it was in the first quarter. But we’ve dealt with that all year, so we have to be more solid.”

(On losing Marcus Camby)

“Definitely losing him is always tough, he’s a big time rebounder and shot blocker. He’s big for us and he’s our starting center, so losing him was tough, but Kurt came in did his job. It makes it tough for substitutions after that because you get used to having Camby, then Kurt. Then now you have to find somebody who can back up Kurt. Coach will figure it out. But, like I said, losing Camby was not our reason for losing this game. We just had control and we didn’t stay solid the whole game.

Portland Trail Blazers center, Marcus Camby:

(Feelings in general of the game)

“It was definitely frustrating. We seemed to be playing good basketball. I didn’t get to see the rest of the game today. We’re going to have to figure out how to play on the road. The schedule has been in our favor the first part because we had a lot of home games and we solidified our home court.”

(Thoughts after initial injury)

“I thought I was going to be able to just get up and walk it off or run it off. I just really can’t put a lot of weight on it now. So, I’m going to stick to the treatments and try to get out on the court as quickly as possible.”

(Any words to teammates after injury?)

“We have a lot of bigs that are going to have the opportunity to play and show what they got. Guys have been working hard at practice, so now they are going to get the opportunity. So, hopefully they can make the best of the opportunity. ”

What the Spurs and Trail Blazers said after Monday’s game

Here’s a sampling provided by the Spurs media services department of some of the post-game comments  after Portland’s 100-92 victory over the Spurs Monday night at the ATT Center.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich

(On the game)

“It was a great game.  I thought our players were fantastic; super competitive; communicated well.  We just didn’t shoot the ball very well; from three or from the line.  If we could have added a little bit of that to the competitiveness and the heart they showed, we would have been in great shape.  I’m really proud of them.  They were super.”

(On the way Tiago Splitter contained LaMarcus Aldridge)

“I liked the way everybody played.  I thought everybody busted their noodles on defense and shared the ball on offense.  George Hill and Tiago were really special for us tonight.”

(On the stretch where the Spurs scored only scored one point…was it not getting shots or just missing shots?)

 “It’s called ‘game’.  It’s a game that happens to everybody from time to time.  Sometimes they don’t go down.  We got a lot of shots.”

 (On the play of the bench…did they start getting tired)

“Probably.  They haven’t played that much.  But they sure didn’t play like they were tired.”

(On the play of Danny Green)

“How can you be disappointed in somebody who has never played here before and he goes out on the court and played competitively and wasn’t afraid to shoot it.  He played “D”; he played physically and aggressively.  What’s not to like?”

(On the timeline to bring back Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and TonyParker)

“We’ll see how they are tomorrow.  Tony will be the quickest coming back, I think.  But we’ll just see how it goes.”

Spurs forward Richard Jefferson

(On the game tonight)

“It was a tough one.  It’s the fourth game in a row having a lead in the fourth quarter and not being able to finish it, but I think we did some good things tonight.  Some young guys got some good minutes and everybody contributed.”

(On the Spurs’ second unit)

“I believe our second unit is a great team.  That’s why we’ve been so fortunate to have a good record this year and to have a good team is because our second unit, a lot of them are starters on other teams.  For them to come out and play and get the opportunity to play like they did was no surprise.  There was no one playing out of their mind, no one make miraculous shots or anything.  We didn’t shoot the ball well from three and we didn’t shoot the ball well from the free throw line, so it was more just playing hard, playing good defense, and playing together.”

(On if everyone got tired in the fourth quarter)

“No, there’s no need to make excuses for it now.  We’ve struggled in the fourth quarter in the last few games.  You’ve got guys like myself, Gary (Neal), George Hill, a lot of guys that have played a lot of minutes this year.  Both teams are coming off a back-to-back.  They (Portland) played later than us later last night.  Fatigue happens but you can’t let it be an excuse.”

Spurs forward Tiago Splitter

(On how much it helps him to start and get experience)

“Of course it helps for myself, but today I’m not happy at all.  I think we could’ve won this game and we had it in our hands, but we let it slip in the end, so I’m not happy at all.”

(On if it says something about the team that the game was close with all the injuries)

“Yeah, we fight, we hustle, we do everything that Coach Pop asks us to do and we almost got it.  I feel bad for the last three or four minutes when they hit a couple shots and we didn’t.”

(On his confidence level)

“Of course.  I’m getting more confidence and feeling like I’m part of the team and I can play.”

(On if Tim Duncan is giving him advice)

“Of course.  He is always trying to help, trying to cheer, and lift our confidence up.”

Spurs guard George Hill

(On what the attitude was like before the game with all the injuries)

“Actually it was fine.  Our leadership really showed up and really encouraged us to go out and still play hard.  I think the competitive nature of all the players and the guys we have in here showed and we played hard.”

(On what it was like without all the starters)

“I think we’re good enough to do that.  I think the Spurs organization has enough guys that can go in and fill spots and give 100% every night.  You have to give our guys credit for doing that tonight.”

(On if he has to be more aggressive when all the starters are out)

“A little bit.  If they were still there, I would still be doing the same thing.  It’s been in my head lately to just try and be aggressive, but I think it turns up a little bit more when you don’t have a lot of fire power that you normally have out there.  I just wanted to be aggressive and get the other guys involved.  I think we had great help from everybody, so that’s all you ask for.”

Trail Blazers c0ach Nate McMillan

(On taking the win.)

“Yes of course we will take that win.  We knew that was going to be a tough challenge and it was a trap game that we basically got information about as we got to the arena.  All of the sudden Coach Popovich holds out a couple of his guys, and you throw in some scrappy players like they have, their whole team is good, and an opportunity for those guys and they play great basketball.  Our guys coming off of a back to back—it was a gut check for us in the fourth quarter and having to refocus in that fourth quarter and make stops.  You know a challenging game for us but we got it.”

(On the defensive switch of Nicolas (Batum) on George Hill at the end of the third quarter)

“We were mixing up the guys we were putting on (George) Hill because our guys have heavy legs.  We started to look like we were in quicksand, so just started to substitute quickly and try and rotate guys in and out.  Nicolas had live legs, he wanted Hill and did a good job of making him work, got beat a couple of times but did a good job of making him work.”

(On what your game plan was to wear out George Hill)

“Well we just played our game.  The one thing you don’t want is to go away from the things that you do when you are playing games like this.  Play the game the right way.  We don’t need guys to go off and try and do something that they don’t normally do and we need guys to do the things they normally do so we established LaMarcus (Aldridge) and Gerald (Wallace) in the post, Brandon (Roy) came off in the first half, so we tried to isolate him some.  That worked for us and then down the stretch we tried to go with (Andre) Miller, LaMarcus (Aldridge) and (Gerald) Wallace.  We felt like we had matchups, and they did a good job of double teaming and forcing us to scramble and as you always do is make shots.  Nicolas made a big three and so did Wallace.”

(On if Popovich sitting key players created a mind game)

“Well it was a challenge.  Like I said it was a trap game once we got to the arena but he is in the position to do that.  They are the best team in the league and he wants to rest some of his guys and they have somewhat of a cushion to do that but it does become a trap game.  You come to the arena and Tony (Parker) is not playing and (Antonio) McDyess is not playing.  For our guys you put pressure on yourself and you can’t do that.”

(On Andre Miller’s performance)

“He did put us on his back.  We tried to to take advantage of our matchups and Andre made some big plays down the stretch and he had to carry us.  We got a little stagnant with that second group and couldn’t get into our offense, so he had to play big minutes again.  It seemed like he had good legs after coming off of a 37-minute game last night.”

Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy

“We needed the win. Now we have a big match up coming up in New Orleans.”

(On if he was surprised not to see Tony Parker and Antonio McDyess tonight)

“I can’t say I was surprised.  I thought it was good for us, that they weren’t going to play those guys.  It was important that we came out and got the win.”

(On if beating the Spurs three times boosts Portland’s confidence)

“Yeah we’re confident, but for two of the games they didn’t have Tim (Duncan).  We know they’ll be in the playoffs; they’ve been there a lot more than we have.  They’ll be ready.  You have to throw away the regular season with a team (the Spurs) like this and refocus in the playoffs.”

(On if it’s harder to play a team like the Spurs tonight when they had nothing to lose)

“I can’t say it’s harder, because Tim (Duncan), Tony (Parker) and Manu (Ginobili) are so good down the stretch, but tonight we had more experience going down the stretch.  So that played to our advantage.”

Trail Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge

(On him not starting the second half)

“I was gassed the whole game.  I tried to push through it.  I couldn’t find my rhythm, because I was tired, dead tired.  Luckily I found some of my teammates and they made some good plays.  Guys played big for us tonight.”

(On if he was surprised not to see Tony Parker and Antonio McDyess tonight)

“No.  When you’re in first place and have an eight-game lead, then why not.  Why not get your guys healthy for the playoffs.  They’re playing for something bigger then the playoffs, they’re playing for a championship. I wasn’t surprised at all.”