TERRY STOTTS
Opening statement:“Well, we got beat. Memphis outplayed us on both ends. We struggled offensively to start with and never really got out of it. I know we can play a lot better at both ends and we’re going to need to.”
On the rest of the series:“We lost the game tonight and we need to come back on Wednesday with a good effort. It’s tough. No matter how you lose the first game, you’ve got to come back and play well the second game. That’s why it’s a series.”
On Damian Lillard:“We’ll watch the video and come to some determination. I thought we missed some shots early which took us out of our rhythm. Not just Damian. At the start of the game we just were never in a rhythm offensively and it kind of stayed with us throughout the game.”
On Beno Udrih: “I thought he was kind of the X-factor in the first half when he came in and scored early. He was aggressive coming off the ball whether it was hand-offs, pick-and-rolls, giving the lane, getting midrange. He did a little bit of everything. I don’t know. He’s an NBA player. He’s been here a long time and he’s effective. Obviously he was effective in the first game we played him here in the regular season. So, we need to do a better job getting into him. Maybe adjust the coverage a little bit, but he did make a difference.” On the Grizzlies’ injuries:“I figured that (Mike) Conley and (Tony) Allen would come in and play. I figured they’d be ready to play; otherwise they wouldn’t be out there.”
On relying heavily on LaMarcus Aldridge:“Firstly, I like relying on LaMarcus. He’s been pretty good for us. He’s a good guy to rely on. You know, we need to score as a team, we needed everyone to contribute obviously, but LaMarcus is a big focus of what we do, him and Damian (Lillard), Nic (Nicolas Batum). It was a rough night all around. Offense is very much about confidence and it seemed like we lost it a little bit early. But, relying on LaMarcus is what we do.”
On starting CJ McCollum:“It’s too early to talk about starting lineups for Game 2. Scoring is a premium against the Grizzlies. They play good defense. We need to have some offense on the floor. He struggled tonight offensively but we know what he’s capable of.”
On defending against the Grizzlies:“The one thing the Grizzlies do well is that they have different guys that can make shots. Obviously (Marc) Gasol and Z-Bo (Zach Randolph) are very effective players in the post. Tonight (Beno) Udrih got going. I thought (Mike) Conley did a nice job with his penetration. You can’t take away everything, but ideally we take away the paint and force midrange shots. As long as they’re contested, we’ve got to live with them sometimes.”
LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE (16 points, 5 rebounds)
On the game:“Our guys were trying to pick up their intensity at times … I think we just got our [butts] kicked tonight and I think this team is very resilient and they are a bunch of guys that are very competitive so I think it was a wakeup call for us.”
On the match up with Zach Randolph:“It’s going to be physical, it’s going to be a struggle individually and that’s just how he plays. I thought I had a bunch of shots that I should have made, and I felt like I was too eager early and it kind of put me in a bad rhythm early.”
On lack of confidence in the second half:“I think our guys were second-guessing shots and not being as aggressive as they could have been at times but it should come back to us. It was the first game and a lot of these guys have not even been in a playoff game but are working for it. It was CJ McCollum’s first game and it is about learning and working to get better and that is why this is called a series.”
On encouragement for the rest of the series:“Just knowing who we are. We have been down during the year and so we did not look good but we have always been with our backs up against the wall so I think a lot of guys did not know it would be as physical as it was going to be. You can tell the guys that it is going to be physical and it is going to be about atmosphere but you do not really understand that until you get in it so I think a lot of guys who did not understand that it would be this physical and to play here and to be the playoffs did not get it, now I think they get it.”
On added pressure:“I do not think there is added pressure but I think we do have to play better. But I don’t look at it as pressure. We need to do what we are supposed to do for this team. I did not play great tonight but I am going to be better the next game ... and this team is going to be better. We do have guys that have not been in this atmosphere so the older guys like me try to help them out. I think tonight was tough because so many things were going wrong at the same time. I think this experience will be good for us.”
NICOLAS BATUM (15 points, 7 rebounds)
On the game:“We let down a little bit; that’s why they got the big lead in the first half. We were down 20 after 24 minutes, and that’s tough to come back against them. We just have to keep playing. Even when we don’t make shots, we have to keep getting stops and keep believing in each other. We’re going to learn from tonight. We know what we can do. We lost a bad game tonight, but we’ll come back stronger and be a better team Wednesday.”
On takeaways from the game:“We are going to learn from it. We were mad when we came back here after the game. We were mad because we know that we are a better team than that. What we showed tonight is not us. We know we can do better. We’ll try to do that Wednesday.”
CHRIS KAMAN (7 points, 6 rebounds)
On the game:“We didn’t make shots. We had some good looks throughout the whole game; we just didn’t make shots. We did a good job rebounding and did a good job defensively. We just didn’t make shots. Hopefully, next game we improve on that.”
On manufacturing the offense for Game 2:“I think we got good looks, and our plays executed for the most part. They were a little physical with us. I thought we matched that pretty well. We just didn’t finish. That’s just how it goes sometimes.” On regular season play carrying over into playoffs:“I honestly don’t think we finished the last four games like we wanted to. It was what you saw. We have guys that we rested, but we still didn’t play the way we wanted to. That’s on us. We have to come back ready to play on Wednesday.”
DAMIAN LILLARD (14 points, 3 assists)
On personal performance:“My shot actually felt pretty good coming out of my hand. I think it’s when the second half comes, I hadn’t made any shots. The runs that I was getting turned out to be pretty tough. Down the stretch, they really turned it up defensively. You have to give credit to them. The good looks that I did get, they didn’t fall and didn’t get any easier. I just have to keep taking shots and keep shooting with confidence. I know that some point it will come back around.”
On creating more offensive sets to get open:“At this point, they know our offense well. That’s playoff basketball. Nothing is probably going to be easy. I’m not going to get too many great looks, especially with me and LA[Marcus Aldridge] being such a huge part of our offense. I just have to make shots. I have to use screens better and go watch film and try to figure out what I can do to help myself.” On the struggling offense:“The first half, I thought we got some really good looks. We played physical. We played good defense. For the first quarter-and-a-half, we were on top of things. It didn’t help that we were holding our own defensively but not making shots. Top to bottom, we didn’t shoot the ball well. They started to make shots, and we just kind of never got it going as a team. You don’t score points; you don’t win.”
GRIZZLIES HEAD COACH DAVE JOERGER
On the game:“Good game for us to start at home. We played with a lot of physicality with a tremendous effort defensively. We tried to contest and keep people out of the paint. We tried to show Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge a lot of crowds and have people in front of them as much as possible trying to make it frustrating. They got their shots and I thought we contested and did a nice job. We give them so much attention that we have to get back down and get some rebounds. They had 16 offensive rebounds which we have to clean up a little bit. But all-in-all, we took care of the basketball, we went to the paint, and we attacked the rim. For us, that helps us set our defense. The defense was aggressive, and offense was aggressive. By and large, a tremendous effort. With Tony Allen, it was good to have him back out there. He had an immediate impact on the game in trying to get away at the end of the game without having to put Mike Conley back in there, which was really big. Part of the reason was Beno Udrih was sensational having 20 (points). But he did a good job staying in front of Lillard, and (CJ) McCollum when we switched him over there. And then to have seven assists and zero turnovers was a big boost for us when he came in at the end of the first quarter when we were struggling to score and push it up to 25, which was big. It was nice to play from the lead, however we all know that whatever we won by today and if they win by one on Wednesday, they go home with the split and that’s all they are looking for. So our focus is immediately to Wednesday.”
On Beno Udrih:“He’s done a great job of holding down the fort, he’s been good all regular season. He hit the game winner against Portland here a couple of months ago when Mike Conley was out. Mike (Conley) gave us everything he can. I think he did a great job coming out and being aggressive in the third quarter. He got to the rim and got into a couple seams. But Beno is a veteran and he did the same thing last year. And if you follow us locally, you know how effective he was against Oklahoma City in that series. We love his experience and he is knocking down that shot when they play loose in the pick-and-roll. That’s really good for us.”
On Mike Conley and Tony Allen:“That was about what I expected. They are trying to find their rhythm and just get back into it physically and mentally. And with Tony, it’s kind of been a bit longer of a time and he’s trying to get himself right. So having three days between games should help.”
On defending Damian Lillard:“He missed some shots, and he’s able to go get a shot whenever he wants. But I thought we did a good job of trying to get back in front of him that way he didn’t get as many easy attacks in the paint. If he gets to the foul line like he does and is capable of getting on a roll at the foul line, it really puts the pressure on you. He missed some perimeter shots. We are not trying to go over or under, we are just trying to get back in front of him any way, shape, or form.”
On where the team is mentally:“It’s not something that I worry about. This is where we are, we are playing a good team. They are well coached, they have two All-Stars, and they attacked the heck out of us and put 55 shots up tonight. We know we have got some things that we can do better and our only focus is on Wednesday night.”
On controlling the ball:“It was good because it limited their fast break points, they only had one fast break point in the first half. We were able to get the ball moving around and get some shots. And it’s not like we shot 60% in the first quarter, it was like we were shooting 30% and they were shooting 21%. Beno (Udrih) came in and gave us a big boost. But you have to get shots where you want to get them and they are not randomly just happening that helps us get our defense back and certainly to not turn the ball over a hundred times is key for us.”
On guarding LaMarcus Aldridge:“We just try to load it up and jam it up a little bit. You try to make it so they don’t have a clean catch in their sweet spot and the further that they catch it out that is definitely a team deal. Once they put it on the floor you just attack to that.”
GRIZZLIES CENTER MARC GASOL (15 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists)
On the game:“I thought we did a good job of coming out strong and coming out swinging. Especially on the defensive end I thought we did a great job throughout – the first half especially. We kept trading buckets. We’d get a five-point run, and then they’d get a seven-point run. We kept trading like that, but I was really pleased with the effort in the first half from everybody.”
On Beno Udrih: “He’s a scorer, even though today he had seven assists. He likes to make plays. He likes to play off of the handoff and we needed that. I’m happy for him. I’m happy for us, because we could definitely use him. But I’m happy with the overall performance of the team and how everybody played defensively. Everybody was engaged. Everybody was helping each other. Even though they [the Trail Blazers] got a few offensive rebounds, they missed a lot of shots, so some of them went there way. I’m happy with how they played.”
On Zach Randolph’s defense on LaMarcus Aldridge: “I thought he did a great job. He forced him to the jump shot. Zach did a great job. When Zach’s engaged like that defensively, we are a different team.”
On the return of Tony Allen and Mike Conley: “They did their job. They gave us what they had. They gave us 100 percent of what they had, and that’s all you can ask for. You cannot ask for guys to make shots, you cannot ask guys to make the right play every time, but you can ask for that effort. They both did and I’m happy with what they brought to the table, I’m going to ask the same thing the next game. Whatever they have, bring it. Get ready for that, because it’s going to be a battle again. The whole series is going to be like that. We know how good of a team they are offensively. We know they are going to score some tough shots, but we have to keep doing what we do every time.”
On getting the first win on the home court: “It’s good, but basketball, especially in the NBA, is about the next game. Either win, or lose – it’s always better to win – now you have to worry about the next game. That’s all you can worry about and the only thing that matters to us is the next one. Now we’ll rest and enjoy ourselves tonight and get ready for tomorrow. We’ll watch tape and see the things they did to us; how we can adjust to the things they did to hurt us. The things that we did well, I’m sure they’re going to adjust to. We’re just going to get ready for Game 2.”
On what defense did to frustrate Trail Blazers: “We actually played defense. I’m happy with how we played it. We put ball pressure. We were communicating and helping each other. They got some offensive rebounds, but for the most part I thought that we did a pretty good job of also finishing possessions with rebounds and getting into the break.”
GRIZZLIES GUARD/FORWARD TONY ALLEN (4 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals)
On coming back from injury:“Starting out I was a little skeptical. I didn’t want to reinjure myself. I was kind of timid. The adrenaline rush, the crowd, and just trying to make something happen, it all came together in the second half. I tried not to do too much, and I thought that helped but a big shout-out goes to my training staff, John Faltus. He helped me along the way, and I’m not surprised of the result.”
On duplicating the game tonight:“We understand it’s not going to be like that every game. We know that team is a battle-tested team. We know they’re tough. Obviously, they missed shots, but I know they’re going to come back guns blazing next game. We have to have our antennas ready and just be ready to play Grizzlies basketball. It helps when you have the crowd into it and all the fans having our backs.”
On Beno Udrih’s game:“I’m not surprised. It doesn’t surprise me. I’ve seen him do it every day in practice. He was able to step up and make some big shots.”
On playing defense to win:“That’s what it boils down to. That’s what we get our notoriety from, playing defense. We hang our hats on the defensive end, good things happen no matter what we do offensively. We have to keep that up all the way through the series because that team is not going to let down.”
On Mike Conley playing homage to Tony Allen’s muscle flex:“Like I said the crowd, the adrenaline, he’s just pumped up. He’s capable and he’s ready for the challenge. I thought he responded to injury as well.”
GRIZZLIES FORWARD ZACH RANDOLPH (16 points, 11 rebounds)
On playing defense:“That’s a good team. They have one of the best power forwards in the league and one of the best guards. It’s not easy. When they are going to a guy like that can shoot the ball playing the post, you just got to give it all you’ve got. That’s what we did. It was a great game tonight. Beno (Udrih) played great, Marc (Gasol) too. It was a team win. Now we have to get ready for Wednesday.”
On letting them play early and setting the tone:“Definitely, the let us play. That’s what we wanted to do. Just let us play physical and always clean. That’s what we did.”
On not letting the jump shooters get inside:“That’s what we focus on. Trying to keep them out of the paint and make them shoot jump shots. We did that tonight and played great defense. We can’t get satisfied. We got to keep pushing and pushing. Take one game at a time and keep getting better.”
On having Mike Conley and Tony Allen back out there:“Those guys out there, that’s what we need.”