Postgame Quotes: Trail Blazers at Timberwolves

Blazers Head Coach Terry Stotts“Well, we didn’t do the job defensively that we needed to do; the first half and second half. Give credit to Minnesota, they got hot. They made a lot of perimeter jump shots. Some were contested, some weren’t. We didn’t have the same sense of urgency that we’ve had the last couple of times against some of the elite teams. Minnesota has been playing very well. They’ve been playing good teams tough and haven’t come up with wins. They deserved to win tonight.”On inserting Arron Afflalo into the starting lineup:“Aaron was fine. I really had no problem with… I thought that him going into the starting lineup would be about what it was. He looks more comfortable. As far as getting more shots and being aggressive, his transition is going well.”On Rubio…“15 assists probably speaks for itself. He’s very good with the ball. He’s unselfish, he finds people. Making a three was a big play. He’s very creative, he’s I don’t know exactly what word to say to say what kind of passer he is, but he finds people.”Trail Blazers Guard Damian LillardOn 121-113 loss to Timberwolves:"We had a good first half. To start the third, the energy, the effort, the focus just wasn't the same. I think we got away from doing the things we did in the first half that made it seem easy, but it wasn't. We were just playing the way we needed to be playing on both ends. They came out with energy. They jumped ahead and from there it was just an uphill battle and we never got back into it."On coping with loss of Wesley Matthews:"Obviously losing Wes, you don't have Wesley Matthews and he's a huge part of our team. At the same time I believe we've got guys that can come in, really step up and help us be an elite team. Arron (Afflalo), he's been a starting two guard in the league so that makes us comfortable that we have a starting two guard coming in the place of Wes being hurt. We believe in C.J. (McCollum), Alonzo Gee and Allen Crabbe. We believe in them. They've stepped up at different times this season. Tonight we played a good game. We looked like ourselves for the most part. That start of the third quarter allowed them to start believing. They started to play with a little bit more bounce, more confidence and we never were able to take the lead back." Trail Blazers Forward LaMarcus AldridgeOn hot shooting by Timberwolves in 121-113 loss:"Our defense is designed to force midrange (shots) and not give up. We gave them confidence early and late in the game they just ran with it. We forced them into some tough shots but they made shots down the stretch and won the game."  On losing two straight at Target Center:"We definitely have to be more in tune with the game. Play with more focus and more energy. We fought back in the game and I thought we stayed in it but they made tough shots down the stretch."Wolves Head Coach Flip SaundersOn the hot shooting of Gary Neal and Kevin Martin:"Both he and (Kevin Martin), we ran our one play and they couldn't guard it. To Ricky's credit he kept on running it and kept on finding the right person. Those guys made shots and made plays. Overall I think we really were aggressive defensively. I thought (Kevin Garnett) did a nice job on Aldridge. Payne did a nice job, he got some rookie fouls but I thought his energy and aggressiveness were huge. It's nice to see that everyone won the game. Everyone who went in the game had some contributing factor over the course of the game."On what Gary Neal does for the team:"He's got the ability to make shots. As he gets a little more familiar with what we're playing out there, who's playing with him… Last game he hit a couple threes, three shots in a row and we couldn't find him. I said to the bench that you've got to find the guy that's hot. It was nice to see tonight, Gorgui got the ball around 13 feet and kicked it out to the left wing and Gary was able to make a shot. Guys are getting used to playing with each other." On Ricky Rubio's performance:"I told Ricky one thing, ‘don't start the game trying to score as much. Don't score early in the shot clock, look to score late, look to get other guys involved. Let's shoot to get to the 20-assist mark if you can.’ He had 15 so I'll take that. I thought he did a nice job. We only turned it over six times. When you're as efficient as we were against a good team and you only turn the ball over six times, you're giving yourself a chance."   Wolves Guard Ricky RubioIt felt good knocking down the three?"Yeah, I've been working on that shoot. It was a great situation and a great moment and I took it."What does Gary Neal bring?"He's helping a lot, he's a tough guy. He knows how to play, is smart, intelligent and helping a lot."Is the team starting to become more cohesive?"Yeah, we've got to stay in our bubble in that occasion. We've got to learn and how you learn is playing in this kind of situation. We're a young team but now we've got a lot of experience with KG and Gary Neal and the experience is going to help the young guys to know how this league is about and just knocking down shots at the end and you want to win games."On the team’s 2nd-half performance…"Yeah, I think at halftime we talked about it and I think we came strong in the 3rd quarter. I think they were a little tired. They played back to back before and just had one day off in coming to Minnesota and I think we took advantage of that. We realized how lack of energy we had against Denver and we couldn't do that again so we talked about it and those two days of practice helped us and we realized that we had to bring it tonight and especially in the 2nd half."Wolves Guard Kevin MartinAre the wins when everyone plays good even better?"Yeah they are, that means we were playing as a team tonight and you have to give everybody that stepped on the floor credit. Everybody was playing together and we were helping each other out on defensive coverages versus two superstars and we just did a good job.”On Gary Neal's performance…"It's nice to see when he's a shooter. He's made a living in this league shooting the ball and that's what he did tonight."How do you and Andrew try to complement each other?"For me and him, we're kind of the other team's nightmare when we both have it going because you don't know what defender who to stick on who. I think that's where we complement each other greatly. If he has it going then he's going to take the best defender and then I can sneak a couple points and vice versa. It's been a work in progress; he's improved so much over the past two or three months since I've been out. He's a joy to play with."