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Postgame Quotes: Trail Blazers at Rockets

HEAD COACH TERRY STOTTS(On the game) ‘Especially on the heels of last night’s game, I thought that this was really a gritty win for us. I really liked how we did it. Our bench came in and gave us a good spurt in the first half and Meyers (Leonard) was good in the second half. Our defense was good all night. (James) Harden obviously had a great night, but I thought we showed a lot of grit in getting that win.”(On Meyers Leonard in the fourth quarter) “He made a difference. He made his shots and got some rebounds when they were getting second chance opportunities, spaced the floor. He runs every time and he did a lot of good things and really that spurt was a key spurt for us. We need to have bench production, but whatever opportunities are there for no matter who it is off the bench. We need to attack. I think we ended up with thirty points in the paint in the first half was an example of our position. We did a lot of good things. This was a big team win.”(On Houston’s outrebounded them thirteen to three and what turned it around in the third quarter) “They took a lot of long shots, long rebounds and we were slow reacting. They were aggressive. Last night against Dallas, we gave up a lot of offensive rebounds and offensive rebounds hurt tonight. Houston did a really good job of converting their offensive rebounds. I thought Meyers (Leonard) came in and made it a priority and the rebounds he got were big ones for us.” DAMIAN LILLARD(On the team’s recovery after last night’s look) “It says a lot about how strong we are mentally. To be able to have the disappointing loss last night after we played so well for three quarters and then we let the game slip away. Coming in on another road game against a tough team on a back to back, I think we really took the challenge mentally to come out here and compete and get it done. We were in a similar situation where we had a six or seven point lead with like two or three minute left. In my head and I’m pretty sure everybody else, it was like here we go again. This time, we managed and executed better, got some stops and embraced the fact we didn’t get it done last night and did it tonight. We had great efforts from everybody from top to bottom that came in the game. That was a huge part why we were able to win.”(On the team’s mentality) “I wouldn’t really call it a reminder, it was good to see a game come down to what it came down to and us be able to win it on the road against a good team. Last night we were in a similar situation and we didn’t win and were disappointed about that. It’s good to have a back to back game to help us grow and get better.”(On Meyers Leonard’s play) “He was huge. He’s been playing well for the last ten to twelve games. Coach (Stotts) has been really trusting him and playing him big minutes. Tonight, I think it was a tie game, and he went on a five to zero run by himself. He hit a big contested three in the corner, sprinted the court and got a layup. He’s been playing with a lot of confidence and he’s been huge for us.” WESLEY MATTHEWS(On the Blazers late run instead of last night) “Definitely I felt like this was a must win for us and we knew that going into the game on the heels of what we did last night in Dallas and how we kind of gave that away. We didn’t get down on ourselves and hung in there when they made their run and I’m sure some people were thinking uh oh here it goes again. We never thought that in our minds and continued to play. I think we played a little smarter and executed better. We gave the same effort from the start. We executed, got back on defense because this is a team that attacks some of our weaknesses in transition defense, they shoot three’s, and they get to the rim. They really press what we’ve been working on. I think we rose to the challenge tonight and were able to close it out in the fourth quarter like we haven’t been doing and came up with the big win. We area very resilient team that we don’t panic and we’re still confident in this team and what can do this season.”(On James Harden) “He’s shouldering a lot of the load now without Dwight (Howard) being out for a majority of the season. For this team to be as successful as they are now, everything sets on his shoulders and he’s playing at a high level. He shot twenty three free throws. That’s tough. He’s got all the tricks and he creates contact well, but I think we did a good job just making it tough. He shot twenty five balls and I don’t know how many were uncontested but we’ll live with that.” MEYERS LEONARD(On Coach saying his play turned the game around in the fourth quarter) “Actually I didn’t start off shooting the ball too well, but I think the main thing was my focus on the defensive end and work out there sets and try and rebound the ball, run the court and everything else kind of fell into place. I was happy, I think I made my last four shots and I think my energy and running hard and making shots when I was open and that was the main thing.”

ROCKETS COACH KEVIN MCHALE(On dealing with Portland's size) “That was a bit of our problem, but we had more breakdowns defensively. We didn't trap when we were supposed to trap at times in the post and take the ball out of (LaMarcus) Aldridge's hands. We were unable to contain the pick and roll. They were just kind of coming downhill on us. We made an inordinate amount of mistakes defensively especially in that first half. We had times where guys were trying to switch stuff that we hadn't planned on switching. It caught everybody by surprise. I don't know, it was just one of those games where we weren't really very sharp. We put a lot of effort into getting back in the third quarter and tried to fight back, but we just kind of ran out of gas, I think.”(On the shooting of Meyers Leonard and CJ McCollum) “Well, McCollum is actually a good shooter, and Meyers Leonard is going to make those. He made a couple three's and a big right-corner three. McCollum was getting a little separation. We didn't recover all game as hard as we should have. We were trying to plug the paint and they were spreading the floor. We didn't fire out on them as hard as we should have, but hey, the guy is a professional basketball player. He shoots threes and he makes them but that was not what it was. We had a lot of mistakes and mental mistakes tonight.”(On if the Rockets were tired after coming back in the third quarter) “I don't know. We changed up some things and that got us back into it. I thought we had a lot of momentum going into the fourth but we weren't able to hold it. We had the ball around the rim a couple of times and we didn't finish. We had a couple nice little swing-swing (passes) for open shots and those are the ones you have to make at that point to try and keep the momentum going. We missed a couple and they made a couple timely shots and kind of got some separation. In the last four or five minutes, we couldn't muster up enough energy to get the thing coming back our way.” DONATAS MOTIEJUNAS(On if the free throws made a difference in the game) “Yeah, of course we missed too many free throws and the other thing is at some point we didn't play our defense. We were back in the pick and rolls and giving them a lot of space to attack us and they had a lot of easy layups.”(On only having 28 points in the paint and playing without Dwight Howard) “We cannot change it, at this point Dwight is out. We have to find a way to compensate that he's out and we didn't find it today.”(On what was hard to defend on the Blazers post play) “I think we had a lot of big problems from them in the post position. Pick and roll was the thing that disturbed us a lot and I think we had most of the problems with the pick and roll.” JAMES HARDEN(On the Rockets having to come back from a second quarter deficit) “We can't put ourselves in that situation. We played really well in that second half and we played much harder. Against a good team like Portland we've got to do that for all four quarters.”(On the Rockets third quarter comeback) “That's how we play. When we get stops, we get out in transition. If we don't get stops and we're not into it then any team can beat us.”(On the Rockets inability to get defensive stops in the last four minutes of the game) “Or in the first half. In the first half we were down by sixteen (points). That's a good team (Portland). When you let them gain confidence it is hard to win.” JOSH SMITH(On the Rockets size disadvantage without Dwight Howard) “I had a lot of help from my teammates, especially in that second half. They (Portland) kind of wore us down with the offensive rebounds and second chance points. That's a good team over there in that locker room but we feel like we've got something special in here too.”(On the Rockets having a disadvantage of points in the paint) “We've got to be more aggressive. We've got to keep moving the basketball and when opportune times call for us to be able to get a bucket, we've gotta look for James (Harden).”