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| Friday, January 2, 2009 Final Score: New Orleans 92, Portland 77 Hornets Post Game Quotes
“We did a real good job defensively of making it real tough for them to make shots. Pretty much every shot they took was under duress. We did a good job of rebounding the ball. I thought Posey was great. I thought David and Hilton did a great job of boxing out and he was able to come in and kind of clean it up. Obviously it was a big win for us- we hadn’t won here in a little while and we played a very good team. They miss Brandon, but we’ll take it. On play of Hilton Armstrong: “I thought Hilton played great. To be in that position and to deliver the way he delivered was fantastic. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. We’ve been saying all along he’s been getting better and better. Its just a matter of him understanding and having the confidence in himself like we have in him. This was a great way to start a road trip, especially with the next three games that we have.” On Hornets play following Chandler ejection: “I thought they kept their composure – everybody but Tyson probably. Hilton came in and did a heck of a job. CP started to get more aggressive and kind of took over. David was fantastic all night long. Posey hit some big shots and the three that Peja hit was a big shot. We got a little from everybody which I thought was important. ON the defensive end we were very aggressive.”
On Fight: “It looked those two had been getting into it all night, I think he (Joel Przybilla) might have thrown an elbow at TC, TC reacted…I don’t know…we won, I know that much” “We fed off that energy, when we came in the huddle, that is what really hyped the game up, we got excited after that, we might have needed that, we may owe that win to TC” On Hilton: “His energy, his rebound his defense…we needed that, without him we don’t win that game” On the Hornets “We just need that energy, If we can put that together for 48 minutes we are a great team, so far this season the last 5, 6 minutes of the game we are team that knows what it needs to do down the stretch…this is my first time winning here in my career, really good game for us, and gives us some momentum going in to Denver.”
On Blazers: “You have to come at them early at home, take the crowd out of it, make them second guessing what they are doing, and the guys did a good job of finding, me and kept coming to me at the offensive end” On Fight and Momentum: “Tyson has had some trouble up here staying in the ball games when we come up this way, we knew that we had to just get back to our center, and we were able to do that…Hilton came in and played some big minutes for us and we were able to bring it home” Blazers Post Game Quotes
“We played at their tempo pretty much the whole game. They rely on ball control and half court sets. If you get yourself in a game like that you have to hit shots. We didn’t and they did and that was pretty much the story. “When we had the lead I think we had three or four possessions in a row when we didn’t score. We had a five point lead after Tyson Chandler was ejected. I felt that would give us momentum. But we just missed shots and they got on a rhythm. “Then in the last quarter they put the ball in Chris Paul’s hands. Its tough to defend a player like Paul when he’s making shots. He hit a ‘three’ and that seemed to make our defense adjust and he could work the pick and roll so effectively with David West. “We wanted to get the ball inside to Greg and L.A. (Aldridge) but we never really established our bigs. This was so different than the other night when everybody played well and we shot well. To win these games against this kind of opposition (Boston and New Orleans), we need to have everybody play well. I thought Bayless did try to get to the hoop a few times but he couldn’t finish. Rudy had a nice game and his shot was falling early. But we just needed to get something from others. At the end our defense broke down and we lost Posey and Stojakovic on some threes. But overall, it’s a fact that we couldn’t change the tempo. Against a team like New Orleans we’ve just got to move the ball quicker.”
“Both teams were going at it. We both wanted to play big games. Definitely they controlled the tempo. That’s what won the game (for them). That’s what Nate was talking about. They totally controlled the game. Unfortunately they followed their game plan and we didn’t follow ours. That’s what won it for them. “We have a big one Sunday (against the Lakers) so we have to get to work tomorrow. We’ve got to play our tempo, get the ball up our way, push it. “(Chris Paul) showed why he is one of the best players in the league. He really got it going in the fourth quarter. They showed why they are one of the best teams in the league. Defensively they were as good as it got tonight.”
“They played good defense. We didn’t make shots. A little bit of everything. They took advantage of how we were playing defense. Chris made some big shots because we were going under the screens. About Joel: “I thought it was good. Joel is a tough guy. He wouldn’t take anything from him. That’s the way the games go some times. Throughout the season you’re going to have some scuffles here and there and we know we’ve got each other’s back so we know we’ll be there for them.” |
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