Postgame Quotes -- Nov. 4, 2005

George Karl – Denver Head Coach
"We caught a young team tonight and jumped on them early. It’s only the first two weeks now, you’ll begin to see the good teams get better. Vo’s a proud player, and he was really into the game early. Marcus was great, Vo very solid, and defense was one of the best I’ve seen in a while."

Voshon Lenard – Denver Guard
"The most important thing is we got a win, we got the monkey off our back, and redeemed ourselves. We ran a lot, this is a young team we played tonight and it really helped us to get our confidence back. We came out strong tonight, and kept it up all game. That’s what we have to do all year."
(Regarding his personal performance tonight) It’s not a personal thing, I don’t focus on what I do individually. "If we lose, then I care about what I do personally."

Marcus Camby – Denver Center
"It was definitely a game that we needed. We came out with focused energy tonight. All twelve guys produced. ‘Cisco gave us a big lift off the bench. Voshon had a great game and set the tone. I’m just playin’ hard, and guys are doing a great job finding me. I just try to focus on defense first, and let the offense come. Scotty did a terrific job for us. I was kind of upset with myself because I wanted to get his first victory for him. With George back on the bench, we were a whole unit out there. His presence was definitely felt. It’s a revenge game for us (Sunday @ Lakers). We want to beat them on their home court like they did to us. They’re a tough team, especially on their home court, and Kobe’s a great player. If we continue to play like we did tonight, we’ll be in good shape."

BLAZERS QUOTES

Nate McMillan – Portland Head Coach
"We had way too many breakdowns defensively. They got lay-up after lay-up. We couldn’t stop anybody tonight. It was an easy night for the Nuggets. I know we can play harder than that and better than that. We need to be more bothered by our defensive breakdowns instead of our offensive misses. We’ve got to change the habits of these players. Hopefully we can do that. It’s not easy to fix. We had a number of breakdowns and they got a lot of fast break points."

Darius Miles – Portland Forward
"We had our young guys in and I think they played hard, and Denver, no matter what string they had in, their second or their third, they just kept hitting all their shots. Everybody was hitting their jump shots, from their point guard, to the center. Denver just had a great game. We got embarrassed and I hate getting embarrassed. We fought hard, and I’m proud of my teammates."

Sebastian Telfair – Portland Guard
"We got to come out and play together for the whole game. We can’t come out and pick and choose our spots when we want to play hard. Right now things just aren’t working for us. Denver played a pretty good game, where they just hit a lot of their shots, and we need to contest more of those shots as a team and take more pride in our defense. Denver was getting second shots and long rebounds and we just have to key down on those things."