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Postgame Quotes: Trail Blazers vs. Kings

Head Coach Terry StottsTonight’s game…

“Sacramento did a good job of doing a lot of the dirty work, getting rebounds, loose balls and I give them a lot of credit. On offense obviously Rudy Gay had a very good night. Made jump shots, made shots in the paint, got to the free throw line. The free throw line was very important which is what they do. When we tied it at 77 and beyond, I thought we were going to be straight but they made a good run on us.”

Clear-path foul call…“Look when they go and review it and they say it’s a clear path, it’s a clear path. I didn’t agree with it at the time but since it happened in the backcourt then they made the right interpretation. Referees don’t get calls wrong when they look at the monitors. They made the right call.” Rudy Gay…“Rudy had it going. He made his three’s, his mid-range, he got to the free throw line. He did a little bit of everything.”

Damian LillardTonight’s games…

“I think that the thing that they beat us at.… They just out-hustled us in a lot of areas. We knew that they were a really good second-chance team and we allowed them to do that all night. They just outplayed us and it’s disappointing. We knew what type of team they were, we knew what it would take for them to beat us and we let them do it.”

Third quarter…“We didn’t stop playing defense. They just started making their plays offensively. We had some breakdowns that they took advantage of but everybody understands that it’s a game of spurts. Teams are going to have runs. We had our runs. We just let them win that second half. They played well offensively. They’re a lot of things we didn’t do as well as we needed to do to win this game.” LaMarcus AldridgeChange of momentum after clear-path foul…

“I can’t blame it on that but that was tough because after that they went up more and that definitely changed our whole mindset of trying to get stops and try to play a little bit faster. We can’t put ourselves in that position. We have to play on the defensive end. We have to move the ball more and rebound better.”

Kings Head Coach Michael MaloneOn the difference between Wednesday and tonight, what you’re excited about“Oh, what a great game. I thought our guys played unbelievable tonight, on both sides of the basketball. Let’s start with the turnovers - You know, it’s amazing what happens when you don’t beat yourself. Only having 10 turnovers tonight, zero in the fourth quarter, that’s big for us. And I thought, even though it doesn’t reflect in the assists, cause we only shot 42% I believe, but I thought the ball movement, the execution, we didn’t have all the one-on-one selfish over dribbling tonight. So the execution, the offense was much better, and I thought defensively we were terrific. Did a great job on (Damian) Lillard, all the way, he tried to get off in the end. LaMarcus (Aldridge) is a handful, that’s why he’s one of the best power forwards in the NBA, but Jason (Thompson), Reggie (Evans), Carl (Landry). I thought Carl did a very good job on him in the fourth quarter. So just an unbelievable effort for us against a very good team, but you know obviously we still have a lot of work to do, and we’re getting ready for the Clippers starting tomorrow.”

On Darren Collison’s game tonight“Yeah, he was terrific. You know, he’s done a great job defensively, of picking up Steph Curry, of picking up Damian Lillard, harassing those guys, making them a little bit uncomfortable. Running our team, being aggressive, getting to the free throw line, he’s just so active, and he has a great competitive fire. He wants to win, he hates to lose. So I thought he was terrific tonight, as you mentioned: 17 (points), 8 (rebounds) and 8 (assists). Obviously Rudy Gay, to have a 40-point night, to step up the way he did, make big plays, made his free throws. That’s one thing that gets overlooked about our team, we do a great job of getting to the foul line, and that’s a big part of our offense, and for us tonight it was great because we shot a very high percentage.”

On Rudy’s confidence level throughout his struggles“I was waiting for a game like this. After the game I told the players I want to introduce them to a new teammate, Rudy Gay. Rudy was fantastic tonight. We saw what he did last year as a Sacramento King, shooting 50% from the field, scoring 20 points a night. The way he played tonight, not just on the court but in the huddles, the positive leadership, stressing ball movement, all the things we’ve been talking about; it’s great when you start hearing the players holding each other accountable. That’s when we’re going to make a big step- when it’s no longer me getting on them like a broken record, when they get on each other- and I’m seeing that more and more, especially from Rudy and DeMarcus.”

Darren CollisonOn Rudy Gay’s performance:“Rudy, at any given moment, is one of those players that can explode for 30, 40 points on any given night. His athleticism, his ability to get to the paint, his ability to shoot the ball really well, is what makes him really special. The thing I like about Rudy this year is he’s not trying to get 30, 40 points – he’s letting the game come to him. He’s preaching, telling us to move the ball and it just happened tonight that he was just feeling it.”

On their defense with guards in these past two games:“Yeah – with Stephen (Curry), (Damian) Lillard, we’ve been doing an exceptionally well job – even against Klay Thompson and LaMarcus Aldridge. Our defense, we’ve been there. Defensively we are playing great team defense and that’s all we can ask for on any given night. We probably are not going to be consistent shooting-wise but defensively it has to be consistent. In the last two games defense has been really good, especially (against) these top-tier guards.”

Rudy GayOn his performance tonight:“I just wanted to be aggressive – for the most part I hadn’t really had a good game this season, preseason or in the season. So I just wanted to make sure this one was.”

When asked if he was getting better shots than he had in the preseason or season:“No, I just calmed down and let the game come to me. I was aggressive and I played within the offense. I tried to make plays better and also just took what they gave me.”

On working their way out of the third quarter:“That just shows what we learned from last game – it could’ve gotten ugly. Last game we put our heads down and we just let them roll over us but today we showed some restraint. We came back, we took their run and gave them our own and ended up with this win.”