Warriors-Portland postgame: need more scoring outside of Curry, tired, unlucky, just keep going, don’t get caught up in mood swings

Here are notes & quotes from postgame Warriors in Portland. We had Steve Kerr, Stephen Curry, Damion Lee and Draymond Green. This will be a free article due to the loss. We had some technical difficulties so videos on our YouTube channel might be delayed.

KERR:

- Dame/block call: Kerr thought the first Dame three a couple minutes before was worse…“Looked like a block to me. I thought he was sliding his feet. Referees got a look at it, made the call”

- looked like a quiet night for Dame, then big shots: “even on a bad night he can get going at any time. That’s why you have to stay alert the entire 48, we let our guard down in the 4th.”

- “a little ragged, everybody’s tired right now.”

- Center spot? “We just need more scoring in general from anybody other than Steph…without Kelly tonight took away one of our best scorers.”

- second unit: “good job…really unlucky (missed shots)…Eric had some good looks tonight.”

- what do you say before PHX? “Just keep going. Long season. All we can do is keep forging ahead.”

- Juan two-way limits: “I’m not even thinking about that.”

- PHX: “it’s gonna be a brutal back to back…can’t go into the game thinking omg we have to get this.”

- Bazemore vs old team: “I’m a huge fan, he just brings energy and force to every game…I love Kent.”

STEPH:

- critical play: “We felt like there was movement after Draymond took off…pretty confident (they won the challenge).”

- more scoring: “I gotta be aggressive first and foremost…we’ve gotten a lot better at finding the open guy…open space…with the roster that we have and the style that we like to play…build momentum off that.”

- lack of closing out: “I’m not chalking this one up to quote unquote execution…Baze gets an open three…I get an offensive rebound and miss a layup…I get a little runner that sits on the rim for five seconds…tonight was just kinda one of those everything that could’ve not gone our way did…other games that I could say we didn’t legit execute…we tricked off some games…but don’t linger on it…still have to have confidence.”

- PHX important: “it’s the next game up, pretty straightforward. Not to be short but yeah.”

Haynes - how fun in the moment? “Never fun to lose, but those types of back and forths are what the NBA is about.”

- Wiseman: “really made strides and the injury was an unfortunate break…just a matter of continuing his confidence…not to get caught up in…rookie power rankings…top of Draft class…everybody’s in a different situation…he wants to be great, he wants to figure it out as soon as possible…end of the season, have a body of work…impact on this team.”

- Wiseman: “not putting too much pressure on him…keeping things simple for him…that’ll make the game a lot easier for him…you don’t want him out there thinking he’s gotta get a certain point total.”

- tinkering with second unit: “just consistency and chemistry. That’s tough when you have a lot of guys, a lot of different rotations, different looks…tonight they were really solid.”

- struggles by both teams: “both teams were playing pretty hard…it’s not like pretty basketball by any stretch…fun atmosphere, fun kinda battle…no team could really separate but the intensity was there.”

DAMION:

- what to do to help Steph: “keep being aggressive…their main focus was to take Steph out of the game…move the ball side to side.”

- lost games, tricked off: “on the flip side there’s games where we fought and fought our way back…keep our foot on the gas.”

- struggles, neither team separation: “both teams played well defensively…when you hold Dame to 22 points, you sort of look at that as that’s a game you should win.”

- PHX: “it’s huge, this game was one of the big games of the year, tomorrow…another test…Phoenix is rolling…potential for us…matchup in the playoffs…after the Break that’s when everything is starting to count.”

Ray says he’ll try to get one more player.

DRAYMOND:

- Dame block/charge: “I thought he was sliding.”

M - frustrating: “Steph missed some shots that he would like to have back, I missed a point blank shot on an offensive rebound…it is what it is.”

- scoring other than Steph:: “Uhhh. Ummm, idk. That’s kinda the way our offense is set up. It just is what it is. Our offense is setup to work around Steph…so that’s idk.”

(Long silence, no other questions, I had seen two reporters log off before the Q&A started. No shootaround tomorrow due to the back-to-back.)

/fin