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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND TWO: TRAIL BLAZERS vs WARRIORS

May 11, 2016

Terry Stotts

Oakland, California: Game Five

Warriors - 125, Trail Blazers - 121

TERRY STOTTS: Before the first question, I just want to congratulate the Warriors. Obviously, they're a great team. It was a terrific series. I enjoyed it. I was proud of my team. I wish the Warriors well, but they're an amazing team. They've had an amazing season, so best of luck to them going forward.

Q. Terry, I know it's fresh, but are you able to appreciate what you guys accomplished yet or does it feel a little too soon?
TERRY STOTTS: There is no question I can appreciate this season. This was a remarkable season. I've been in the league coaching for 23 years. It was a special year. We had all young guys who got better. They worked hard. We had success. With success being more than just making the playoffs and the success is more than winning a playoff series.

The goal at the beginning of the season was that we were going to work with the players. They were going to get better and we were going to get better as a team. I was talking with my coaches, a lot of times in this league, you don't get that opportunity to work with a group of guys who come to work every day, there is no drama. They came to work, they got better, we got better, and we had success because of their character and their work ethic every day. So I don't have to wait long to understand how special this season was.

Q. You talked before the game about how close these first four games had been. You guys had opportunities?
TERRY STOTTS: Well, not the first four. The first game we got blown out.

Q. Tonight do you feel the same way? Do you walk away from here thinking, man, we could have won this game too?
TERRY STOTTS: Yeah. You know, Game 2, 4 and 5, they're all fourth-quarter games and that's what you want. You want to be in a position to win games and I was proud of the way we competed.

I give credit to Golden State. They've won a championship. They've won 73 games. They've won a lot of close games. They know how to close out games. They've got remarkable player who's can make big-time plays when they need it. But we'll learn from that. Obviously, they're the better team.

But I don't walk away from this thinking we should have won the series or we should have won those games. I come away thinking we could have won those games. Going forward we'll learn from that. It was -- I couldn't have asked for more from our team to put ourselves in a position to win each one of those games.

Q. Obviously Steph Curry didn't play the first three games and had a big impact the last two. Today he wasn't shooting that well from the outside for a while, but he still managed to influence the game so much?
TERRY STOTTS: He makes big-time shots. That last three he hit was well-defended. He makes big-time shots, and you saw that in Game 4. Obviously the series is a little different. It may have been different had he played in the first two games, maybe not. Who knows.

But he is great for basketball, and what he has done from a skill standpoint accentuates that basketball is a game of skill, and as an MVP, he got even better. I think he's a great example of what, for any young basketball player, for anybody -- not only young, guys in the NBA, he's a great example.

But he's a special player who can do special things. That's why he's MVP, and that's why they have a championship, and that's why they won 73 games and go down the list.

Q. How proud are you of your group, just how they fought all the way through this series and even through this season?
TERRY STOTTS: You know, I don't want to take that for granted. I'm obviously proud of how we competed, but it's probably been our strength all season is that we kept competing. When we were nine games below .500, we kept competing. So I don't want to take that for granted. I'm certainly proud of it, but it's almost it's what we do. It's good every team wants to have an identity, and if our identity is that we compete every night, that's a great place to start.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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