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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: THUNDER vs TRAIL BLAZERSApril 19, 2019Terry StottsOklahoma City, Oklahoma: Game Three Thunder - 120, Trail Blazers - 108 Q. Terry, it looked like Jerami Grant got the first basket of the game and got his confidence going. How different are they when he and Ferguson are making shots? TERRY STOTTS: Well, they made shots as a team from the three. Obviously they didn't shoot the ball well the first two games and they shoot over 50 percent tonight, so that was a big difference in the game. He struggled in the first two games, and those guys made here at home. That was important. Q. When a team, they shot poorly in the first two games and they shot really hot in this game, is it hard to kind of predict when a team is so inconsistent like that from three shooting the ball? TERRY STOTTS: No. You know, the preparation going into the game, into the series, Jerami Grant is a 39 percent three-point shooter, and he was going to have a game that -- we anticipated that. It didn't really change our defensive game plan. There were a lot of things, other things besides that, but they were due to have a good shooting game. Q. You just said that Jerami making shots didn't change your defensive game plan, but when adjustments did you make once it became clear that the whole team was going to have a shooting night like tonight? TERRY STOTTS: I can't say that we really changed too much. I mean, we won the first two games doing what we were doing, and the priorities are still the same. We've got to keep them out of transition, Paul George pick-and-rolls. We've got to take care of the free-throw line. They got to the free-throw line too much. The free throw disparity was kind of a big deal all game. You know, so the priorities really haven't changed. We can contest. And three-point shooting was one of the priorities, and we'll go back and watch the film, and we don't want to give wide-open looks, and I thought Grant had some wide-open looks, so we have to do a better job of rotating or at least contesting them. Q. It looked like in the fourth quarter they really sold out to get the ball out of Dame's hands. What did you see different from them in the fourth and how did you think you handled it? TERRY STOTTS: Actually it looked like they were making that a priority all game. Dame got hot in the third quarter. We were able to set some good screens on him and get him open, but it was clear from the beginning of the game that they were taking Dame and C.J. out where our of pick-and-rolls was a priority. Fourth quarter is the fourth quarter, but we did a good job in the third quarter to get back in the game. I can't say that it was much different as the game went along. They changed some match-ups. They took Westbrook off of Dame and put him in the corner and had other guys guarding him, so we'll look at the film and see what we can do. Q. After Dame's hot third quarter, did you put much thought into starting the fourth with him? TERRY STOTTS: Not really. He expended a lot of energy in the third quarter. I anticipated giving him two minutes, but the start of the fourth quarter went well. But he needed a blow. He wasn't going to play the whole second half. So give him those two minutes there and get him back in. Q. How do you feel you guys handled the officiating and playing through that? TERRY STOTTS: I'm not commenting on that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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