Ed Davis Talks About His Flagrant 2 Foul On Jason Smith

The Portland Trail Blazers bounced back with a 121-84 blowout win over the Orlando Magic on Saturday night. The rounded effort saw every Blazer score, and six of them finish the game in double-figures, although technically, Ed Davis did not finish the game at all. He was ejected in the third quarter for a flagrant foul on Jason Smith. Here is what he and his teammates had to say about the game, courtesy of CSNNW:

Ed Davis

He caught the ball—I think he gave me a little pump fake—he drove to the basket. It was a foul. I thought it was a good foul. Probably in the early ‘90s, it might not have been a foul, but you know how the game change, so it’s all good, man.

You’re kind of an old school guy, so it was kind of a throwback foul.

For sure. It was a hard foul. I didn’t think I was going to get ejected, but it happened. We won the game, so that’s all that matters.

Were you protecting Dame a little bit after he had gotten clipped a coupe plays earlier?

It wasn’t retaliation at all. It was just he drove to the basket and I wasn’t going to give up a dunk. That was it.

Do you wish they’d allow some of the physicality back in the game a little? I mean, within reason.

For sure. For sure, you know, just for instance like this; I didn’t think that I was going to get a flagrant 2, but that’s what they called and I thought it was just a good, tough foul.

That’s two this season. How many in your career, do you know?

I think maybe, like, three. Not too many.

Did he say anything to you or vice versa?

He better not have said nothing.

Damian Lillard

Ed says it wasn’t retaliation, but do you appreciate when people kind of stick up for you after, you know, Jason Smith got you with kind of a tough offensive foul?

Any time your big is willing to stick up for you, you know that there’s a bond there and there’s a respect level. He has my back, but I don’t think it was that type of play, honestly. The pick on me, I was moving fast and I felt like he kind of backed into my side. I’ve had that happen before and I felt like my ribs was broke, so I didn’t like it, but me and him spoke after the game. He said he didn’t mean anything and I told him I just got caught up in the moment and that was that. But that’s the kind of guy Ed is. He’s going to do whatever he needs to do for the team, and instead of him giving up a layup, he took a foul.

Fifteen double-doubles. You’re the first Blazer guard to do that in almost 20 seasons. What does that mean to you as becoming a more complete player?

I think it’s just the game slowing down for me, becoming a better playmaker, trusting guys, understanding play calling—coach Stotts allows me to call the game pretty much the entire game— I call the plays, seeing a guy get hot, putting him in a position to make plays, reading the defense. I think it’s time. It’s my fourth year. I’ve had the ball in my hands a lot; I’ve seen just about every coverage; I’ve seen just about every defense, so at some point you got to be able to pick the defense apart.

First half, you only had two field goal attempts, so how did you take the playmaking on your own shoulders.

Just trust it. I just trusted the game. In the second half, a few plays broke down, I got a couple layups, CJ [McCollum] drove in one time, I ended up open, I hit a three. Then they went zone. I got a couple looks from three, I made one. So it was just the flow of the game. I just trusted the game. I think we were up 20 at halftime and I’d only shot the ball two times, so I didn’t want to try to force anything. I just wanted to keep playing to what was working for us. That was it.

Allen Crabbe

It was pretty good, man, despite the fact… I don’t even know how many games it was, but I just haven’t been in a rhythm I’ve wanted to, offensively. I seen the first two go in and it sort of just gave me a little bit of confidence, and then my teammates found me off of the cuts and off of the execution on offense, so I feel like it was a good night for me.

What has the past month—month and-a-half been like for you?

It’s been up and down, but it’s 82 games in a season. Understand that you may go through your slumps and stuff like that, but it’s just about keep playing each and every night. Just keep shooting until you get out of it.

What about the defense? Sorry if he already asked this, but what about the defense tonight?

It was good, man. The defensive start that we got off to against Golden State definitely wasn’t what we expected or how we wanted to play. I feel like that was a key focus for us; just coming out here and stopping them from what they did execution-wise against us last time. That allowed them to be successful and get a W against us. It was a big win for us. We needed to bounce back from Golden State, so I feel like we did what we needed to do tonight.