Terry Stotts Calls Blazers’ Play in Summer League “Very Encouraging”

The Portland Trail Blazers captured the NBA Summer League title Tuesday night with a 91-73 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. LA had beat Portland one year ago in the 2017 championship, but Portland’s experienced roster carried them to an undefeated Summer League. Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated caught up with Blazers head coach Terry Stotts after the game, who praised the team for seizing their moment:

“We had some experienced players but there wasn’t one guy who didn’t need to be in Summer League and show what they could do.”

Stotts also appreciated the team’s togetherness:

“It was a good week,” Stotts said. “We’re going to have six guys from this team on our [real] team. How they came together, how they played, they shared the ball, different guys scored on different nights, it was very encouraging.”

Summer League coach Jim Moran talked about the gameplan given the Lakers’ rabid fans:

“We knew it was going to be a home game for them and an away game for us. We talked about getting on them early and taking the crowd out, staying composed and not letting the fans get into it and get us rattled.”

You can read more from Golliver’s piece here, which includes thoughts from the Lakers’ Josh Hart after his ejection in the title game.