Terry Stotts: ‘No Question’ Blazers Are Ready for Seeding Games

The Portland Trail Blazers concluded their scrimmage schedule by going winless over three matchups while dealing with various lineup adjustments due to injuries. The scrimmages only showed glimpses of the team’s potential, leading to questions about how Portland will fair in their first seeding game against the Memphis Grizzlies. In his postgame interview following Tuesday’s loss, head coach Terry Stotts said his team is ready for Friday’s matchup with Memphis:

“We’re ready. I mean there’s no question, we’re ready.”

Stotts then discussed how scrimmages helped the team, but he also highlighted that practices were likely more “beneficial” for Portland:

“I think the best thing was to get out there and play against somebody else, play at game speed. I think our practices were probably more beneficial than our scrimmages, but playing extended minutes, playing a nine-, ten-minute stretch from a conditioning standpoint was probably the most important thing for us. We had a lot of practice time and did a lot of things that we wanted to get done in practice, so the games were more about just playing games.”

In terms of looming lineup decisions, Stotts said he will take a “game-to-game” mindset akin to the playoffs:

“If we’re treating these games as they are basically playoff games, some of the rotations, some of the substitutions will be situational. I can’t say that it will be a set rotation for all eight games. I think whatever’s necessary to win those games.”

You can view Stotts’ full interview below: