Defense Leads To Offense In Win Over Kings

While CJ McCollum’s lights-out shooting certainly contributed to the Portland Trail Blazers’ win against the Sacramento Kings, McCollum praised the defensive effort that led to offense, according to Jamie Hudson of NBC Sports Northwest. McCollum said the defense allowed the offense to get out front.

“It started with the defensive end. We did a great job of applying pressure of rotating and preventing most of the transition baskets early.”

Coach Terry Stotts also had praise for the defensive effort.

“I really like our team defense in general…I thought [Jusuf Nurkic] and Enes [Kanter] did a good job protecting the lane. I thought we were locked in on our defensive schemes whether it was switching or blitzing or sending them in a certain direction. I thought this was one of our better nights of locking in on game plans.”

Still, McCollum deserves a share of the praise, scoring 37 points on the night, including six three pointers.