Billups On Winning: “We’re Doing It Together”

The Portland Trail Blazers closed out the first half of the season with a four-game winning streak, including a satisfying win over the Memphis Grizzlies 123-119. Following the victory, head coach Chauncey Billups reflected on what the win meant, reports Casey Holdahl of Trailblazers.com.

“I’m just happy for our dudes,” said Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups. “You know, things that we’ve been preaching all year about how we want to play and as a staff, we’re just doing it and we’re doing it together. It’s incredible what you can do together. We’ve got everybody on one accord.”

Billups also had praise for center Jusuf Nurkic, who had a remarkable night with 32 points, eight rebounds, and four assists.

(Nurkic) was unstoppable tonight,” said Billups. “He was going up against one of the best defensive centers in basketball in Steven Adams. Not many times he goes against guys that are as big as he is. He just had his way tonight. He had his way with their team.”

Billups lauded the team’s control in the hard minutes at the end of the game.

“When I came in the huddle, they made their run, I called a timeout and I said, ‘We’re in good shape, man. They made a heck of a run, as they should, they’re at home. They’re a really good team, but we can’t lose our composure. Let’s keep playing the way that we play,’” recounted Billups. “We did that. We got some of the shots that we liked late in the game. I thought Ant obviously hit a big one in the right wing, or I guess he came in the corner. That was a big, big shot. We got the match ups that we wanted. I was happy about our composure.”

The Blazers face the Golden State Warriors next on February 24th.