Trail Blazers win, but coach Stotts is not happy. Here are five reasons why.

After Portland’s 109-103 overtime win Thursday against Charlotte, head coach Terry Stotts seemed a bit peeved during a tense postgame press conference.

Portland Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts seems like a swell guy. Quick to smile, laugh and joke around. Sure he gets miffed and blows off steam at NBA officials and reporters from time to time. Who doesn’t?

But after Portland’s overtime win against Charlotte Thursday, Stotts didn’t look like a coach whose team had just won its ninth straight home game and had improved to 30-25. Instead, he looked and sounded like a coach with a migraine and a toothache. Several toothaches.

In short, he seemed angry. Really angry. As angry as, well, a hornet.

Trail Blazers Reporters

According to NBC Sports Northwest’s Jason Quick, it might have been Stotts’ “most terse postgame media address ever. Which is saying something.”

The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Joe Freeman was there, too. Here’s how he described it:

Watch it for yourself:

Why So Serious?

Here are five reasons Stotts might have been in a certain kinda mood despite the fact that his team had just won a ballgame.

1. Turnovers

The Trail Blazers committed seventeen turnovers, leading to 21 points for the Hornets. Portland was especially careless with the ball in the second half, turning the ball over 13 times (seven in the final quarter alone.) Jusuf Nurkic finished the game with seven turnovers, including several in crunch time. Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum each had four turnovers.

2. Blown Leads (Part I)

Portland opened up a 17-point lead early, pulling away from the Hornets 22-5 with 3:43 left in the first quarter. But by halftime, the Blazers had let most of that lead slip away. The Hornets outscored the Trail Blazers 27-20 in the second quarter. And at the half, they were down by just four points, 49-45.

3. Blown Leads (Part II)

The Trail Blazers regained a measure of control in the third quarter, outscoring Charlotte 30-20 and taking a 79-65 lead into the fourth. And with 7:14 left to go in the game, Portland had once again opened up a 17-point lead, 92-75. But guess what happened next. Charlotte made that lead evaporate like water on a scorching summer sidewalk. And it was Kemba Walker who did most of the damage. Which brings us to reason No. 4.

4. Kemba Walker

The Hornets’ Mr. Everything was able to score at will against the Trail Blazers’ porous defense; he would finish the game with 40 points on 13-of-26 shooting. Walker made layups. He made steals. He made three-pointers. And he made free throws, going 8-of-8 from the line; six of those free throws came after he was fouled on two separate three-point attempts. That’s enough to make a coach angry, dontcha think?

5. Overtime

Last but not least, Stotts was likely upset because his team blew a couple of 17-point leads and had to play in overtime. Thursday’s game was the first of a home-and-away back-to-back for the Trail Blazers. Surely Stotts was hoping to rest his starters ahead of Friday’s tilt in Sacramento against the Kings. And yet despite those two big leads, his starters ended up amassing a ton of minutes. Lillard and McCollum both played more than 40 minutes, and Al-Farouq Aminu played 36 minutes.

The Cooldown

According to Quick, Lillard downplayed just how angry Stotts was after the game and said they laughed about it in the locker room. And it wasn’t all on the players, since Stotts was angry courtside after a few calls by the officials didn’t go Portland’s way.

“I’ve seen worse,” Lillard said.

But at the same time, the players must be aware of the fragility of their position within the stacked and crowded Western Conference.

It’s true that just a few games separate the Trail Blazers from a higher seed in the West. But it’s also true that only a few games separate them from dropping out of playoff contention altogether.

Against a team like the Charlotte Hornets, who arrived in Portland playing better of late but still sporting a losing record, maybe the Trail Blazers can afford to be lackadaisical.

But that stuff won’t fly when Portland mans up against better teams, as their record in such cases proves. According to the Portland Tribune’s Kerry Eggers, Portland is just 12-20 this season against teams that are .500 or better.

Next: Portland Trail Blazers had money in the wrong offseason

A fine line separates playoff contenders from playoff pretenders.

Rip City knows it.

The Trail Blazers know it.

And head coach Terry Stotts certainly knows it.

Watch the video of his postgame presser again if you still don’t believe it.