Before Sunday's game versus the Denver Nuggets, Portland Trail Blazers head coach noted the fact that his team hasn't had to come back from many first-half deficits thus far in the 2016-17 season.

That was not the case Sunday, however.

Despite Denver visiting the Rose City on a back-to-back following a Saturday night loss to Detroit, Stotts' team was down by as much as 17 points in the second quarter. The Blazers were killed on the defensive glass to allow the Nuggets 14 second-chance points in the first half. A small run fueled by Evan Turner, Moe Harkless and Mason Plumlee cut the Nuggets' lead to 57-50 at halftime, and that's when the Blazers saw a different Terry Stotts.

A fiery speech from their head coach led to the Blazers out-scoring Denver 36-15 in the third quarter on their way to an eventual 112-105 victory.

"It’s a little too much for TV, man," center Ed Davis described his coach's words at halftime. "You know Coach is more of a chill, laid-back cool guy, but once he gets mad and starts to express himself, you know that you definitely want to fight for him. We knew what we did, he didn’t really have to say anything. We knew we were playing terrible, but he definitely gave it to us. We’ll leave it at that.

"It was starting to get ugly, down 17 at home to a team that probably won’t make the playoffs, to a team that was on a back-to-back, it’s unacceptable. We definitely had to wake up. We needed that third-quarter effort in the first quarter. It’s a 48-minute game, and all that matters at the end of the day is what the end score is."

"He was kinda upset a little bit, he was really upset," forward Evan Turner added. "At times when I thought he should get upset, he doesn't, but this time he was extra pissed. It definitely fired us up, and I think we chipped in and tried our best to respond.

"[He was] really red. Really red. His cowlick was flying up and everything."

So what did Stotts emphasize at the break? Defense, effort and his team's focus.

"I was really glad with how we responded after halftime," Stotts explained. "The first half was very disappointing. Denver outplayed us, they outhustled us. We were able to make some hustle plays at the end of the first half that got us back into it, but I liked the way we responded after halftime. The third quarter was terrific at both ends and obviously set the tone for getting the win.”

After trailing 48-31 with just over five minutes to play in the second quarter, Portland rattled off a 42-16 run. When the eventually got up nine near the same point at 73-64 in the third quarter, the Blazers never relinquished their advantage.

All thanks to a little halftime fire from Terry Stotts.