Tyreke and Co. Tough in SL Debut

The Sacramento Kings tipped off Summer League action on Friday with a gritty performance against the Detroit Pistons but fell 86-77.

Kings first-round draft pick (4th overall) Tyreke Evans performed well in his first showing for Sacramento, contributing a team-high tying 15 points to go along with four rebounds and two steals. Read more

Summer Moves

Hi Kings fans!

It’s been an exciting off-season for me so far. I’m finally moved into my new condo in Sacramento. I’m enjoying my new surroundings and much shorter commute to work.

A couple weeks ago, Read more

Petrie Checks-In

After the Sacramento Kings hosted their fifth pre-Draft workout at the team’s practice facility on Monday, Kings President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie discussed his impression of the pre-Draft workouts and the team’s head coaching search.

Check back soon for post-workout prospect reaction. As always, stay current with Kings.com Draft Central for exclusive video coverage, including Petrie and player quotes, highlights and workout footage.

Following are notable quotes from Petrie:

On pre-Draft workouts to date:
“I think it’s obvious all the players we’ve had in have been very well-coached for one thing, in terms of the way they pick things up, the overall skill level they display and when you put them in various situations, they tend to recognize them pretty well. They’ve been good. They’ve been competitive. Almost everybody has been in really good shape. I think part of the whole workout circuit, after awhile, most of the players, their knowledge of what to expect grows, so they’re pretty well prepared.”

On individual workouts compared to group workouts:
“They won’t go as long, I don’t think, because it’s just one player. Other than to give reasonable periods to recover and certain things (there will be little rest). Primarily, you’re going to be able to look at skill-related things. It’s obviously not the opportunity to have any kind of competitive play on the floor where they have to play with other players and guard other players and be defended by other players. It’s primarily to look at their overall skill level.”

On enjoying leading the on-court workouts:
“I’ve done it for so long. We generally have our assistant coaches out there. Most of the other workouts I’ve been to, most NBA head coaches watch the workouts anyway. Everybody has their little take on the things they do and how long it goes. Certain things we’ve done over the years, we try to re-create them because all of the players you look at do a lot of the same things so you have some basis for comparison. It’s a lot of fun.”

On how psychological tests translate into on-court intelligence:
“Those tests are just, as I’ve said before, one very small slice of information about each individual player’s makeup. The other part of it is, you tell somebody, ‘We’re going to run an elbow, a UCLA cut and I want you to come play pick-and-roll’ and they come do it right away. That’s just as important or more important than if you get some question right.”

On the team’s head coaching search:
“We still have the same three candidates and we like them all very much. I think we are probably at the point where we need to make a decision, sooner rather than later. So, at some point, we’ll do that.”

“There are some very strong merits to all three coaches. It’s also unlikely we’ll talk to anybody else.”

On the possibility of second interviews with the three candidates:
“It’s possible but it’s not something being discussed right now.”

On drafting best-available player at 23 and 31 or drafting for positional needs:
“It could be a little bit of both, I think, depending on what we do at four and who’s available at 23. It’s the same old question. At this point you can have a much more reasonable guess about who’s available at four than you can at 23.”

On Ricky Rubio working out for the Kings:
“We would like to. It’s something we’re working on so we’ll find out here at some point.”

Petrie on Draft Lottery Outcome

I had a chance to speak to Kings President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie shortly after he landed in San Francisco tonight in return from a European scouting trip. Here are some direct quotes from Geoff, upon hearing the Kings Draft Lottery results.

“We have done a lot of preparatory work for this draft and we will continue to do extensive evaluation over the course of the remaining month or so leading up to the draft. We will do everything we can to come up with an outstanding young player to fill one of the needs on our roster. Also keep in mind that we have the 23rd and 31st picks as well. So we have an opportunity to be very involved in this draft at different levels.”

Postgame Quotes: Kings at Timberwolves

Sacramento Coach Kenny Natt:

“I was proud of my guys that we came out tonight and really played in the final game of the season. Guys showed up. Obviously it was an opportunity for all the guys to show the team pride that we have, and I just told them that I was proud of them as a coach myself of their effort for the most part. At least they competed every night. We had an opportunity to bail out early and I’m proud of my guys the way we finished the season.”

“It was a tough season. I’m just enjoying this win. It’s been a long time coming. We haven’t had many this year, but every one is a good feeling. I’m just enjoying that right now and looking forward to tomorrow and we’ll see what happens from there.”

“I feel somewhat relieved. In the fact that we weren’t going to the playoffs, and you have a certain number of games you have to play and compete. Each night is a challenge to try and get your guys up for the game and really compete under these adverse circumstances. It’s been a tough chore every night, and from that standpoint it’s a relief to realize that tomorrow we don’t have another game. At the same time, I’m just looking forward to the future and what lies ahead.”

“Ike is an example of what we all talk about. Thirty coaches in the league talk about if you work hard every day in practice and prepare yourself, because you never know when you’ll be called upon. It doesn’t matter what team in this league, 30 coaches talk about that all the time — being ready to play whenever you’re called up — and Ike was able to do that and make the best of his opportunity.”

Sacramento Guard Beno Udrih:

“We definitely have much more compassion than we showed this season. I guess something was not clicking, so I guess we need to figure out how to fix it during the summer and during training camp when we come back.”

“I’m definitely optimistic because before I came to Sacramento I heard very good stuff about the Kings. I think every team has a year when it just didn’t click, nothing worked really. I’m confident, I definitely came here because I thought we have potential to be a good team, a good atmosphere, so we’ve just got to stick together.”

Sacramento Forward Ike Diogu:

“A little bit of disappointment. I’ve never been to the playoffs before, so I’ve got to wait until next year to experience that. It’s been a long season, a lot of ups and downs, and it’ll be good to get some time off.”

“I worked really hard in practice, made sure that I stayed in shape. And basically just wanted to send a message to everybody, all the doubters out there, that just thought I was a pick in the first round — a bust who couldn’t play. Just show everybody that unfortunately I didn’t get the time that I wanted, but when I did get the time I take advantage of it… I don’t know what to expect. I’ll be a free agent, so I’ll just see what happens.”

Sacramento Forward Jason Thompson:

“It’s been a long season. It’s always good to end with a win and have that to end the year in your mind. Honestly, for years to come we don’t want to have a season like we did this year, but we had a tough situation — coach getting let go, a lot of trades, a lot of new guys.” 

“Blessed to be here, blessed to play all 82 and all eight preseason. Obviously, my body doesn’t feel the same as when I first was here, but it all came around. I’m just trying to get better each year… You try to just go against everybody. Obviously some of the rookies keep in contact and you try and compete with each other. Hopefully a lot of us can be good for years to come.”
Minnesota Coach Kevin McHale:

“We didn’t go out the way we wanted to, didn’t play very well. We missed a lot of shots, had a lot of opportunities around the rim. They were switching everything so we tried to go inside quite a bit, but didn’t have too much results in there. Ike Diogu hurt us in the first half and we just couldn’t seem to get anything going tonight. It was a funny night. We haven’t had much energy at home lately and kind of didn’t have any again tonight.”

“You want your guys to play better and have some fun the last game and go out with a win, but we just didn’t seem to have much energy all night and had the ball point-blank quite a bit. They were switching a lot of things and we got inside quite a bit, but Craig was the only guy that was in there who was finishing and he got in foul trouble… He was the only one of our bigs that could kind of get the ball down there and be effective against the little guys. That’s one thing that we talked about. I’ve talked to Love all year about his improvement, and he body-hunts upstairs, he’s up and leaning and then he’s traveling. You’ve got to get your rear end down and find them with your hips, a lot of little stuff. But Kevin’s a diligent kid, he’ll figure it out.”

“I don’t know. I actually enjoyed a lot of (the games). I enjoyed being with the guys. We have a really good group of guys, great kids. They played hard for the most part. They had a couple home game funks, were kind of — we played with so much more energy and so much more vigor on the road. It was very hard to figure that out. Even tonight, we had the mud thing going again… I had a handful of games that I was very upset with their effort. Tonight we get the ball, you can’t get the ball point-blank that much and not score and expect to win games in the NBA, especially when you’ve got a team that switches everything. We had guards guarding bigs and littles, and all kinds of mismatches. We just weren’t really able to take advantage of that tonight.”

“I really like those guys, and if I owe it to anybody, I owe it to the players to try to come in and help them. I think that they’re young guys that have a lot of growing and learning to do, but I think they’ll put in the work. Like I told them, I said you can lead the horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. You can get the ball in the paint, but doggone it, you’ve got to score down there. If I don’t come back, I’ll miss the guys because they really are a quality group of guys. They’re as nice a group of young men as you’ll ever find. They come in, they’re resilient, they fight back, you ask them to give you something and they’ll try to do it for you.”

“There were times tonight that we didn’t recognize mismatches and did a lot of stuff, but part of that is just that we had trouble all year with teams that switched and stuff. Our recognition, our posting, our re-posting off of it, a lot of little things that you get better at as you get better in our league. Then again, I looked at our bench and I thought I’d like to have Al in there against those guards down there. I think they would have stopped a lot of that switching. Craig was able to just manhandle them down there and that’s what you’ve got to do. Craig’s been in the league a few years. Love will get there. I know Craig’s first year, he did the same thing. Everyone gets better.”

Minnesota Forward Kevin Love:

“Learned a lot, from the very beginning. I’m very proud for how I came along this season and hopefully I can take that into the summer. It’s going to be a very huge summer for me, but you know I love all the guys on this team. As far as the locker room and as far as how they have treated me and treated each other, it went very well.”

“It would be something. Even if I wouldn’t make first team All-Rookie it would be something, especially with how I started. So like I mentioned, despite how they vote I’m very proud of my season and look forward to next season as well.”

“No matter what you tell anyone, they’re not going to know what to expect, so I would say just come in, listen to your vets, work hard, there are going to be some up and downs. There are some times where you are contemplating whether to jump off that bridge, but other than that just work hard and keep working through it. Persevere through some of this stuff, you know that’s what I did.”

Minnesota Forward Craig Smith:

“We had a tough season but we made a lot of progress, especially earlier in the season. In January, the new year, we got off to a good start. Unfortunately we lost our big horse at the end of that. We had to find a new rhythm. We started going through that process and we got in sort of a rhythm and we had some ups and downs with that. We saw a lot of growth and maturity from a bunch of young guys due to great veteran leadership.”

“Definitely looking forward to next year. I wish it was tomorrow. We’ve got to wait, sit back and watch these playoffs and hopefully try to get there next year.”

“Especially when (Jefferson) went down and we had to start off basically on the road, guys had to step up. When the big horse was out, everybody has to pick up the slack, and collectively guys went out there and did the best they could. Some guys were really taking on the lead, like Ryan, Randy, Bassy — those guys really stepped up to the challenge.”

Postgame Quotes: Kings at Nuggets

Kenny Natt – Kings Head Coach

Running out of gas or whatever we were playing on, it was good the first three quarters we played together and played hard as a team.  Things just really got flat there in the beginning of the fourth quarter.  That was it they got their game rolling and JR Smith had a phenomenal game hitting threes.  It is tough to play without our starting point guard, without Spencer.  Then Ike Diogu came in and played an outstanding basketball game.  We played hard, as I said, as a team.  What we are looking for from this team is to continue to play hard and compete through the end of the season here.  Our guys did it for three quarters and we just got off flat there in the fourth and things got out of hand from there.”

Andres Nocioni – Kings Forward

“I think we lost control of the game.  JR started to make crazy shots.  It’s really tough you know.  I think we played a good game; we just lost control of the game.  In the fourth quarter, looked like we put down our arms and I think we lost confidence in the fourth quarter.  (Being down a couple starters) We just have to go forward.  There are not many games left in the season, so we are going to try and figure it out.  (Bad call with last night’s game) I think we came here ready to play.  What happened last night just happened.  It is the NBA there are a lot of games.  We cannot do nothing about that [the call].”

Ike Diogu – Kings Forward

“(Fourth quarter) Yeah we kind of wore down, but I think everybody left it out on the floor.  They just had more depth than us, they’re a playoff team, and JR got hot at the end, so that kind of took the wind out of ourselves as well.  (What were you doing offensively) I was just being aggressive.  I just went out and didn’t really have to look over my shoulder if I made a bad move or anything.  I went out there and tried to play as hard as I could.  Shots started falling in, shots started going in.”

George Karl – Nuggets Head Coach

“I am very proud and happy for the players and the coaches.  This team has been very competitive over the passed two years.  I felt we were disrespected or mistreated early in the season.  There are a lot of great stories to this season.  This could not have been possible without the hard work of our coaching staff.  We need to get this team to understand tomorrow that 55 wins is important.  The real season begins in five days.  I know you don’t want to hear this, but I feel the playoffs are a celebration of basketball.  We don’t want to get crazy with expectations.  (JR) I am happy for him and the way he has played.  His shots, though, over the passed few games are not playoff shots.  His comfort zone is not my comfort zone.”

Carmelo Anthony – Nuggets Forward

“(What does division championship mean in your own word) We fought hard, played hard, played together.  Nobody thought we would win a division, so that is where I get my joy at.  I like proving people wrong.  (Celebration or looking for more) It wasn’t really celebration.  We were happy; don’t get me wrong, we were excited because once again nobody expected us to win a division. We still got bigger fish to fry.  This was just one of the goals we did set at the beginning of the season and we accomplished it.  (How Chauncey has made you a better player) Just being patient out there, making everybody better, not having to go out there and try to score 30, 40 points for us to win a basketball game.  That is something I have learned this season.”

JR Smith – Nuggets Guard

“(Which was your favorite three-pointer) The eleventh one.  (Did you do anything different tonight) Man tonight, every shot I made I felt like a chill going down my back.  Everything was hitting nothing but net.  It is very rare that you get one of those nights.  (Threes in second quarter were huge) That is what our job is as the second unit: come in, get the tempo a bit higher, and then when the starters come back they keep it going.  We were just out there doing our job.”  

Kayte’s Caption, April 13

Congratulations, Ken in Modesto! Tonight’s winning caption is: “These special rainbow nugget shorts and rocket power knee wraps help me get above the competition to shoot the sweet jumper.”

Postgame Quotes: Kings vs. Spurs

Head Coach Kenny Natt

On the way the game played out:
“Well, needless to say it was a tough loss for us. At the same time, I was encouraged by the way our guys came out tonight and really competed from the beginning of the ballgame. This was the type of effort that we talked about and needed coming into the game after having such a bad game the last time. Our guys competed hard and played well, we just got taken advantage of on the offensive boards. Kurt Thomas was really effective in keeping the ball alive for them. We gave them too many opportunities and they took advantage of that.”

When asked if Andres Nocioni was supposed to be the one to take the last shot:
“Well I had Francisco (Garcia) going off and Nocioni coming so the options were there based on the fact that I knew that they would switch and hopefully Spencer (Hawes) would pop in the middle after that. So Beno (Udrih) had three options; he chose Nocioni.”

On the decision to go with Beno Udrih over Bobby Jackson despite his struggling tonight:
“He struggled to hit shots tonight but I thought he did a good job in running our offense and getting us into things. Not to take anything away from Bobby Jackson – Bobby played great as well. I thought Beno had a good look on the last one there when we were tied at 92. Those decisions – I’m sticking with that.”

Donte Greene

On Rookie season:
“It has been fun. I can definitely say we have some die-hard fans and they are the best fans in the league. They are out here supporting us so I am having fun playing in front of them.”

On characterizing the game tonight:
“The Spurs are one of the top teams in the league. You have to expect them to battle back and try and get into the game. We just have to fight to the end and I thought we did a pretty good job of that tonight, but we just couldn’t pull it out.”

On which player on the Kings has impressed him the most this season:
“My fellow rookie, JT (Jason Thompson). He has played all of the games so far this season. He has had a couple of injuries this season, but he hasn’t let them bother him. He just goes out there and plays hard. I give him props for that and I have respect for that.”

Bobby Jackson

“I think that people look at our record and think, oh well. We fought on both sides and that’s all you can do. At the end of the day, you just have to hold your head up and move on, just to look forward to the next game.”

On not as much playing time this game:
“I was surprised (on not playing as much). It isn’t my call, especially if I am playing well, but if not playing well then send me back. It isn’t my decision to make that call. Coach was confident going with Beno (Udrih). We had a chance to win the game and that is all we can ask for.”

On effort tonight compared to Clippers game:
“I think we came out with the energy that we wanted. We came out and played a tough game. It sucks being the end of the year and playing well. Hopefully we have something to look forward to next year and we can get ready for the game tomorrow.”

–

Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich

On his impression of Michael Finley’s game-winning shot:
“I looked on the film and it looked like it was still in his hand. I didn’t study it, but I looked real quickly and it looked like it was still in his hands.”

On getting back in the game:
“I didn’t think we started out very well. Last game at home for Sacramento, I thought they were very energetic trying to come back from a tough loss their last game. So they came out with a lot of juice and give them credit for that. Give us credit for hanging in there, being persistent and giving ourselves a chance to win.”

On the strong game from Kurt Thomas:
“I think he is tired, but he did a great job defensively and on the boards. He just has great hands. He gets a lot of loose balls and stray rebounds, that kind of thing. That was important for us.”

On how they were able to get back into the game:
“Tony Parker. He did a great job finding teammates and making decisions of whether to score or find open people. That was good and I thought we started making some stops. We needed to do that. In the second half, we really played pretty good defense. They scored half the number of points in the second half that they did in the first. For us, that was the game. We tighten it up on the defensive end.”

Spurs Forward Michael Finley

On pulling out a hard-fought win:
“It was a tough game. We knew they were going to come in on their last home game and want to go out on a winning note. They played well. Because of that, we dug ourselves a hole. So we just had to rely on our defense to get out of that hole and that helped us get the win.”

On his game-winning shot:
“Catch and shoot. That’s pretty much it. Tony penetrated, made a great aggressive play and just kicked it out to me and I just shot it.”

On whether he thought he got it off in time:
“I haven’t seen the replay yet. The great refereeing staff we had said it counted, so we will take it.”

Postgame Quotes: Kings vs. Rockets

Head Coach Kenny Natt

“Well we couldn’t get the shot. I mean the key with us has been being able to get shots and we did that in the first half – we hit shots and that’s why we were in the ballgame. Then we came out in the third quarter and we didn’t do anything different but the shots didn’t fall. When our shots don’t fall our defense struggles as well and we start hanging our heads – and that’s what happened. They’re a veteran ballclub – they just stayed with it. Give them credit – they played a great ballgame and we just had a very bad third quarter that put us in a bind.”

On the play of Spencer Hawes against Yao Ming:

“He and Jason (Thompson) did a good job when they were on him. They were moving and he’s a load. Considering the fact that our guys were able to stand him up, move around, play with him – they’re learning how to stand him up and then release on guys. All these things you learn with experience. These guys are picking up on little keys that are going to really help them along the road. I was really encouraged by their effort. They stood up to the challenge of Yao being an All-Star and they held their own in that respect. We did a good job as I said earlier of coming down and giving them help, but it all started with them being able to just take him one-on-one or until we could get the help down there. So from that standpoint they did what they were supposed to do. Ron Artest had an outstanding game as well.”

 

Spencer Hawes

The third quarter is the same thing that we have battled all year. There’s that little stretch where we let our guard down and they take advantage. I think it’s not executing on our end. And we forced it a couple of times when they put the pressure on us.

On Yao Ming:

He’s a tough player any way you slice it. And even when he’s not scoring, he’s setting people up. So you can’t take anything completely away from him.

On Ron Artest:

He’s out there jawing at everyone. It’s a pretty good time.

On his progress:

I’m pretty happy with it. I’m not thrilled and I know there’s still things out there I’m not doing.

Jason Thompson

On His and Spencer’s play together:

We’re trying to just develop our game and get a lot of chemistry to finish out the season. We pretty much have to finish this out and look forward to next year. But hopefully we can also see bright spots as the season goes along.

About what was going well for you at the beginning:

It’s kind of crazy, like I said before, with the playoff contending teams. I feel like we play up to their competition a little bit. We had a great start and we finished the half strong, we came out a little sluggish in the third quarter. With a team that’s trying to get the third seed in the west you can’t do stuff like that. It kind of bit us at the end of the game.

On Yao Ming:

He has a big presence. He is a guy that’s obviously an All-Star. At 7’ 6”, it’s legit. You can’t let him get in the deep post position because it’s a guaranteed bucket. You have to start early so you don’t get him in the post position.

It’s been a long rookie season, and as a team it hasn’t been the one I’d hoped for. But it’s been a good ride. Hopefully, we can end with a home win and something to look forward to next season.

 

Rockets Head Coach Rick Adelman

On the play of point guards Kyle Lowry and Aaron Brooks:

“They were playing well. With the trade, we thought Aaron was ready to step up and we thought we were getting a good player in Kyle. The only thing they may be lacking is just experience. They just don’t have the experience that everyone else has, but we feel good about how they have been playing.”

On whether he thinks much about the Kings’ struggles:

“No, I don’t think much about it. I just think its going to take some time. They have had to makes changes. They have had to change players and it’s hard to stay at the same level when you do that.”

Rockets Forward Ron Artest

On what propelled them to the win:

“We had a rough first half and I wish we could have played better but it just doesn’t happen like that every time. In the second half, our young ‘fellas stepped it up tonight. They stepped it up for us today. They stepped up huge!”

On what they did to pull away:

“Even though Sacramento’s record is not that good, we did a lot of little things tonight. We got loose balls and we boxed out in the second half. We out-hustled and were quicker in the game. All the things that count.”

On whether he played extra hard against his old team:

“We play extra hard every night. It doesn’t matter who it is. There are a lot of good things to remember about Sacramento.”

On seeing his old teammates:

“It was good to see those guys grow. I am happy for them. I am happy to see Jason (Thompson). When he was first drafted, I called him and told him we were going to win a championship. He was like “yeah, we are going to win”. He is aggressive but has got a lot to learn. He still plays young and needs to grow up a little bit, but he is talented. Spencer is looking good and ‘Cisco is playing great. They are just a few good veterans away. Hopefully they get the number one pick.”

Postgame Quotes: Kings vs. Lakers

Head Coach Kenny Natt

On how the game played out:
“Well, at least I can say our guys came out tonight with more of a focus. We got off to a good start – that was encouraging from the standpoint after the last game that we had. However, they came out and responded in the second quarter. Our defense got a little selfish, stopped passing the basketball there in the second quarter, and then you had a 40-point quarter on us. It really set us back but then, after halftime, we came back and responded again and were able, in the second half, to get the game down to 10 at one point and then I think it was seven straight points where we didn’t answer. That kind of put the game away for us.”

“Well, honestly that’s one of the best teams in the league – they always have a lot to play for. Tonight was a big game; every game is a big game for them when they play. That was indicative of the fact that they had the guys out there as long as they did – they were playing them long stretches, they knew how important the game was and they didn’t want it to really get out of hand. Not that they were that concerned, I mean there was more concern on our end – the fact that we continue to play hard and we did. It put them in a situation where they had to stay out there even longer than they probably would’ve liked. It’s a big game for them and from our standpoint we played hard for the majority of the game, but we had our bad defensive stretches which really put us away and they answered.”

Spencer Hawes

On his left eye:
“It feels alright. There are still times when it is a little blurry. It kind of cuts off sometimes on the lower hemisphere. Usually, it is just when I am getting out of bed or when I am coming out of a dark room. So it’s nothing structurally, like nothing is wrong with the retina or anything. So now I am just waiting for it to heal from the blow. I should heal in another day or two. It was just that the blow was direct to the eyeball and surrounding area.”

On how much he wanted to play tonight:
“I knew yesterday when the specialist said he was good, I thought that was good enough.”

On how he was so effective tonight:
“It was a lot of hard work and being at the right place at the right time and getting good looks and getting set up.”

On the difference in the last three quarters:
“I think they made some adjustments and changed the pace. The turnovers that we had, they converted all of them.”

On the 9-0 run:
“It seemed like it came pretty quick. Once they got going it just seemed like they hit a couple of shots and they sealed it right there.”

“I think early we were making shots, and they are so long that they don’t really have to foul. They just jump straight up and make you jump over them. When we stopped making shots and tried to turn it around we didn’t attack the rim as much as we should have.”

Jason Thompson

On Kings strong start:
“We had a lot of energy in the beginning. We seem to have early starts, but when the good teams come in we just have that surge. When we went to zone we became real relaxed and when we were playing man-to-man from the start everyone was going to their man and had them taking tough shots. A lot of things changed from the first quarter and we tried to keep creeping back. We got to about ten, but it was just a little too late.”

–

Lakers Head Coach Phil Jackson

On getting control of the game:
“As we predicted, they came out and played hard. They had a bunch of three-point shots go down for them and we started playing their pace of the game. We were able to play that pace in the second quarter, and as a consequence, we got a run in the second quarter.”

On their bench play:
“I thought their energy was good. Jordan (Farmar) didn’t have a great line in terms of scoring, but he did some things: push the ball ahead, changed the pace of the game, got the ball to Pau (Gasol) and Josh (Powell) on the run and we got some easy baskets because of it.”

On the play in the second quarter:
“Our defense got us started and we got some turnovers and run outs as a consequence. It changed the momentum of the game. After the first quarter, we talked about giving up too many points and we wanted to settle the game down to where we wanted it.”

Lakers Guard Kobe Bryant

On playing better tonight than against the Clippers:
“Yeah, we played better and closed the game out. The stars didn’t have to get off the bench and go back in. Our second unit did a good job. We didn’t make any adjustments, they were just hot. We gave them some contested threes to start the game and they made them. You know that is not going to continue so you just want to stay in the ball game and not let them stretch it out too far. Then when the shots stop falling, take the momentum back.”

Lakers Center Pau Gasol

On getting Andrew Bynum back into the lineup:
“We are getting a player that is important for us back in the rotation and back out there. He has been out for a while so I don’t know how long it is going to take for him to get back into basketball conditioning.”

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