Postgame Quotes: Kings vs. T-Wolves

KINGS HEAD COACH PAUL WESTPHAL

“Well that was the kind of game we look for every night. We did a great job of taking care of the ball, we ended up doing a great job rebounding, and we moved the ball. (We) got a lot of excellent performances off the bench, especially (Andres) Nocioni and Jason Thompson. It was the way we like Kings basketball to look.”

“I thought that Donte (Greene) really had a rhythm on his shot. He had great balance, took his time, took good shots and really helped to break the game open. I thought that they tried to play a little zone there for awhile and we did a good job of getting wide open shots against that. In general, for the first three quarters for sure, we really moved the ball well and we weren’t even shooting a particularly high percentage but our defense was good enough, our rebounding was good enough, we were holding our turnovers down and it seemed like we were able to get whatever we wanted.”

“Nocioni has had a rough time lately. Sometimes he hasn’t gotten in the game and people are asking me why he didn’t play. He’s been working hard and you just can’t play everybody. He’s been working hard in practice. I think his attitude is fantastic and I have a lot of confidence in him. He’s just a tough player; he’s tough-minded.”

“I think that defense is always effort. Sometimes you can give great effort and they can make shots – (tonight) they were missing shots. We did a good job of limiting them to one shot, coming down and getting good shots on our own. It just was a continuation of how I thought we played in the first half and it just was magnified because they happened to be missing as well.”

On Tyreke Evans:
“His night was sensational. He started off kind of slow, then when we got some stops and got in the open floor he was just unbelievable attacking the rim…I didn’t think he had to do anything that he’s not capable of doing. I think he’s going to have lots and lots of triple-doubles in his career. No, he wasn’t begging to go back in. We really don’t play to pad stats and he doesn’t need it. We play to win the game and he understands that. I think that’s the way it needs to be if you’re going to build a team the way we want to have this team be built.”

“I think Donte really showed how effective he can be when he plays under control and takes what comes to him. He’s a really good shooter when he takes good shots. They were coming his way and he was knocking them down. He seemed to build on the momentum of a little success and really added to it and really put the game away – he was a big part of it.”

Tyreke Evans

“No, I knew Coach was going to take me out. He just left me in longer than what he should have. I was attacking and trying to get the triple-double.”

On if it was deliberate for half, scoring a lot of points, second-half assists
“Yeah, they knew I had a hot hand and I was penetrating. Beno (Udrih) and Francisco (Garcia) were getting their looks and Donte (Greene) was knocking shots down. That is why I got my part on the assists.”

On how nice it was to get a blow-out win
“We came out with not a lot of energy. Coach called a timeout and told us that we needed to pick up the energy. So then we came back aggressive and ‘Cisco came in and talked because he is one of the leaders on this team.”

On how this win will be good for the upcoming Lakers game
This was a big win for us because the Lakers have a good team. They won the championship last year. With Kobe (Bryant) coming here there is going to be a good crowd. We have to bring our ‘A’ game.”

Jason Thompson

“It was a great team effort. We had some energy off the bench and we got it rolling. Both teams started out a little bit sluggish. Overall though, we were limiting their shots and we were getting the rebounds. That is when we were at our best was when we rebounded and ran. We were able to get some easy points which were easier on our offense.”

On the ball movement
“I think we are a good team when we are not turning over the ball. Our assist to turnover ratio was better. Last game we turned the ball over early and it obviously didn’t work out for us. We just took care of it (tonight) and we let the game flow.”

On coming out and having a great third quarter
“Coach said that we had a very solid first half, but we can obviously play better. I think that we showed that in the third. I think it kind of looked like the third quarter we had against Toronto. It was good that we started off the second half on a good note.”

Donte Greene

“Everything was in rhythm and nothing was really forced. I am just trying to stay consistent. We tried to pick it up a little more down the stretch. I was just out there having fun. That is what I do and that is what I try to do, on and off the court. Life is too short to be too serious. I was having a lot of fun tonight.”

On the upcoming Lakers game
“We have a big game on Tuesday. We look at it as trying to keep running our stuff, stay focused and prepare for the Lakers.”

On the team right now
We are all coming together. Now we have a set core and nucleus for this team. We are just learning each other’s strengths and weaknesses and trying to get better everyday.”

Minnesota Timberwolves Head Coach Kurt Rambis

On the continuous Kings’ fastbreak
“It wasn’t as much as we have given up in the past. Obviously, it is an area of major concern defense-wise. Everyone not adhering to their responsibilities and what is supposed to happen when a shot goes up. So they are not getting organized in that fashion. Turnovers hurt. Obviously, bad shots hurt. It is an area of our defense, particularly recently, that has been a nemesis of ours and has been causing problems.

On adjusting to the late scratch
“With Darko (Milicic) being a last minute scratch like that certainly hurts. Players mentally prepare and Ryan Hollins was expecting to not start and then had to gear up mentally to start. That is just an excuse. We still have to come out and play hard. I don’t think we played hard except for a few people out there. I like what Damien Wilkens did out there. I like what Ramon (Sessions) did out there. Ryan Gomes did out there. I like what Wayne Ellington did out there. I thought those guys played hard, continued to fight and tried to do the right things out there.”

On Darko’s late scratch
“He was just feeling ill. Dizziness and upset stomach. I’m not sure what his fever situation is but he just started feeling really bad.”

On defending Tyreke Evans
“I thought Wayne did a good job. He was the one individual in particular that, conceptually, understood how we wanted to defend him. So he got a handle on it and what we wanted to do with our defensive game plan more than anyone else.”

On keeping the players motivated
“We work hard in practice; we work on the individual skills to try to get them better. Keep them focused on learning more about the NBA. But really, most of that comes from within. There is no rule or law that says you have a right to anything in this league. No one is going to hand you wins or opportunities. No one is going to roll over if you give 50 percent effort.”

Minnesota Timberwolves Guard Wayne Ellington

On Guarding Tyreke Evans
“He is so tough to play. He can handle the ball and play with his back to the basket. He can get in the lane and I just try to contest his jumper and stay in front of him. That is the best you can do really. I’ve know Tyreke since he was a freshman back in high school. So I know his game a little bit. He is quick. He is a big, strong, athletic guy. It is tough to stay in front of him.”

Sacramento Shines With Evans

On his night, Tyreke Evans put on a show, notching his first career triple-double and the first for the franchise by a rookie in the Sacramento era.

What made the Rally for RekeROY Night especially encouraging for Kings fans, however, was seeing the first-year leader guide the Kings to a well-rounded, decisive 113-90 team victory. Read more

Postgame Quotes: Kings vs. Raptors

KINGS HEAD COACH PAUL WESTPHAL

“Obviously we really enjoyed the night. I think it was a treat for the fans to come out and honor Tyreke (Evans) that way and for him to have his first career triple-double – there’s going to be a lot of them. Our defense really did it. I thought the fact that in the first half we were only down five, turning the ball over, and really playing as poorly as we did, I thought that really said a lot for our defense. Then, in the second half, it all came together for us. That’s the vision of how we want our team to play – getting stops, limiting them to one shot, no turnovers and attacking with a lot of different players. So, that was very much validation for our players, (with) a tough back-to-back, to be able to put together a game like that. It was really exciting to see Tyreke have such a fitting night when there were people that came out for him.”

On Chris Bosh
“Between Carl (Landry) and Jason Thompson primarily, and help from different places at different times, he had a rough night. Now, we know a player as good as Chris Bosh a lot of times, it’s just because he missed, but we made him work and he did miss. We did a good job of limiting them to one shot and it was primarily Carl and JT.”

“Well (Omri Casspi) played like he has shown he can play, with a kind of energy and passion. I just give him a lot of credit for coming out and proving that he’s not too tired to compete. I thought Donte (Greene) did a really nice job at that position too so between those two players they both struggled a little bit last night in Portland and they came out of it in a big way and they both helped us quite a bit.”

“I think awards have their place and there are a lot of really good rookies this year. I wouldn’t want to downplay any of the things that they’ve done – there have been some phenomenal performances by some really talented young players. But when you just look at it objectively from day one, all the way through now, (Tyreke) has consistently been up there averaging over 20 (points), five boards and five assists and really taking steps to change the culture of this team. I just think that his consistency, as well as the obvious talent that he has, just really makes it an open and closed vote. I really don’t see how anybody else could get a vote if people look at the totality of the season. Now, there are some great players and they might end up having more successful careers than Tyreke – how can anybody predict that – but for this year, it’s just not even close. For what he’s done game after game all the way through, he’s one of the most consistent rookies I’ve ever seen.”

Tyreke Evans

“Coach told me that he wanted me to get it (a triple-double). He kept telling me to find people and he said I had a limited amount of time too, so I was trying to get it as fast as I could.”

On Defense
“It was a good job by Carl (Landry) and Jason (Thompson). They played (Chris) Bosh really well. I think we got the win because they got the stops tonight and we were able to get our fastbreak points.”

On RekeROY night
“It was exciting and it reminded me of college at Memphis. It was a college atmosphere out there and I had a lot of fun. The crowd was into it and we played really well in the second half. Beno (Udrih) started out good, than Donte (Greene) and Jason (Thompson) and Carl (Landry) were all hitting shots. That was when we were at our best, when everyone was playing well.”

On having a great second half
“They did a good job on (Chris) Bosh, they took some tough shots and got fastbreak points, I was able to get Carl a couple of baskets and Beno hit a couple three’s. From there we kept it going and were on a roll.”

Carl Landry

“Coach told us that this is one that we needed to have. We went out there and the first five minutes of the game we just stayed aggressive and attacked. We pretty much sucked the air out of them.”

“It was really fun. Having a chance to see Omri (Casspi) get on the board after he had a tough first half of the game. In the third quarter to see him score, that was fun. We are all like brothers in here. We are with each other eight months of the year. It was a good feeling out there tonight.”

On their confidence tonight
“That is all a young team needs is confidence. We are all playing here, and with confidence I think this team is going to get to the next level.”

On Tyreke
“He is a phenomenal player. He had a great game today. I think it was his first triple-double. That is something that a lot of people in this league won’t accomplish and he accomplished that as a rookie. That is a great accomplishment.”

Beno Udrih

On coming out with energy in the second half
“We were down five points (coming into the third quarter) and we said that we were going to bring the energy and we did. We moved the ball, we played good defense and whenever you do that, even a playoff team can’t do anything about it. We just kept the momentum going into the fourth quarter and just played good.”

On playing good defense
“I think that my mentality about basketball is defense wins. So today we did that and we played good defense on Bosh and the Raptors. We definitely came out and played defense and that is why we won.”

Toronto Raptors Head Coach Jay Triano

Tonight’s game…
“I think we got really selfish. We had guys coming down and taking shots and other guys are not happy that they don’t touch the ball. We miss the shot and they get the rebound and then fastbreak points. It’s a 10-0 run before you know it. We caved after that. We tried to call timeout and tried to bring them back together but again it’s the same thing. This is a team that if you give a little confidence to, they didn’t have it the first half and they did the second. It just streamrolled from there.”

Back-to-back games…
“Honestly I didn’t see a lot wrong with our energy. Sacramento played last night too. The biggest difference tonight was two words - selfishness and confidence. We got selfish and they got confidence.”

Tyreke Evans…
“In the third quarter I thought we started to come back tonight then he just picked us apart. We can’t stop him with one guy. Their confidence was rolling so he kicks it out and they start making threes. He’s tough to guard.”

Jose Calderon, Toronto Raptors Guard

Selfishness effecting tonight’s game…
“It’s team defense. Sometimes it’s good when you don’t want your man to score but you should be able to help your teammates too. Hopefully we’ll have a day off, practice Friday and be ready for the next game.”

Chris Bosh, Toronto Raptors Forward

Tonight’s game…
“Tonight was a tale of two halves. I think we let our offense dictate too much defensively. You are going to have nights when you struggle offensively but you can’t let that dictate your mood.”

Postgame Recap: Kings @ Blazers

PORTLAND 88, SACRAMENTO 81

March 9, 2010 - At the Rose Garden, Brandon Roy led all scorers with 19 points as the Blazers held off the Kings, 88-81. Sacramento trailed by 11, 73-62, entering the fourth quarter but Francisco Garcia’s three-pointer jump-started a 12-1 run. Jason Thompson’s lay-up capped off the run and tied score, 74-74, with 8:11 remaining. Marcus Camby scored four of Portland’s next five points for a 79-74 advantage with 5:03 left. The Kings cut into the Blazers’ lead and trailed, 81-78, with 3:35 left, but the Trail Blazers scored seven straight points to seal the win. Portland limited the Kings to just one made field goal in the final four and a half minutes. Tyreke Evans led the Kings with 18 points and Carl Landry added 17 points. Spencer Hawes grabbed a game-high nine rebounds. Beno Udrih contributed 13 points. For Portland, Andre Miller and Nicolas Batum each scored 14 points. Camby, Roy, and Juwan Howard each grabbed a team-high-tying eight rebounds. The Blazers outscored the Kings, 27-13, in the second quarter and had their biggest lead of 12 in that quarter.

Casspi Learning, Fighting Through First Season

Kings rookie Omri Casspi plays with a spirit and passion for the game teammates and fans worldwide respect and celebrate. Lately, however, the first-year forward’s relentless dedication to his craft has caught up to him.

Read more

Postgame Recap: Kings vs. Thunder

OKLAHOMA CITY 108, SACRAMENTO 102

March 7, 2010 - At ARCO Arena, Kevin Durant scored 27 points and Russell Westbrook tallied 13 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Thunder to a 108-102 win over the Kings. The Thunder led, 96-88, with 5:48 left in the fourth quarter before the Kings went on an 8-2 run to trim the Thunder’s lead down to two, 98-96, with 3:53 remaining. After a Durant jumper and a Nick Collison fastbreak lay-up, the Thunder extended the lead to six with 2:59 left. Francisco Garcia buried a three-pointer with 39.5 seconds left to pull the Kings within four, 106-102, but the Thunder answered with a Nenad Krstic dunk to all but end the hopes of a Kings comeback. Oklahoma City outrebounded the Kings, 45-33, and recycled 16 offensive rebounds for 23 second-chance points. Tyreke Evans scored a team-high 24 points, reaching the 20-point plateau for the sixth time in the last seven games. Carl Landry added 20 points and a team-high-tying eight rebounds. Jason Thompson made his return to the Kings’ lineup after missing the previous five games due to two non-displaced transverse processes fractures in his lower back and finished with 11 points and a team-high-tying eight rebounds in 30 minutes off the bench. Krstic grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. The Kings outshot the Thunder from the field, .506 to .477, but missed nine free throw attempts.

Postgame Quotes: Kings vs. Thunder

KINGS HEAD COACH PAUL WESTPHAL

“I hate to sound like a broken record but we did so many good things out there against a really good team. They’re one of the best defensive teams in the league. We shot 50.6 percent (from the field), had only 13 turnovers, addressed those problems and really defended them pretty well but we couldn’t keep them off the glass. They missed three free throws; we missed nine free throws. They beat us on the boards (45-33) and it negates so many of the good things that we did. I keep feeling this inching closer and closer to breaking through against these good teams and we’re dong so many good things but we’re not doing enough to get the win. So we’re going to take the positives and try to improve the negatives and keep heading upward. They’re where we want to be and we want to get there sooner rather than later. As long as we keep striving to improve, I think we have a really good nucleus here and we keep bouncing back.”

“That’s the goal – I mean, the goal is to keep getting better and to be a team that’s solidly in the playoffs, and then win playoff games and then win playoff series – that’s where we want to go. Everything we do is geared toward that. It’s a high mountain to climb; we’ve come quite a ways and we’re not stopping.”

“I think that we executed against one of the best defensive teams in the league. We only turned it over 13 times, we got to the line a reasonable amount of times, we shot 50 percent against them, we played well enough offensively to win this game. Defensively, we played well enough except for we didn’t control the defensive glass and that’s how they beat us at their place and that’s how they beat us again tonight. So it certainly is an area that we need to improve if we want to be at their level.”

“Francisco (Garcia) is really showing how important he can be for our team. He’s an extra ball handler, he stretches the floor with three-point shooting and he’s a clutch shooter. Defensively he can guard three positions in a pretty credible manner so it was really nice to have his contributions out there.”

“It’s nice to have Jason (Thompson) back – a lower back injury kept him out what, 10 days? That’s pretty amazing. He brings a lot of energy and got some rebounds for us. He’s certainly an integral part of what’s going on for us.”

“It gets like that some nights when teams are competing. The game means a lot for Oklahoma City in terms of their playoff seeding and even making sure they make the playoffs and it means a lot to us in terms of our progression. So you’re going to have that when teams are fighting hard.”

When asked how he will work on fatigue with the team:
“Give them some rest – I think that’s the first thing. I think that it’s been pretty evident not only in the games but in our practices that Omri (Casspi) is really winding down his battery, so we’re trying to help him recharge it a little bit, just give him some rest. We’re very, very high on Omri and I think that he’s a big part of our future. I do think that it’s going to be important for him in this offseason to pick up probably 10 pounds and maybe a little bit more and really work on his stamina. He’s never been through anything like this before and I think you can see it, that he doesn’t quite have the motor that he had earlier.”

Carl Landry

“There are no excuses. I am not making any excuses. We have got to go and get the ball. I gave up a couple of rebounds tonight as well as a couple of my teammates. We have got to do a better job of rebounding the ball. It is that simple.”

On the trash talking tonight
“There was a lot of trash talking going on, but it is just part of the game. Wherever you go, whether the Y or the playground it is just a part of basketball. I think that the referees didn’t want it to get out of hand and that is why they made some of the calls, but it is just a part of the game. I don’t think it really affected us or the other team.”

On rebounding
“We didn’t win. We just have to do a better job of rebounding the ball. They outrebounded us and I think if we had gotten a couple more boards then the outcome of the game could have been different. We just have to do a better job on that end.”

There were a lot of technicals were called today. So a lot of money is going to go back to the NBA. It was a tough game today, it was close. We have been playing a lot of close games since I have gotten here. We just have to keep grinding it out. We need to correct a couple correctable errors and mistakes we have been doing.”

Jason Thompson

“It is always frustrating when you lose in close games, especially when you know you have a chance to win. A few things didn’t go our way. We weren’t getting rebounds and we missed a few free throws. You know it’s kind of tough because this is a team we beat earlier in the season and had a close one there last week. They are a playoff team. We know that we can play with good teams, especially in our conference, but we fell a little short tonight.”

On recovering from injury
“I felt good out there. The doctor said up to two weeks. You never know though, I have never been injured so for me the recovery may have been fast. I feel good and it was good to get out there and get my feet wet and play with my teammates. For the most part it just felt pretty good. I felt confident and coach kept me out there.”

Tyreke Evans

On what went wrong
“We played them good. They really killed us in the rebounding. They got us on the glass and were able to get the second opportunities. That is what hurt us.”

On having a lot of minutes in second half
“I got a little bit tired. Francisco (Garcia) walked me to the foul line and I was a little bit tired and I got fouled. That is just something I am going to have to get better at next year and condition better.”

Oklahoma City Thunder Head Coach Scott Brooks

On how they won the game
“The bench came in and did a very good job. You just never know when a guy is going to go out, like Russell (Westbrook) had to have stitches. Eric (Maynor) came in and gave us very solid minutes. And Serge (Ibaka), Nick (Collison) and James (Harden) gave us solid minutes throughout the game. I thought the bench did a really good job of coming in and helping us win the game tonight. Sacramento is not an easy team to guard. They have so many offensive weapons and they put a lot of pressure on your defense.”

On Russell Westbrook returning after receiving stitches
“He’s tough. He is a tough competitor and competes every night. That wouldn’t surprise me. I knew he was coming back in. I was just surprised that it took so long. He showed toughness. Our team showed toughness to come in and win here. They have got some talented players and they are going to get better and they are young. That is a tough team to play against.”

On the solid rebounding
“I thought we were real good and active on the boards. We didn’t give up a lot of offensive rebounds which they can do. Jason (Thompson) came back tonight, and Carl (Landry) is an offensive rebounder. We did a good job of rebounding the ball.”

On his feelings going 2-1 on their road trip
“We weren’t happy the way things turned out in Denver. They are one of the best teams in basketball and we wanted to make it a very competitive game, which it wasn’t, but we played excellent two-way basketball. Tonight, we came back and really took care of business on their home court and the last game on our road trip.”

Oklahoma City Guard Russell Westbrook

On playing after his injury
“I’m good. Just got six stitches. Nothing big. I am fine. I was able to see normally, but not too much on the right side.”

On the emotion that ran high during the game
“That is good emotion. That is NBA basketball. We got a few technicals but we were able to fight through it.”

On Coach Scott Brooks
“He stays consistent with what he is preaching. He preaches defense and he is pretty consistent to that. He has done a great job of that all year this year and last.”

Oklahoma City Forward Kevin Durant

On dominating the boards
“We did a great job on the offensive glass, especially with Jason Thompson back. Carl Landry and Spencer Hawes are good as well. We got a long ways to go on that, but we are getting better and better every game.”

On if anyone has been able to stay in front of Russell Westbrook
“No. He is so quick and athletic and so strong. It’s tough. He can dribble a basketball pretty well and has a lot of dribble moves. He takes what the defense gives him. Sometimes he should take the pull-up, which is one of the best parts of his game, but he wants to take it to the basket. You can’t blame him for that.”

JT Returns and Landry’s Impressed

For the first time since February 23, Jason Thompson practiced on Saturday and could play in Sunday’s final regular season matchup between the Kings and Oklahoma City Thunder.

Read more

JT’s Blog: Off-Court Fun and Overcoming Injury

I have to start out this blog with a shout out to Sac High. They hosted a little JT pep rally, and I had a lot of fun out there. Read more

Westphal Discusses Kings Foundation and Future

Kings head coach Paul Westphal has a very clear vision of how to build a strong foundation for the team, and that includes future playoff success in Sacramento.

Read more

Next Page »