Carril Analyzes Kings Season and What’s Ahead

Before taking off for his offseason home in Princeton, N.J., Kings assistant and Hall-of-Fame coach Pete Carril sat down with Kings.com to share his thoughts on Sacramento’s 2009-10 season, the team’s rookie trio and the importance of offseason workouts. Plus, Coachie relays a story about Coach Paul Westphal that left a positive impression on him and he discusses the areas in which he will assist Jason Thompson this summer.

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Petrie Sees Positives to Build On

Kings President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie joined Sports 1140 KHTK’s Grant Napear and Mike Lamb on Sportsline Tuesday night.

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Postgame Quotes: Kings vs. Rockets

KINGS HEAD COACH PAUL WESTPHAL

“Well, even though we have one more game left, I think that it’s an appropriate time being that this is the last home game to talk a little about our team and where we’ve been and where we’re going. So I’m going to focus on that a little bit more than the game, at least initially, and then any questions you guys have I will be glad to answer them. I just think that to have a great turnout for this team on Fan Appreciation Night, we appreciate that, we appreciate our fans. We know how much they’ve been watching this team this year and how much hope that this city has for the development of this team, and I believe that we’ve taken a lot of great steps this year toward becoming the team that this city will continue to embrace. I think that when you take a team that won 17 games, had the worst record in the league, was the worst rebounding team and the worst defensive team and start with the youngest team, least experienced team in the league – it’s not realistic to expect playoffs. You can hope for playoffs, and that’s what we hoped for every game, we tried to win every game this year. But what we did expect was intensity, competitiveness and improvement. I don’t think by any measure that this team would be judged to have failed in any of those. I’m very pleased to be coaching this group of young men. When we talk about where we’re going to be going forward, there’s not a player on this roster that I’m down on and would say couldn’t be a part of our team as it becomes a successful playoff NBA team in the future. Obviously, it won’t happen where everybody’s still here – the deck gets shuffled and you try to add to your team every year and you make deals. These players gave what they had this year with one more game to go – I’m sure they’ll continue to give it less tomorrow night. The first step in us becoming a winning team is that we have to be a competing team. I think this team competed extremely hard this year every game. Some games the results weren’t as pretty but this team did compete. We have competitors; we will continue to keep adding competitors to this team. As the skill level raises, as young players improve, the win total will go up and as we add to this team the win total will go up and we took a great first step toward that. The goal is winning and we won’t be happy until we’ve achieved that and continue to achieve that over many years. So anyway, getting to this game tonight, this game was – I’ll have to admit, it was a little bit of a distraction I think for our players. There wasn’t much defense being played out there tonight, there’s no doubt about that. In fact, I do think that the accomplishment of Tyreke (Evans), even though it was a distraction to this individual, can’t be diminished when you look at the totality of this season. To be mentioned statistically in the same breath as Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson and LeBron James is a phenomenal thing. Every player in our locker room is happy for Tyreke and proud of him because he’s such a great teammate and selfless player. That is the trademark we want for this team as we go forward. So we’re pleased he got the record, we’re sorry it came in a loss. I understand the distraction of the hoopla – it looked like Tyreke forgot to make layups tonight when he was on the cusp. He’s the best layup maker in the NBA and he was struggling – I think he was probably nervous even though I doubt if he would ever admit it. The reception of the fans was great. I thought it was pretty special for Kevin Martin too to come back in probably a non-characteristic NBA coaches way, I was actually happy for Kevin even though he’s on the other team. We enjoyed having him on the team and to see him have that kind of success when he comes home, every player dreams of that, so we’re happy for Kevin too. It was a nice night for basketball, we wish we would have won and we will continue everything we can to improve this team as we move forward.”

Tyreke Evans

“It was hard, that was the hardest bucket I have ever had to score in my life. Coming into the game I knew everyone wanted me to break the record at home in front of my family and my friends. It was kind of tough. Trying to get that last bucket, it seems like nothing would fall for me. I told coach to take me out then put me back in. Then I got fouled, the foul shots made me nervous, but then it went in. I thought I was going to air ball the first one. I shot it hard and then it went in, then the second one went in. It was a good season for me overall. We didn’t get the win at home, but we played hard. I just went out and tried, but it was so hard to get that bucket.”

On what it means to the city of Sacramento
“It means alot, they came out and showed support. They had all their signs up and were watching me make history. They have been good all year, whether we were losing or we were winning. Those are true fans right there.”

On what to expect going into tomorrow
“The next game in L.A. you can expect us to just go out there and play. This is off my back now. I am going to play the game I have been playing all year out there and hopefully we will get a win.”

Donte Greene

On Tyreke tonight getting 20-5-5
“There were a lot of distractions tonight. I am just happy for Tyreke. At the end of the day I just wish we could have gotten the win, but congrats to Tyreke.”

On tomorrow and looking toward next season
“Tomorrow we just need to finish strong, work hard and we need to try to get ready for next year. I would like to get that starting job (next year) and go from there.”

On Coach Westphal’s extension
“It is definitely nice. For me having three coaches in my two NBA years it was a little difficult. Now we have someone who is stable and a good guy. We are going to go far.”

Omri Casspi

On the pressure on Tyreke tonight
“I just tried to tell him, you just got to score two points, it’s only two points. You just can’t force it. I think it was too much pressure because it is an unbelievable thing and he was under pressure. It was nice though.”

On the fan support and going into next season
“It is a good feeling. We have a lot of support. We need to focus going into the off-season on our game and get better for next year.”

Houston Rockets Head Coach Rick Adelman

Turnaround
“I think the whole game changed in the second half. We were so poor defensively in the first half. They pretty much did what they wanted. They just got the ball and went to the basket. We talked about it at halftime that we needed to be the aggressors and not react to everything that they did. We had to set the tone. We were much more aggressive in the second half and getting back and controlling it. Kevin (Martin) kept us in it the first half. We had 62 points and were still down. It was really our attitude the second half that turned the game. We got so much more aggressive defensively.”

First half
“It’s been our problem all year long. Sacramento was very aggressive in the start of the game. Wherever they had mismatches they went at it and took advantage of it. You are going to have mismatches, but as a team, five guys have to play together. I told them at halftime you have to respect your teammates. You have to help each other and take more responsibility of yourself. We’re young like Sacramento and we make mistakes but if you make them make them with aggression and not be passive.”

Playing against Tyreke Evans
“The first half he was coming down the court and he had the guy back pedal and would take it to the rim. Our guys acted like he couldn’t finish there. The adjustment we made was we were not going to allow him to get to the basket. We were going to be in his face all the time and if they start making three’s so be it. We just decided that we were tired of layups and tired of easy baskets. They could make shots over the top of us. It was our game plan from the start but the effort was there in the second half.”

Game distractions tonight
“We have to go out and play how we’ve played all year long. I didn’t even know what was going on until they put the 20-5-5 up there. I’m more than happy to let him have that and we’ll take the win and go home.”

Kevin Martin, Houston Rockets Guard

Returning to Sacramento
“There was a lot of emotion running through my body tonight. I saw a lot of people wearing my jersey out there tonight. It was like I was still playing a home game. That made me feel good and proud of what I did here. I just wanted to respect the game and respect the fans that came out and supported myself and my team.”

Tyreke Evans’ 20-5-5
“It was a tremendous accomplishment for him. He’s going to be a great player.”

Tonight’s game
“They know my game very well. I’m a scorer. The best defense against me is to come right at me. I just had a little extra effort tonight because I wanted to get back at them too. It was just going back and forth. It seems like the last man standing won.”

Video tribute and fan reaction
“I didn’t notice it but they did give it to me. I’ll watch it tonight. I appreciated it very much. The community and I had a great relationship while I was here and I will never forget those times. I’m happy Sacramento was my first opportunity in the NBA and they showed me a lot of loyalty. Thanks to Geoff Petrie, he put me in a great situation. Everything was positive.”

Timeout with Kings 100 Ambassadors

Before Tyreke Evans and the Kings go head-to-head with Kevin Martin and the Houston Rockets in Sacramento’s ARCO Arena season finale, Kings.com took a timeout with six of the Kings 100 ambassadors who’ve made an impact helping the team sell out its last home game of 2009-10. 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

Petrie Discusses Kings Trade Deadline Moves

Sacramento Kings President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie
Feb. 18, 2010

Opening Statement:

“We acquired four players today – Carl Landry, Joey Dorsey, Dominic McGuire and Larry Hughes and part of that trade involved Kevin Martin, Sergio and Hilton. I think a couple of things we accomplished today are number one, I think we really augmented and filled some holes in our frontline with the acquisition of Landry. He’s a very productive scorer. He’s comfortable playing inside and out, out away from the basket, probably one of the leading candidates for Sixth Man of the Year, currently in the League, even though Jamal Crawford is having a great, great year in Atlanta, as well. We’re really looking forward to watching him come in and add to what Spencer and Jason are able to do. The second thing is we continued to lower our salary cap for this summer by a very significant amount, or at least potentially lower it, and going forward into the future as well. With Joey Dorsey, he hasn’t had a lot of chance to play yet, but he is a legitimate defender, rebounder and shot blocker, and definitely has a physical presence who hasn’t played a lot yet, but (this is) a good opportunity to get a look at him as well.

Dominic McGuire is a good defender and can defend a couple positions and had some interesting moments at Washington (Wizards). So we’ll hopefully get all the different forms filed and notifications done, and the trade will get completely consummated here in the next couple of days.”

On if he was originally looking to trade Kevin:

“I really had a real bias, probably, or preference not to trade him, overall, but when this opportunity started to present itself, it just seemed like it was, as things went along, with the things that we were able to accomplish in a couple different areas, it made some sense for us.”

On if there was a desire to have Tracy McGrady play in Sacramento:

“The way these things tend to work, is they start out, and each team has some different motivations as to what they’re trying to accomplish, and who the key pieces are, and this would not have been a final destination probably for Tracy McGrady. So it then becomes players, numbers, how it can work with the salary cap, and then where the various talents that the teams really want end up residing.”

On if the New York Knicks were always a part of the trade:

“The (Houston) Rockets had been having some ongoing negotiations with the Knicks as far as I know and we’re not in control of that and obviously I don’t get all the detail on it, but we got pretty close by late last night with the Rockets, in terms of a deal that would work for us. So we felt, coming into the morning anyway, that we were in pretty good shape, regardless of what happened between the Knicks and Houston.”

On what factors the notion of Kevin Martin playing with Tyreke Evans played in the trade:

“Not too much really. I just think that we have a lot of wing players on our team. I think that we can fill a lot of the void there. It was more of the opportunity to get a player as productive and consistent as Landry, where we really need to fill some holes up front. Again, the potential salary cap enhancement for us was a big factor as well. The team’s played better this year, we’re going to win more games than last year, but we still need to continue to try and add to what we have, obviously, and that’s now going to come in the form of the Draft again, and on into free agency, where we will have a significant amount of real room but so will a lot of other teams.”

On how much the last month with Kevin in the lineup was a factor in the trade:

“It didn’t come into play at all, unless something came up that you thought made sense. In the last 36 hours, something came along that made sense, regardless of the last month. We could’ve gone into the rest of the season, and into the summer and not done a whole lot, maybe other than some cosmetic things here, but this was an opportunity to add a really high quality frontcourt player and create some more flexibility in other areas and when you put that all together, we thought it was worth it.”

On the expectations surrounding the backcourt pairing of Kevin and Tyreke:

“In all fairness to Kevin, I think it’s really hard to live up to those kind of expectations when you’ve been out that long, and I really did think the last three out of the last four games or so he was starting to look more like his normal self, but again, this is something we feel we wanted to do.”

On if today’s moves makes the Kings a major player in the upcoming free agency period:

“Look, there are probably eight teams now that are going to have an excess of $20 million of real room, and some more than that. We’ll be out there, and we’ll see what happens.”

On if the trade was decided upon in the past 24-36 hours:

“I think it would be very unwise to make decisions on 24-36 hours. You’re making decisions based on the history of performance, what you’re trying to do with your team, what one player can do versus another, what it means for your salary cap, what it means for how you want to see the team play going forward. It’s working with your head coach to try and build a roster that he feels would be better and has a chance to get better. It’s all those things, it’s not something that happens in 24 hours.”

On waiving Kenny Thomas:

“Well we wanted to make this trade with Washington in order to acquire Dominic. We had to create a roster spot. And really, the only way at the 11th hour to do that, was to waive Kenny.”

Geoff’s message to fans whose favorite player was Kevin Martin and to assure them this move is good for the Kings:

“Some of these players will become their favorite player.”

On what Kings fans can take away from the trade:

“I think that we made a good move for the team. We added a very high quality frontcourt player, we have more financial flexibility going forward, and we’re looking forward to seeing how it looks through these last 28 games.”

On the potential of including Knicks forward David Lee in the trade:

“To my knowledge, David Lee has never been available.”

On if he’s spoken with Kevin today:

“I called Kevin a minute after the trade call was done and I didn’t get him, I did leave him a message. He did send a very nice email to the organization about his time here, and I also texted him after I left a message and really thanked him, said I hope we have a chance to visit here at some point and that he’s been a real pro, and that I always wish him the best.”

On if Carl will become a starter:

“I really think you need to ask Paul that. I think, you know, he’s averaging over 16 points per game, playing 27 minutes a game for a good team. I’m sure he’s going to play a lot of minutes. What form that takes, Paul will work that out.”

On if the newly acquired Kings players will play in Saturday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers:

“I don’t know. You’ve got nine players involved here with three teams, and there’s a lot of forms and a lot of certifications that need to get done and then to the League office, and even if we get ours done, they all have to be done and you need to get an email from the League saying that the trade’s completed before they can practice or play. We will have ours done before the game on Saturday, now you’ve got deadlines on Sunday and Monday for other things, so I don’t know. I hope so, I hope so.”

On if he’s spoken with the newly acquired Kings players yet:

“I have not, not yet, no. We have waived a physical on some of the players, and Carl will take a physical.

On when Carl’s physical will be completed:

“Hopefully we’ll get it done tomorrow.”

On what could have happened had Kevin not gotten injured this season:

“I don’t know. I think of Kevin Martin as somebody we drafted, who developed into a terrific player, can be a prolific scorer at times and how things work out sometimes, there’s a lot of circumstance in life, and I’m sure Kevin’s going to go on and do just fine. He’s always been a real professional as far as I’m concerned and I wish him well.”

On if the upcoming expiration of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement is a factor in every move Geoff is making right now:

“It’s hard to say. I’m really not at liberty to talk a whole lot about collective bargaining, but we’re like a lot of teams, we’re trying to plan our future and have flexibility, because we need to continue, obviously, to improve the team and add more pieces and we’re keeping an eye on everything. It might affect how we can do that.”

On whether additional cuts will be made:

“I don’t think so. Not in the immediate (future).”

On what Carl Landry brings to the Kings:

“He can play on the block, off the block, at the elbow. You can throw him the ball and he’s a 57% shooter, an 80%-plus free throw shooter, and he’s a physically aggressive player. Like I said, he’s definitely going to augment our frontcourt.”

On changing the image of the Kings:

“Again, I think we wanted to change the perception of the way our team played and I think we’ve done that, although it didn’t happen last night, but you saw it against Boston I think, and in a lot of other games. Again, it’s working with Paul to build a roster that we both feel will be different and be more successful. Certainly Landry is a more physical presence, and Dorsey, I don’t know how much he would play or what he will do, but he’s certainly that as well, so, let’s all find out together I guess.”

On if he received similar opportunities to add the same factors that Carl brings to the Kings and obtain financial flexibility in exchange for Kevin:

“Not that I’m aware of.”

On his thoughts of other teams’ actions during the trading deadline:

“Again, the trading deadline has become more and more a function of different motivations for teams trying to accomplish different things. They have been one of the busier ones, but that’s for each individual team to decide when you get right down to it.”

On the Kings core:

“I think we’ve improved it. He’s (Landry) 27 years old, but we’ll have to wait now and see what shows up on the floor and how we utilize it and see how everybody works together.”

On Larry Hughes:

“The situation with Larry is actually he has a fracture on his left hand and he’s being treated and he’s in a splint currently back on the East Coast. We’ve agreed that he can stay back there and continue to work with those people. So, it’s not anticipated that he’s going to be here with the team while he’s undergoing his rehab and treatment back there. We did wait to put a reporting on the physical on him.”

On if he expects to see Larry this season:

“Don’t know.”

Postgame Quotes: Kings @ Warriors

Paul Westphal:

“I have a dentist appointment tomorrow, and if I go in without any anesthetics, it will probably feel better than I feel right now. They beat us 42-16 in the second quarter. The first quarter is what I expected for the game, but the second quarter killed us. We were embarrassed. The Warriors played great. They were fantastic. Everything they did tonight was great. When you fall apart like we did, it is hard to get back into the game. I just wanted them to compete evenly for the rest of the game and not quit. I wanted them to salvage anything that they could.”

Spencer Hawes-

“To play like we played against the caliber of the Boston Celtics the last game and to play the way we played tonight; there is no excuse. We started out ok in the beginning of the second quarter. With a team like the Warriors, you can’t try to beat them at what they do. When they get you in that trap, it’s hard to get out of it. We tried to play them to their style, and when they would hit a three, we tried to do the same. That’s something that you cannot do with a team like this. We would shoot after one pass and sometimes bad shots lead to fastbreaks. Last year, it seemed like we had games like this all the time, but this may have been the worst we played this year.”

Kevin Martin-

“It’s not a good feeling to have after a loss like this. We let them jump on us in the second quarter and we weren’t able to get back into the game.”

(On trade rumors)
“Sources say a lot during the deadline. I didn’t play in the second half, but I can’t speculate. We have a great coaching staff and Paul (Westphal) is a great coach, so we will see what happens. All I want to do is be a better basketball player tomorrow.”

Coach Don Nelson:

“Well, how about that. That was about a lot of fun for those guys [to] take shots. Seeing C.J. [Watson] get a career high to the 40 point mark that was all on the front. The game was just one where we shared the ball, just played in the open court, and did it with a small lineup. I am very pleased with [our] performance.”

(on G Stephen Curry having a good bounce back game after last night’s game versus Los Angeles Lakers)
“He played great. The Lakers beat us, but we played great. I thought that [Curry] would but yes, it’s always good to bounce back after a bad performance.’

(on G C.J. Watson getting open during the game)
“He just had that rhythm. That happens sometimes when you just start making shots and the basket looks really big. We saw him do that before in Utah. We went up and beat Utah last year, and I think that he had [38] in that game. He can get on a roll and the guys found him when he was open that helped. We ran him into a lot of screen-and-rolls as well and that was his open shot tonight which was a 17-18 foot jumper and he made them.”

(on the teams open looks on three pointers during the game)
“We got open looks because we pushed the tempo, all of the loose balls, and all of the long rebounds in the first three quarters. We got some lucky bounces in there too. I told the team at halftime ‘Don’t get too full of yourselves.’ First of all, know that they were down to Chicago by thirty at halftime and won the game in Chicago. They are very capable of making shots and we didn’t want to change the tempo. We wanted to keep going and not become conservative. I became conservative in the fourth quarter just because we wanted to do clock management, but we always wanted to run. We always wanted to take open shots on the break. But when it’s not there, we tired to run the clock a little bit and did a good job. We won every quarter, I think. I told the team that I wanted to win the last quarter and I think we did

C.J. Watson :

“I mean I just try and go out there and play, and play aggressive. I knew Monta (Ellis) wasn’t playing so I just knew I had to pick up the scoring load and just try and get some points in transition and shots fell for me and we won so that’s all I care about.”

On Trying for his Career High:
“I didn’t think I was going to get it actually, I sat on the bench and my legs got tired so I missed three shots in a row so I just tried to get to the basket and get a layup.

On Getting Hot:
“Middle of the first quarter I hit a couple of shots and drove to the basket and got a couple of ‘And 1’s’ and was making free throws and just felt my rhythm just kept going. Kept being aggressive and keep putting the pressure on them.”

Stephen Curry:

On C.J. Watson
“He just started off firing and he got his looks. Looking at the rim like that, making every shot, barely hitting the rim, you give him the ball. And when guys start keying in on him in the second half he starts dishing the ball and getting assists. He was an all around threat tonight so and outstanding performance tonight, one of the best I’ve seen this year.”

On Trying to get C.J. Watson his last Two Points:

“It was kind of reminiscent of the triple double last week. We all knew he was two points away, he knew it, and he was just trying to get that last two. First 40 point game of his career so we were all pulling for him, excited for him and made a really difficult shot at the end to get that 40 so I’m glad it happened.”

Postgame Quotes: Kings vs. Celtics

KINGS HEAD COACH PAUL WESTPHAL

“We did so many things really well in that game against a great team. I know the Celtics were struggling prior to the All-Star break but they had everybody back with a big incentive to start off this road trip in the right way. I thought they played with great intensity and I thought we did too. It was very much a playoff atmosphere out there. For us to outrebound them and hold them to 37.5 percent – it was just such a good effort by our guys and it hurts. It hurts to not beat the Celtics but I am proud of them. I am proud of the progress. It was very much a playoff-caliber atmosphere and game. We need to back it up and go play like that tomorrow at Golden State. That’s what great teams do – you have a disappointing loss and then play the next night and you don’t take it with you. So that’s our intention.”

“I don’t know how to measure frustration. It’s obvious that we lost the game at the free throw line. That’s the big difference. We missed nine free throws in the second half, just about all of them in the fourth quarter it seemed like. When we tried to make them, we missed them; when we tried to miss them, we made them. That was strange too. I told our players, I said ‘you guys are good shooters, you’re clutch players; you missed them. You just put them in the clutch-make bank for later on.’ Everybody has missed a free throw that matters and we missed plenty of them tonight. But I want those same guys at the line shooting free throws and I like our chances in the future.”

On the decision to not put Kevin Martin back in the game during the fourth quarter:
“I sent him in to the scorers’ table and he said ‘those guys are playing pretty well and I said ‘yeah, but I want you in.’ So then there was a long period of time and he said ‘well there’s a timeout coming,’ so he came back. Then the timeout didn’t happen for a couple of minutes and the team out there (on the floor) was really clicking. Our eyes kind of met and we both said ‘let’s let him go,’ so it was both of us deciding that we wanted to finish the game with the guys that had done such a good job in the fourth quarter.”

“We only shot 38.1 percent tonight; there were a lot of guys missing shots.”

“I thought Spencer (Hawes) really asserted himself defensively and on the boards. (He) made some nice passes – we didn’t get payoff for some of those passes but when we were executing he was a big part of it. I thought Spencer hit some big shots and made some plays that usually will lead toward wins.”

“I thought we responded very well. It was a tough, tough game. Both teams were blocking shots and covering the paint and making it tough to score inside. I was very proud of our team. I thought that in a lot of ways you could probably say it was our best defensive effort of the year.”

On the return of Francisco Garcia:
“That was great – the ovation he got was so well deserved. It’s a lot of pain and suffering on his part. He had big anticipation for the season and then this freak accident happens. You’ve got to sleep with that cast – try doing that sometime, it’s hard to sleep. (He endured) weeks of that and (then) to learn how to bend your hand again – I mean it’s just lonely. You feel forgotten; it’s really tough. He’s kept his spirit all the time and I think the people know that about ‘Cisco. You guys have done a good job reporting how engaged he’s been with the success of this team. To have him back on the floor, that was a great moment. We’ll see a lot more of him as the season progresses.”

Jason Thompson

“It is unfortunate that I was into my rhythm and into my groove, trying to get rebounds and trying to get blocked shots and for it to finish like that, it is unfortunate. I was making my free throws, but I just couldn’t finish it at the end. It is still a learning experience and it is something I won’t let happen again.”

On the free throws
“We make 50-plus free throws after every practice and we keep track of the percentages. Everyone is a great shooter and we make free throws at a high level, we just have to concentrate and make more free throws and do the same thing in the game.”

He (Coach Westphal) said he is just proud to be a part of this team. He is trying to lead us and when you are a young team you have to go through some growing pains. We have had a lot of games like this, where at the end of the game against really good teams, we just couldn’t finish. It is something that we need to learn from. The more that we mature and learn from these games, then the better we can be.”

On what was expected of them tonight
“We know that they are a physical team and they may have gotten the best of us, but Coach Westphal challenged us ‘bigs’ to protect our paint and we took the challenge especially in the second half.”

Tyreke Evans

“We played hard and we gave them a good run the entire game. They are a championship team and the way we came out and played them, I feel like we played them pretty good.”

On what it does for the team playing hard
“I think that it does a lot for this team. We came out and they were winning and then we came back. It was just tough for us. I knew that we were capable of playing like that and then we got the lead on them. They are a good team and they got some runs, so we just have to be careful of that.”

On what they hope to accomplish coming after the break
“We just want to finish off strong and make sure that everyone stays healthy. We want everyone to come back next year and be prepared for the season. We are going to try to finish out strong and get as many wins as possible.”

Omri Casspi

On the missed free throws tonight
“We missed free throws and they made theirs. It was little stuff like that. It’s tough. I have made my free throws in around 95 percent of our games. The one I tried to miss tonight, I made it. We competed against one of the best teams and to lose the game on free throws (is tough). ‘It’s a game of free throws’ they say.”

Boston Celtics Head Coach Doc Rivers

Bench play…
“The bench was terrific. I thought that they saved the game for us. The first half, I think it was a two-point game when they came in and left with a 10-point lead. One thing I will say is we had great shots tonight.”

Tonight’s game…
“We counted about 12 lay-ups that we had at the basket that we didn’t convert. I told the guys after the game that offensively I loved what we have but I would like to make some of those. That would be nice. Defensively I thought we played very well. Bonehead plays down the stretch but overall I’m happy with the win. First win on this trip is good for us.”

Setting the tone for the road trip…
“I don’t know what tone it’s going to set but we got a win and now we have to move to the next game. That is how we are approaching the next 31 games. We’re not looking ahead. We’re not sending messages. We’re just trying to win this game, get better tonight and focus on the next game. That’s all we’re doing. The whole trip we’re not looking at. We’re looking at the next game then we’ll move on to the next game.”

Ray Allen, Boston Celtics’ Guard

Tonight’s game…
“They made a couple of good plays on offense. For the most part our defense, I thought everybody was in sync with each other. They went on a run and we fought them off in the fourth quarter.”

Bench play…
“Rasheed (Wallace) was big for us. Tony (Allen) had great minutes. Marquis (Daniels) came in big. Glen (Davis) came in and was big on the glass.”

Kevin Garnett, Boston Celtics’ Forward

Bench play…
“The bench came in with unbelievable energy. They came in and took the momentum and once they got that the starters were able to get into a nice groove. I think for the most part it was a team effort tonight. Without the bench I don’t think we would be able to stand out there like we did.”

Rasheed Wallace, Boston Celtics’ Forward

Team chemistry…
“The camaraderie on this team is very high. We look out for each other. Yet on the same note we are very critical of each other.”

Rookies’ All-Star Showing Gives Kings Boost

After a three-day basketball break for all but two members of the Sacramento Kings – Tyreke Evans and Omri Casspi – All-Star Weekend provided players and coaches a chance to rest and get reenergized for the final 30-game stretch of the regular season.

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Postgame Recap: Kings @ Pistons

SACRAMENTO 103, DETROIT 97

February 10, 2010 - At the Palace of Auburn Hills, Kevin Martin tallied a game-high 26 points and Beno Udrih added 22 off the bench to help the Kings secure a 103-97 win over the Pistons. With the win, the Kings surpassed last season’s win total while becoming the first Kings’ team since the 2003-04 season to win back-to-back road contests heading into the NBA All-Star Weekend. The Kings took the lead for good after Martin made two free throws for an 87-85 lead with 6:35 left in the fourth quarter. Each time the Pistons inched closer, the Kings had an answer. Tyreke Evans scored seven of his 13 points in the fourth quarter and Martin tallied nine points, hitting 3-of-4 from the field and all three of his free throw attempts. Sacramento’s defense in the fourth blocked six Pistons’ shots and limited Detroit to 30.4 percent shooting from the field. Andres Nocioni tallied 13 points off the bench and Spencer Hawes grabbed a team-high 11 boards. Tayshaun Prince scored a season-high 23 points to lead Detroit. Rodney Stuckey added 17 points and Ben Wallace grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

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