Postgame Quotes: Kings @ Blazers

COACH PAUL WESTPHAL

ON GAME
“We played a really good team and we had a chance to win in the last few minutes and came away dry. I thought that our poise offensively down the stretch offensively left a lot to be desired, I thought Marcus Camby, even though his stat line wouldn’t knock your eyes out really dominated the game for them on the defensive end and was very much the difference from where I sat…A lot of good things but not good enough. We have to have better poise down the stretch. We have to learn how to avoid cheap fouls that put them on the line and how to get to the line ourselves…I thought Marcus Camby was a big impediment to our offense. We did get some good shots but we didn’t knock them down, which you have to do. They are a tough defensive team and they tightened it up and we didn’t respond.”

ON END OF GAME
“I don’t think we moved it like we needed to in the fourth quarter, the last five minutes especially. I thought we were standing around too much, we were fighting the shot clock too much, we had forced shots, and it was not as smooth as it needs to be to get a win against a team like the Blazers.”

ON DEFENSE
“I thought our defense was pretty solid for the most part. We got hurt a few times for the most part because of our offense turned the ball over and they got fast breaks. I thought we did OK on the boards, there were a few times that we should’ve gotten the ball and didn’t. I thought we got one more rebound than they did totally. Our defense was reasonably good and gave us a chance to win the game

ON BRANDON ROY
“We had different players on him. Tyreke most of the time, but Francisco had him a lot, Dominic McGuire had him some and Donte Greene might have had him a couple of times. He’s a great player and he’s always going to have an impact on the game.”

SPENCER HAWES

ON OFFENSE
“We have to not let pressure defense like that take us out of the system when it’s set up to thrive against that kind of stuff. We have to be aggressive, be strong with the ball and take something like that apart…We’re still getting to know each other and continuing to evolve as a team on that end of the floor.”

CARL LANDRY

ON GAME
“We just didn’t convert or execute down the stretch and that is something we have to learn how to do, being a young team, we have great talent in this locker room, we just have to learn how to execute down the stretch when the game is on the line…We’re just young, we don’t have that much experience, but we practice every day, and you can see that on the court, that we are growing, we just have to learn to play together. We have four new guys in this locker room, we just got to adjust and learn how to execute down the stretch.”

COACH NATE McMILLAN

“Well we got the win. Of course, we know we can play better and we’re going to have to play better than we did down the stretch to win games, our remaining games.

On Camby:
“I thought he was huge. We don’t win the game tonight if he doesn’t make some of the plays he made. He had a baseline jumpshot, he had two blocks. He got on the floor for a loose ball on the defensive end of the floor, which I thought gave us some life. Those were big plays. We got some stops and enough stops to score some baskets and eventually get control of this game and put it away.”

On expecting this type of play from Camby going forward:
“We’re certainly hoping for that, but again, we’ve got to have everybody. We’ve got to have everybody if we’re going to get to that level of play that we want to get to. Everybody has to play with the same focus, the same intensity, the same scrappiness. Once you get that as a unit, we’re going to be stronger at the defensive end of the floor. He made some plays. We need everybody to be focused in on stopping, okay, controlling the ball. Then if there is a breakdown, then you have a guy like that who can cover for some breakdowns. But collectively, we’ve got to do a better job.”

On cold stretches:
“We missed shots. I thought Rudy and Martell… they had a 10-0 run and we were missing some shots. You’ve got to make shots. From what I can recall, they looked like pretty good shots. Rudy missed a lay-up, a floater, and I think Martell had an open look during that time. You’ve got to put teams away and you’ve got to make shots. We’ve seen this before. Until I look at the film, I can’t say exactly what happened, but I know we missed some open looks. You’ve got to make those shots.”

On Batum:
“I thought he was better tonight guarding a penetrating guard or a guy that’s penetrating. He made his adjustments. He didn’t get too excited about the match-up of him and Evans and he played him solid. I thought he kept him in front.”

Roy scored 19, but did not “carry” the team; is that a positive?
“Yeah, when you win it. We’re going to need him. We’re going to need LaMarcus and we’re going to need all our guys. We’re still in this race and we’re going to have to play much better than we did tonight.”

BRANDON ROY

“We didn’t dominate this game like we wanted to come out, but we’ll take the win. We’ve got to continue to improve. I thought our defense got better, but offensively, we weren’t very good tonight.”

“We had a couple leads there but we didn’t do a good job of putting them away. We let them start the fourth quarter with a 10-0 run. We can’t let them start quarters like that and we’ve just got to do a better job of putting them away.”

On defense late:
“When they came out and went on a 10-0 run, we had a 11 point lead going into the fourth and it was a chance for us to try to take a lead and we didn’t, so we said that was their run, we’ve got to tighten up defensively and we’ll give ourselves a chance to win this game.”

“You always are concerned with how you’re winning, but right now we’re in a tight race so we’re taking these wins. We know we have to get better if we want to make a push and win a game in the playoffs.”

On Camby:
“He did great. He kept talking – he talked all night defensively and came over and blocked shots. He gave us a huge presence down the stretch of that game. He didn’t give up anything easy and that’s big when you’re going down the stretch. You don’t want to give them anything easy in the paint. Marcus did what we brought him here to do and that was to dominate the middle.”

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.

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.”

Postgame Recap: Kings @ Mavs

DALLAS 108, SACRAMENTO 100

March 5, 2010 - At the American Airlines Center, Dirk Nowitzki scored 15 of his game-high 31 points in the fourth quarter as the Mavericks fought off the Kings, 108-100, to extend their winning streak to 10 games. With the score tied, 58-58, the Mavericks scored seven unanswered points and went on to outscore the Kings, 33-19, in the third quarter to open the fourth with a 13-point edge, 85-72. The Kings used a 13-2 run to trim a 15-point Dallas lead down to four, 95-91, with 5:34 left in the fourth quarter. Dallas responded with a 5-0 spurt, but the Kings then went on a 9-2 run capped off by Tyreke Evans’ driving lay-up to pull within two, 102-100, with 1:36 remaining. Dallas then held off the Kings the rest of the way, making all six of their free throw attempts. Carl Landry led the Kings with 21 points. Evans, who had just three points at the half, finished with 20 points. Beno Udrih also added 20 points. Spencer Hawes grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. Nowitzki also grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds to record a double-double, as did Jason Kidd (17 points, 12 assists). Sacramento held Nowitzki in check in the first half as he had just eight points, but rookie Rodrigue Beaubois tallied 16 of his career-high 22 points in the first two quarters. Dallas turned the ball over eight times and turned 17 Sacramento turnovers into 24 points. The Mavericks also outran the Kings, scoring 26 fastbreak points. The Kings outrebounded the Mavericks, 45-40.

Postgame Quotes: Kings @ Mavs

Kings Head Coach Paul Westphal

(On Tonigh’t Game)
“Well, we cut it to 2, and Tyreke [Evans] driving to the basket and he didn’t get the call. I’m not saying it was a foul, I’m saying he didn’t get the call. They did what veteran teams do – they put us away. Really the biggest difference in the game for us was we turned it over 17 times, they turned it over 8 times. And we’ve been really good at that lately and tonight we weren’t. And you give turnovers to a team like Dallas they get runs outs, get easy baskets, and that’s the one thing we couldn’t overcome tonight. I thought out of the 48 minutes we probably had 43-44 good enough minutes to think we could win that game. But those lapses, and the turnovers, we couldn’t overcome. Dallas is a very impressive, excellent team and I’m really proud of the way we played. I think that as we learn how to tighten up our offense a little bit we’ll have a lot better chance of coming out with a lot more of these wins. Anyway, tough loss for us against a great team.”

Kings Guard Beno Udrih

(What does it say about your team to make a comeback at the end of the game?)
“We’re here to get better and play hard. We’re a young team and don’t have a lot of experience. So we’re just trying to learn and get better.”

(How much fun was it in the first half as the team was playing well)
“It’s always fun, especially when you get going like that. Then they had a player too that was hot so it’s tough. They’re a good team, they have a lot of weapons, and congratulations to them.”

(What does it say about your team to hang with such a hot Mavs team that’s won 10 straight)
“We played 42 minutes of good basketball. Against a team like that you’ve got to play 48 minutes, and six minutes in a stretch they made a run and it was too big of a run. A team like that, they always know how to run when they’re ahead to stay ahead. “

Mavericks Head Coach Rick Carlisle

(On the win despite missing players.) “We found a way to win and the start wasn’t good obviously and there was some frustration, but it was all about holding it together, keeping the composure and bringing up the level of defensive energy. It was just too easy for them early. Beaubois gave us a great lift off the bench, I thought Stevenson gave us a lift. You know, Barea played well. Najera played solid. So, when you are thin like that you just have to
collectively find a way.”

(Any update on Brendan Haywood.)
“I would think he would be day-to-day. But, he had some a little stiffness this morning and then he tweaked it on the jump ball of all times. So, that wasn’t a good start.”

(On the technical situation.)
“Well, I was just thought there was contact that should have been called a foul on two or three occasions and I had an opinion on it. My opinion was noted, but when you go out on the court sometimes you get one and sometimes you get two, so I got two and that was it..”

(On the team going on a run after the ejection.)
“I was certainly glad. I don’t take credit for that. In those situations, you have to get playing better. Whether or not the coach getting thrown out contributes to that, that is up for debate. I doubt it. I think we were due to play better and finally started getting some stops and look, the guys off the
bench really helped too.”

(What is your feeling on this team.)
“When you go on a streak like this, everyone is gunning for you. Everybody wants to be the team to take you down. So, you are going to get everybody’s
best game. We’ve had some slow starts, but it is something we have been able to overcome many times. We are working on starting better, but hey, it is a 48 minute game for a reason. So, the streak is alive. We get on the plane tonight and head to Chicago and lace them up again. We just have to keep this going as long as we can.”

Mavericks guard Roddy Beaubois

(How big a win was this tonight with all the guys out with injuries?)
“It’s a big win for us and we really wanted to win this one because of Jet being out. We knew it was going to be difficult after Haywood wasn’t going to play but we did a good job and we’re happy about the win.”

(With Jet out you played a lot of two-guard tonight)
“I really tried to be aggressive with Jet being out and we needed everyone to push themselves so I really tried to be aggressive and that worked and JKidd and JJ (Barea) really set me up tonight. We played great together tonight.”

“I’m feeling more confident out there and my teammates have been talking to me and everyday I’m feeling better.”

“The fans are incredible and I really like playing here.”

Mavericks forward Eduardo Najera

“We’re getting smaller by the minute that’s what Dirk said. We’re ok as long as we follow the concepts defensively and I thought our zone is what got us going especially in the first half and that kind of solves the height problems we just need to rebound a little bit better.”

(Talk about the zone defense?)
“It definitely breaks the rhythm of the other team and we did a good job of playing zone. We have a lot of experience, we’ve played it before and it seems like we all are pretty smart defensively and we can hide some of our one on one weaknesses in our zone and it’s working so far really good for us and helped us win some games.”

“We’ve got to start playing better especially when we have the lead we stopped playing defensively and stopped running. We’ve got to get stops, get the rebound and go.”

Postgame Quotes: Kings vs. Rockets

KINGS COACH PAUL WESTPHAL

(on the win)
“It was very gratifying. We shot 100 field goal attempts, and to get a road win with our offense struggling to get baskets was big. Basketball is a funny game. It’s all part of our learning process. We knew when we left Brooks wide open we’d win. (ha-ha). Carl’s (Landry) free throws at the end were fantastic. Aaron brooks misses a wide open 3-pointer and not by our design but we will take it.”

(on Landry’s play)
“You can see why everyone in Houston loves him because the way he plays the game. He wants the ball in his hands at the end of the game. He came through big.”

(on Battier’s defense of Tyreke Evans)
“Battier was fantastic and did a super job defensively against Evans. He had his way with Tyreke and now will be see how he will adjust next time we play.”

CARL LANDRY

(on getting to play against Chuck Hayes)
“Chuck had a long night, didn’t he? He tried to get me with his spin move but it didn’t work. I was just telling him things on the court. We talked a little trash but that was all.”

(on his return to Houston)
“I just wanted to win. I got fouled and made it to the line and when I hit my free throws, it felt great. It was a sigh of relief. I had fun here and Houston is a wonderful place with great fans. It was real fun playing against all my brothers on the other side. Coach (Westphal) talked to me before the game and said I didn’t have to be too aggressive, just play my game.”

(on the key to the game)
“We played defense and that was the key to the game.”

(on Battier defending Evans)
“Shane is a great defender and he knew all of Tyreke’s moves before he even made them.”

SPENCER HAWES

(on winning and shooting 32%)
“It’s as big a surprise as it gets. When you are not shooting well you have to buckle down and bring something else to the table. We brought it defensively and that was the key to the victory.”

FRANCISCO GARCIA

(on the key to the game)
“Defense did it for us. It’s tough to win on the road without good defense. Our defense is picking up and we have to keep rolling. The last four games we have played well.”

(on playing against Kevin Martin)
“It was weird playing defense on Kevin but it was also kinda fun. I knew coming in I was going to be playing against my friend. But we are both professionals.”

ROCKETS COACH RICK ADELMAN

(On the game)
“Just not happy with the way we played. They beat us to every loose ball. They killed us on the boards, between our turnovers and their (Kings) offensive boards, that’s 41 and a half of their points. Those are effort plays. I don’t know if we thought we were going to come out here and blow a team out just because we won a game the other night. If you hold the team to 32 percent at home and they get twenty three more shots than you do and every phase didn’t work. You have to have the ball, we just didn’t do it. They crushed us on the boards.”

(On the loss)
“There wasn’t anything, that’s what we talked about at every timeout and half time. There wasn’t hard cuts. We’re trying to attack one on one and we settled for jumpers early in the game, just jumper after jumper. We didn’t make them move at all. It’s just very disappointing. I don’t know if we…we have a young group and I think that because they won a game they think they will win the next one. It doesn’t work that way in this league. I don’t care who you are playing, you’ve got to go out and make it happen and I give Sacramento credit. We didn’t do enough during the course of the game and then it became a three point game. There are just so many little things you can point to but there’s no reason they should have beat us that badly on the boards, there’s just no reason.”

KEVIN MARTIN

(On the loss)
“We wanted that one. It just didn’t happen for us tonight. I thought we played good defense but we just didn’t get in to any type of rhythm tonight. They (Sacramento) were doing a great job on the offensive boards. There was just no flow or anything tonight. You hold a team to 32 percent you would bet any amount of money that you would win but not tonight.”

(On the Kings’ defense)
“It’s something that you just have to look at the tape but you can’t really pinpoint one thing tonight. They (Sacramento) played a great game tonight so you’ve got to give them credit.”

AARON BROOKS

(On the last shots)
“Yeah (getting the shot that he wanted). It was a good play. It was just all my shots today were a little short or to the right or to the left, just a little off. Everybody was pretty much off but I think we got killed on offensive rebounds and that’s where the game was won. They (Sacramento) had a lot of second chance points and second chance points off of our turnovers and that’s where the game was at.”

(On the missed free throws)
“You go in with the mindset to make the shot and when you don’t make it you are surprised and that’s what happened. So, I don’t know, I guess I have to practice a little bit more.”

SHANE BATTIER

(On the Kings second chance points)
“It’s deflating basketball to play. We did our job defensively and I haven’t seen too many games in this league where a road team can shoot 30 percent and still win the game but they had twenty three more shots than we did and that’s a tough number to overcome.”

(On what went wrong)
“I thought the sense of urgency on the offensive end. We were getting stops early. There was a period where we were playing a team, especially a team that played the night before, where you’ve got to show them you mean business and to show them that if they want to win this game, they’re going to have to spend a lot of energy. We didn’t show them that and we gave them hope that maybe they can steal one on the road tonight and once you give a team hope it’s almost impossible to take it back. You’re in a dog fight and we were never able to break their spirit and that comes from playing with energy and with a sense of purpose and urgency.”

LUIS SCOLA

(On the loss)
“We made a few of the same mistakes we have been doing the whole year. We started a little bit badly in the game. They (Sacramento) got ahead and we tried to fight back. We made a lot of mistakes, we made a lot of mistakes and they made us pay.”

(On the free throws)
“We wouldn’t be anywhere without Aaron Brooks. He was our leading scoring for the game. We lost the game on the last possession and if we would have won the game it would have been on the last possession. So, it was just one of the many mistakes we made in the whole game.”

Postgame Recap: Kings vs. Thunder

OKLAHOMA CITY 113, SACRAMENTO 107

March 2, 2010 - At the Ford Center, the Kings had no answer for Kevin Durant who had game-highs of 39 points and 10 rebounds and Russell Westbrook who added 30 points and 13 assists as the Thunder outlasted the Kings, 113-107. Francisco Garcia’s three-pointer with 4:50 left in the fourth quarter capped off a Kings’ 10-3 spurt to pull them within two, 100-98. Durant then made a driving lay-up as the Thunder answered each Kings score as Sacramento could not get closer than three points the rest of the way. Carl Landry’s dunk with 34.1 seconds left cut the Thunder lead to 111-107. Durant was fouled and sealed the win with two free throws, finishing a perfect 12-of-12 from the line. Tyreke Evans led the Kings with 27 points and Landry contributed 17 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Beno Udrih and Francisco Garcia each tallied 13 points. The Kings outshot the Thunder from the field, .539 to .500, but were outrebounded, 32-43. The Thunder crashed the offensive glass, converting 17 offensive boards into 23 second-chance points.

Postgame Recap: Kings vs. Thunder

KINGS HEAD COACH PAUL WESTPHAL:

On tonight’s game:
“To tell you the truth, I would have enjoyed the game a lot if I would have bought a ticket to watch it. It is hard to enjoy it when you lose the game. There was some phenomenal young talent on display tonight. I thought Tyreke (Evans) and (Russell) Westbrook going at each other, not always guarding each other, but still, the way they were getting things done for their team. I thought (Kevin) Durant was as good as advertised. He was as good as he has been all year. He is an amazing young talent. Those three guys playing at the top of their games, it was high-level basketball.”

“I thought our defense wasn’t great in the first half, but they got 67 points and they were banking shots in at the buzzer and shooting the ball like crazy. In the second half, our defense was able to make them miss but we couldn’t keep them off the glass. To me, we came in against a top-level playoff team in their gym, in a game they really wanted, and we played a great game. We played good enough to win, but we couldn’t keep them off the glass. We lost, but we are going to take positives that we can from this. We have to improve our defensive rebounding in order to get wins like this. It was another step in the right direction. It wasn’t satisfying because we didn’t get the ‘W’.”

On the Oklahoma City Thunder:
“They can win a playoff series, I can tell you that. If you can win one, you can win more. They are a very well put together team. I am not sure that anybody is going to look forward to playing them in the first round.”

KINGS GUARD TYREKE EVANS:

On the loss:
“It was a tough game. They are a pretty good team and they are young. They get out and run the floor well. It was a tough loss for us. We played well but down the stretch rebounding hurt us.”

“It’s tough when you play against an all-star like Kevin Durant. He is a tremendous scorer. Every time we felt like we got into the game he hit a big shot.”

On the matchup between he and Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook:
“We are two good players who play the same. We both like to drive to the basket and get a lot of fouls called. He is quick and it was a good matchup and I like playing against him.”

KINGS FORWARD SEAN MAY:

On what they can take away from the loss:
“What we take away from this game is it is not about the game itself, but where this franchise is headed. They (Oklahoma City) are young just like us. They have a young core just like we do. The thing we take away is they have made leaps and bounds in a short amount of time. That is what we have to take away, is that this organization can do the same thing.”

THUNDER HEAD COACH SCOTT BROOKS:

On tonight’s win:
“Every win is a good win. It’s not the style of game we would like to play. They shot too high of a field goal percentage. They got too many points in the paint and Tyreke Evans had a way with us with 17 free throws (attempts). But we got the win. We took care of business at home and three wins at home is a good home stand.”

On Sacramento’s offense:
“They’re good. They have a lot of interesting match-ups. Tyreke is one of the best guards in basketball, regardless if he’s a rookie or not and they were making some shots. Francisco (Garcia) came in and was on fire. He made shots. I was with him for a year, and that’s what he does. Having the two point guards in the game gives them a nice little floor game where they have two guys that can make game winning plays for other teammates. But early on transition wasn’t good. Our close-outs weren’t good but we managed to get enough stops when we needed it.”

THUNDER FORWARD KEVIN DURANT:

On Russell Westbrook:
“Russell has done a great job of getting everyone involved. We’re staring to get stops and early transition points, easy baskets and getting to the free throw line. Russell has been the key to getting everyone involved and we just follow his lead. Stats don’t lie. Numbers don’t lie. He got 13 assists tonight and he’s been enormous in the past month. He’s been playing very well and everybody’s been getting involved.”

On the Thunder’s outlook:
“Continue to be ourselves, come to work everyday, come to practice and shoot-around and stay focused. If we continue to bring it everyday in our offense end we’ll continue this.”

THUNDER GUARD RUSSELL WESTBROOK:

On tonight’s win:
“We just came out and tried to be aggressive and I tried to find a way to help my team win. Our offense has been good throughout the year but we want our defense to lead to our offense; that’s big for us. I’ll take a win however we can take it. We played good tonight and did a good job scoring the ball but I think we did a better job defending.”

Postgame Recap: Kings vs. Clippers

SACRAMENTO 97, LOS ANGELES 92

February 28, 2010 - At ARCO Arena, Tyreke Evans led all players with 22 points and Carl Landry scored 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter, including two free throws with 11.6 seconds left to seal the 97-92 win for the Kings. Sacramento led by as many as 16 points early in the third quarter, but the Clippers came back to pull within one, 91-90, with 2:07 left in the fourth quarter on Rasual Butler’s three-pointer. Evans made consecutive driving lay-ups to give the Kings a 95-90 lead with 42.9 seconds remaining. A Baron Davis lay-up cut the Kings lead down to 95-92 with 35.6 seconds left. On the Kings’ next possession, they missed a shot attempt but got the rebound before Landry was fouled and sent to the line with 11.6 seconds left. Spencer Hawes tallied 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Chris Kaman recorded a double-double with a team-high 18 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Drew Gooden added 17 points. Eric Gordon, who tallied 30 against the Kings in the last meeting, finished with 13 points. The Kings allowed a season-low 92 points and recycled 15 Clipper turnovers into 25 points. Sacramento turned the ball over just 10 times after recording just eight in the previous game against Utah.

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