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 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 Recap: Kings vs. Rockets

SACRAMENTO 84, HOUSTON 81

March 3, 2010 - At the Toyota Center, Carl Landry recorded a game-high-tying 22 points and 10 rebounds against his former team in leading the Kings to an 84-81 win over the Rockets. The Kings won despite shooting just 32 percent from the field (32-100 FG), marking the first time that the Kings accomplished that feat since the Cincinnati Royals defeated Philadelphia, 95-93, on November 3, 1963, with a .318 field goal percentage. Sacramento held a seven-point advantage, 82-75, with 3:11 left in the fourth quarter, but the Rockets scored six unanswered points as Aaron Brooks made one of two free throws to pull Houston within one, 82-81, with six seconds remaining. Landry was fouled and made both free throws to give the Kings an 84-81 lead with four seconds left, giving the Rockets one last chance. Brooks had a good look at a three-pointer but missed with 1.9 seconds left. Tyreke Evans struggled from the field, shooting just 4-of-22, finishing with nine points, only the fourth time this season he has been held under 10 points. Former King Kevin Martin also had trouble finding his shot, making just three of his 13 field goal attempts in tallying 14 points. Beno Udrih tallied 13 points and Spencer Hawes grabbed a team-high-tying 10 rebounds. Brooks tallied a game-high-tying 22 points and Luis Scola recorded a double-double with 19 points and a game-high 18 boards. In the fourth quarter, the Kings limited the Rockets to 28.6 percent shooting from the field. The Kings’ 61 field goal attempts in the first half established a new Sacramento-era record. Sacramento turned the ball over nine times - in three of the last four games the Kings have turned the ball over 10 times or less.

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. 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.

Postgame Quotes: Kings vs. Clippers

KINGS HEAD COACH PAUL WESTPHAL

“On a night that we didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, I thought our defense won the game for us. I thought that we played 48 minutes of first class defense, really for the second game in a row. When our offense let us down a little bit and our free throw shooting let us down a little bit, we still hung on because of the defense until we were able to make the shots we needed to win the game. So I view this as a big step forward in our progression as a team – to be able to get a defensive win against a team that just handled us pretty easily last week. I thought Ime (Udoka) probably made the play of the game when we missed a shot and we had a one-point lead and then he stole it and we ended up scoring and it gave us a little bit of breathing room. I thought that Carl (Landry) was huge for us down the stretch and of course Tyreke (Evans) started making some of those shots he was missing to put the game away for us. So I feel great about our effort. I thought Spencer (Hawes) played a good complete game. Even though in the second half he didn’t score, I still thought that he was a big part of the win. It’s great to not shoot the ball very well and still get a win.”

“Even though we weren’t really able to score that much, the fact that we only turned it over nine times (shows that) our offense didn’t beat us. If we would have had 20 turnovers and shot 43.2% percent, we would be talking about a loss. It’s been two games in a row where we’ve done a good job of taking care of the ball and we didn’t do anything to beat ourselves.”

“It always puts smiles on people’s faces when you win. We’ve tried to maintain confidence in the players, and have them feel our confidence, because we know that a lot of the tough breaks that come in this league aren’t because of lack of effort. We need more experience, we need more experience together, and so because you don’t have those things, there’s no reason to be mad. I think our team has done a pretty good job of keeping the focus on continued improvement and I think that’s probably why we’re smiling as much as the wins in a lot of ways.”

“I’ve got great confidence in Ime. He’s a player that the other guys respect for his knowledge and his toughness and his experience. We lean on him at both ends of the floor in pressure situations.”

“We’ve made strides. We understand the need to become a good defensive team. We’ve had two good defensive performances in row, and I think three out of the last five we’ve played 48 minutes of good defense. If we can have that be our calling card as well as to be an offensive team that’s tough to guard – which I think we’re a lot more balanced now with Carl to be able to go into the low post and get some big fourth quarter hoops, get to the line – I think that we’re taking some good steps toward becoming a legitimate NBA team that can expect to win whenever we play, at least hope to win whenever we play.”

“Well we view every game as important. We want to win any time we play. We want to learn from whatever the lesson is from that day, every time we play, and at the same time we want to develop our young players. We won’t give young players playing time – they have to earn it. But if it’s a situation where we can develop them, I think it’s in the best interest of the franchise. We’re counting our wins; we want to get as many as we possibly can and build on that next year.”

Tyreke Evans

“It felt pretty good. We played good defense. Spencer (Hawes) came out and gave us a good start. I think that is what carried us on from there.”

On playing better defense tonight
“Coach told me to keep attacking, and when I attack I put the pressure on the defense. I was trying to attack and find the open guys and Beno (Udrih) and Omri (Casspi).”

On the Clippers winning the previous match up
“I wasn’t thinking about the loss (to the Clippers last game) but I knew I wanted to get them back. They beat us and then they came into our house and we just wanted to get a win.”

On Baron Davis
“I have known Baron since I was coming up in basketball. We played AAU basketball. I talk to him a lot and we were just talking about if I fouled him or not. We know each other pretty well.”

Spencer Hawes

“We have a tough road trip ahead, but we have some good momentum of basketball going into it.”

On setting the tone early
“I think that it was key not only for myself, but for the team. We came out and were being aggressive and assertive early. We were trying to put the pressure on the defense and also trying to open up for the other guys.”

On Chris Kaman
“He is an All-Star, there are no bones about it. He is so skilled down there and for me it is kind of like playing against myself. He goes left or right, and can really create so many problems when he gets rolling. I think our team did a great job of containing him.”

“It is good to have the fans out here and supporting us. It is good to have that swagger back at ARCO.”

Beno Udrih

On if the team is feeling looser and not so tense
“Coach was trying to tell us all year long to push the ball up the court faster and to get some easy buckets if we can. We have been getting into our offensive sets faster lately. Before, we were fighting against the shot clock. Now, we fight maybe one or two times. We are just playing a lot faster and we have been moving the ball much better. We also are not turning over the ball as much anymore and we are learning. It is a long process.”

On putting in hard work
“This year we have been working really hard. We had two good practices. We beat Utah, we beat the Clippers now, and we all feel good about ourselves. We are making steps forward and we need to keep making steps forward so we can get better everyday.”

Los Angeles Clippers Kim Hughes

On how they lost the game

“I thought we took that first half off. I don’t believe we are a good enough team to play the first half like that with poor energy, a little bit selfish at times. I thought we competed in the second half. I was disappointed in our bigs. I thought we turned the ball over way too many times. All of them, collectively, were really loose with the ball. I think we gave up 25 points off turnovers and we only got six from them. That is a 19-point differential. That is the game.”

On the communication between Rasual Butler and Baron Davis

“No, they got into it. We want guys to talk. We are not a very verbal team and we plea and cajole for that all the time. I like the bantering in the second half and telling each other what to do. But, we are not a one half team. We have to play like that out of the gate. Losing Craig Smith hurt, but I think DeAndre came in and gave us valuable minutes. It is tough as well when you shoot 37 percent from the field. I don’t really know how to explain it because Sacramento is not a very good defensive team.”

On Tyreke Evans’ play

“He attacked the hoop. He had a nice lay-up. He is a tremendous talent. I thought we did a good defensive job on him. The primary focus of our defense was to stop him. He is virtually impossible to guard one-on-one. He has great size, speed and quickness. He broke out at the end. He is going to hit some shots. The time he made the lay-up down the stretch, our bigs did not help out enough in pick-and-roll coverage and that happens with fatigue or a poor decision. We are going to give up some lay-ups, but I thought, in the second half, we were much more solid defensively.”

Los Angeles Clippers Forward Drew Gooden

On play of Tyreke Evans

“He put a lot of pressure on us defensively attacking the basket and on pick-and-roll and being in the teeth of our defense.”

On falling behind early

“First half we started out sluggish down 12, 14 or whatever it was at halftime. We clawed our way back towards the end but we just didn’t have enough pressure. I don’t think we had enough poise to close that game out. It was still anyone’s game towards the end.”

On not making enough shots

“You got to make shots. They shot 43 (percent). You hit a few more shots and the game changes. It was a tough night for us.”

Los Angeles Clippers Center Chris Kaman

On not being able to put together two good halves

“It was a tale of two halves. The first half wasn’t ours. We did a great job in the second half of fighting back and keeping the game close. We just didn’t have enough to win it.”

Postgame Recap: Kings vs. Jazz

SACRAMENTO 103, UTAH 99

February 26, 2010 - At ARCO Arena, Beno Udrih scored 25 points, Tyreke Evans tallied 24 and Spencer Hawes recorded a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds to help the Kings end a five-game losing streak and snap Utah’s seven-game road win streak with a 103-98 decision. The Kings shot 70.6 percent from the field in the fourth quarter as Udrih and Evans were a combined 8-of-8 from the field and totaled 18 of the Kings’ 28 points. Carl Landry’s two free throws with 1:53 left in the fourth quarter broke a 97-97 tie and gave the Kings the lead for good. Evans hit a clutch basket with 14.8 seconds remaining to give the Kings a 102-97 edge and Udrih sank one of two free throws to seal the win. Carlos Boozer led the Jazz with a game-high 26 points and 10 rebounds. Deron Williams also recorded a double-double with 10 points and 13 assists, but was harassed into a 4-of-16 shooting effort from the field. The Kings were outrebounded, 48-37, but had a season-low eight turnovers. Of Utah’s 36 field goals, 29 were assisted.

Postgame Quotes: Kings vs. Jazz

KINGS HEAD COACH PAUL WESTPHAL

“Before I get started, I just want to say a lot of people have been asking about my wife and praying for her and I appreciate all of the concern and prayers. She’s doing a lot better; (she) had to see a lot of doctors and things are doing pretty well. So thank you for all of the concern. I know she was watching and enjoyed this game tonight. This was a vision of the way we want our team to play. To be able to beat one of the best teams in the NBA – one of the hottest teams – in a solidly-played game is very gratifying. I knew those two days of practice would help us; I didn’t know they’d help us that much. We really played defense, moved the ball, had very few turnovers and played a very solid NBA basketball game. I think it’s how we envision this team being. I’m so happy for Spencer (Hawes) I can’t even really talk straight about it. He showed what he’s made of tonight and we want that every game now, that’s all we ask. It was really an excellent effort by him and certainly Beno (Udrih) responded in a big way. Tyreke (Evans) made the plays down the stretch and throughout the game was sensational. Ime (Udoka) off the bench was really right on time with some great defense and hustle plays. It’s just a lot of fun when it’s like that. The building was very much behind us and we care about that.”

On the chest pump with Spencer Hawes:
“If you want to see that again you’ll probably have to go back to YouTube. I doubt if I’ll pull that one out again for a long time. We talked about it today; we thought it’d be kind of cool to do that. I know everybody wanted to make a bigger deal out of what happened – it’s been three days of reading about coach and player hating each other and that was never really it. It was just kind of fun.”

On Spencer Hawes:
“That’s exactly the kind of performance he’s capable of. It’s hard to bring that every night but he was one of the absolute key reasons we were able to get this win tonight. At both ends of the floor he was exceptional.”

On the starting lineup:
“Tyreke and Beno have worked really well together all year. The main reason I was bringing Beno off the bench even before Kevin (Martin) came back was because I knew that would be his role when Kevin came back. I brought him off the bench for the first few games after the trade just because we only had two point guards on the roster. But then Francisco (Garcia) has been coming around, looking really good in practice and able to handle that position a little bit so I just decided that we would try to go with the players that have played the most minutes this year together. Beno has really played well enough this year to deserve a crack at that position. We would worry about a backup point guard if that issue came up but we tried to start the game with our strongest team.”

On Tyreke Evans:
“Well it’s just another example of how amazing and special he is. He’s not only talented but he’s consistent and he thrives under pressure. You can’t really ask for anything more than that in any NBA player let alone a 20 year-old.”

“It’s always great to have a lot of passers on the floor. Both Beno and Spencer are excellent at reading situations, passing the ball and keeping the defense honest because of their ability to shoot the ball. I think it really helped our offense and our continuity. I thought our offense was the best it’s been all year with the ball movement, the decisions and the patience. It was really nice to see.”

Tyreke Evans
“That was a big win for us. After the game I told Beno this is where we need to get better, in closing out our games. Some games we let slip away from us, but today we did a good job in closing it out.”

On if the win will help their confidence
“Hopefully this win can help us finish out the season strong. We need to be able to come back next year and be a playoff team.”

On him and Beno playing together
“When Beno goes in there and gets that pull-up (shot) going, he is smooth. He was doing a good job of pushing the ball and stopping the ball and getting the shots up. That also helped open it up for everyone else. He gave me the opportunity to drive and get to the line. We could have won by more if we would have made our foul shots, but the most important thing is that we just got the win.”

On Utah Jazz’ Carlos Boozer
“I think that (Carlos) Boozer and those guys just play hard. Their big men stepped up to the challenge tonight and they didn’t back down. Boozer is a good player and a good post-up player so he can get those tough shots, but (Carl) Landry and (Joey) Dorsey came in and did a good job (of guarding him).”

Beno Udrih
“We had good practices the last two days. Coach decided to go with this starting line-up for tonight. We brought the aggressiveness from our practices to the game and that is what we have to do more often. Sometimes we can get lackadaisical and just don’t play as hard in the game as we do in practices, but today we brought it and that is why we won.”

On him and Tyreke playing together
“Tyreke and I like to play with each other because sometimes it takes pressure away from him and sometimes away from me. We just like to play together and it works for us.”

On not getting much practice in
“We have been struggling and then all the trades happened. We really didn’t have any full practices before the last two days. We couldn’t really get to know the new guys, they basically just ran those plays at games and they saw it on the board, but they couldn’t really play. The last two practices really helped us and they have been good.”

“They (Utah Jazz) had won seven games on the road. It is definitely helping our confidence and hopefully we don’t get satisfied with this win today. In two days we have the Clippers and we have some payback to do. We didn’t play a good game against the Clippers in L.A. We have to get that win too.”

Utah Jazz Head Coach Jerry Sloan

Tonight’s game…
“They got us early in the ball game. They did a great job getting on top of the basket and scoring the ball inside. They blew by. We couldn’t stop them. That was pretty much the pace all night. We gave them 50 points in the paint. When you let a team get you in that situation it’s pretty tough to win. I thought they played real well.”

Last 2 minutes of the game…
“You have to be able to make shots. We didn’t shoot the ball very well. They put the ball in the basket. It’s pretty hard to miss when you shoot lay-ups. They drive by you. They got after us and we never did respond in any period of time except for about 3 or 4 possessions. That was about as far as we would go. They made us turn the ball over. They had 19 points off of turnovers.”

Deron Williams playing against Tyreke Evans…
“He’s a terrific player. He’s a big man. It’s tough to try and put someone on him that can keep him out of the paint. He can beat you with the dribble. He can go inside and post you up. He’s probably one the biggest point guards since Magic or Oscar Robertson, someone like that. He’s got a big body and very strong. Well poised for a young man.”

Ending seven-game road winning streak…
“It’s disappointing but that’s what basketball is all about. See if you can bounce back. We’ll see what kind of toughness we have to get ready and finish up the season. We have a lot of basketball yet to play and a lot of tough games to play. Hopefully we will respond to the pressure we have on us. If you like to play basketball this is the time of the year to play. Step up and be counted.”

Deron Williams, Utah Jazz Guard

Playing against Tyreke…
“He played really well down the stretch. It’s a tough matchup for any point guard. He makes me look small. He’s able to do so many things around the basket and when he gets in the lane you think you have him contained but he gets right up over you.”

Last 2 minutes of the game…
“You have to give credit to them. They got stops. We could have done a better job executing but we didn’t.”

Kings’ backcourt…
“They (Tyreke Evans and Beno Udrih) played really well together tonight, when Beno comes out and gets 25 points its tough to beat them. He played so well. His mid-range game was on today. He was attacking the basket in transition. He was doing great things out there on the court.”

Carlos Boozer, Utah Jazz Forward

Tyreke Evans’ game…
“That kid can play. They put the ball in his hands. His jump shot is getting better. He can get around guards. He can finish with contact. He can play.”

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.

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