Postgame Quotes-vs. NOK
Kings Coach Rick Adelman
“It was a nice win after last night – coming here today. Second quarter I thought we really struggled guarding them for the most part. But the last seven minutes we really didn’t. We executed well, we got the shots we wanted, we made stops, rebounded the ball, things you need to do down the stretch, it was good to see us do those things tonight that we didn’t do in the Houston game. I think if you keep working at it and you have success, it’s going to really make a difference in the long run.”
“Our starting group, when they move the ball, you know they’re playing together. Every day a little bit more, the guys are starting to get up and around a little bit. We found people at the right spots and you just have to keep going. We’ve got this tough trip coming up, and we have to go with the idea that we want to get on some type of roll here. Hopefully, these two games will help us in that direction.”
“It’s a tough trip, but I want to see how we play. I think if we go out and we’re competitive, and we’re playing well, that’s going to be the difference. If we do that we have a chance to win any game we play on this trip. But we have to go out and do it. That five game skid was tough, but they responded in Seattle, and they responded tonight, and that’s what we have to keep in mind. There’s still a long way to go. There’s 61 games left, so there’s a ton of time…. So, you just have to keep that in mind, I guess that I can look at it as we won five of our last ten.”
“Of course it hasn’t been easy losing these home games, but it always amazes me when we talk about our home court and our home court advantage. It doesn’t work because you have 17,317 who are loud that you’re going to win. We win a lot of those games because we have a hell of a team. We’re not the same team, so its not going to be an automatic 33 wins. What’s going to do that, is if you go out and start playing better as a team. You get confident as a team and you get your crowd involved.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim
“It feels good. We know we have to keep playing well, and keep going out and putting points on the board. [Upcoming road trip] can be good for this team. It can put us back in a good position. We’ve got to go out and play four good teams, and I think we can do well. We always play well when we move the ball and help each other offensively. We had to lock down defensively. [New Orleans] was getting a lot of points off the pick and roll. In the fourth quarter we locked in, and keyed in on what they wanted to do.”
“We had lost four games in a row at home. It was good to get our fans a win and get back on the right foot. We’ve got a lot of guys that can score. I think different nights it’s going to be different guys. Different guys are going to have mismatches some nights. We just have to take advantage and play off of it.”
Mike Bibby
“We’re playing together on both ends of the court. We cracked down and got stops when we needed to. It wasn’t like we’ve been playing terrible. We’ve got San Antonio coming up, we’ve got Detroit again. It’s not going to be an easy road trip, even in Charlotte, Minnesota’s going to be a tough game, so we’ve got four tough games coming up. We’ve just got to fight through it, play good, and take good things out of the game. It’s been good. We’ve been moving the ball, and playing together. It’s a lot more fun and it’s a lot easier when we play together.”
NEW ORLEANS/OKLAHOMA CITY
Hornets Head Coach Byron Scott:
"They (Sacramento) shot 48%, so we weren’t playing to well defensively. We were playing okay, but they are a great shooting basketball team. We need to do a much better job on the defensive end. The last two games, or even farther back than that, I think our opponents were making almost half of their shots. Our defensive pressure has to be a lot better, our defensive communication has to be a lot better, and we just have to understand that’s how we are going to win basketball games. The wins won’t come on the offensive end because that’s going to come and go. When you play a veteran team like Sacramento, and especially since they were hot the other night against Seattle, we knew that they were going to be playing tough. He (Chris Paul) is having a great year for a rookie. Just into a quarter of the season, and I would definitely say that he is a runaway for the rookie of the year. He’s growing and getting better and better each day."
P.J. Brown:
"It’s important to get those stops in the last 3 to 4 minutes. If we did get the stop we didn’t get the rebound to finish the play off. It’s just frustrating because we were right their with 3 to 4 minutes left. It was our time to close the game off and get the win and we just couldn’t get the job done. We just have to get tougher. We have shown that at times this year we have been tougher down the stretch, but tonight we just could not get the win. The last 3 to 4 minutes are the most important of an NBA basketball game. They got some easy looks and our defense broke down. Either we couldn’t get the stop or if we did they would get the rebound. I knew at half time if we couldn’t keep Sacramento away from 100 points then we wouldn’t get the win."
Rasual Butler:
"Our effort just wasn’t good enough tonight. We needed a couple of more shots to go down and we needed to get a couple of more key rebounds. I gave up a huge lay up to Peja; he just went straight down the middle. We need to find a way to knuckle up a little more, and play a little harder. We need to just make it tougher on the opponent, I think we tried, but we need to play with a little bit more of a sense of urgency. Those last few minutes are key, that’s why I am so pissed at myself for letting Peja get that lay-up. We cannot let guys get easy buckets down the stretch like that."
![](http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/rick_adelman.jpg)
“It was a nice win after last night – coming here today. Second quarter I thought we really struggled guarding them for the most part. But the last seven minutes we really didn’t. We executed well, we got the shots we wanted, we made stops, rebounded the ball, things you need to do down the stretch, it was good to see us do those things tonight that we didn’t do in the Houston game. I think if you keep working at it and you have success, it’s going to really make a difference in the long run.”
“Our starting group, when they move the ball, you know they’re playing together. Every day a little bit more, the guys are starting to get up and around a little bit. We found people at the right spots and you just have to keep going. We’ve got this tough trip coming up, and we have to go with the idea that we want to get on some type of roll here. Hopefully, these two games will help us in that direction.”
“It’s a tough trip, but I want to see how we play. I think if we go out and we’re competitive, and we’re playing well, that’s going to be the difference. If we do that we have a chance to win any game we play on this trip. But we have to go out and do it. That five game skid was tough, but they responded in Seattle, and they responded tonight, and that’s what we have to keep in mind. There’s still a long way to go. There’s 61 games left, so there’s a ton of time…. So, you just have to keep that in mind, I guess that I can look at it as we won five of our last ten.”
“Of course it hasn’t been easy losing these home games, but it always amazes me when we talk about our home court and our home court advantage. It doesn’t work because you have 17,317 who are loud that you’re going to win. We win a lot of those games because we have a hell of a team. We’re not the same team, so its not going to be an automatic 33 wins. What’s going to do that, is if you go out and start playing better as a team. You get confident as a team and you get your crowd involved.
![](http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/shareef_abdur-rahim.jpg)
“It feels good. We know we have to keep playing well, and keep going out and putting points on the board. [Upcoming road trip] can be good for this team. It can put us back in a good position. We’ve got to go out and play four good teams, and I think we can do well. We always play well when we move the ball and help each other offensively. We had to lock down defensively. [New Orleans] was getting a lot of points off the pick and roll. In the fourth quarter we locked in, and keyed in on what they wanted to do.”
“We had lost four games in a row at home. It was good to get our fans a win and get back on the right foot. We’ve got a lot of guys that can score. I think different nights it’s going to be different guys. Different guys are going to have mismatches some nights. We just have to take advantage and play off of it.”
![](http://www.nba.com/media/playerfile/mike_bibby.jpg)
“We’re playing together on both ends of the court. We cracked down and got stops when we needed to. It wasn’t like we’ve been playing terrible. We’ve got San Antonio coming up, we’ve got Detroit again. It’s not going to be an easy road trip, even in Charlotte, Minnesota’s going to be a tough game, so we’ve got four tough games coming up. We’ve just got to fight through it, play good, and take good things out of the game. It’s been good. We’ve been moving the ball, and playing together. It’s a lot more fun and it’s a lot easier when we play together.”
NEW ORLEANS/OKLAHOMA CITY
Hornets Head Coach Byron Scott:
"They (Sacramento) shot 48%, so we weren’t playing to well defensively. We were playing okay, but they are a great shooting basketball team. We need to do a much better job on the defensive end. The last two games, or even farther back than that, I think our opponents were making almost half of their shots. Our defensive pressure has to be a lot better, our defensive communication has to be a lot better, and we just have to understand that’s how we are going to win basketball games. The wins won’t come on the offensive end because that’s going to come and go. When you play a veteran team like Sacramento, and especially since they were hot the other night against Seattle, we knew that they were going to be playing tough. He (Chris Paul) is having a great year for a rookie. Just into a quarter of the season, and I would definitely say that he is a runaway for the rookie of the year. He’s growing and getting better and better each day."
P.J. Brown:
"It’s important to get those stops in the last 3 to 4 minutes. If we did get the stop we didn’t get the rebound to finish the play off. It’s just frustrating because we were right their with 3 to 4 minutes left. It was our time to close the game off and get the win and we just couldn’t get the job done. We just have to get tougher. We have shown that at times this year we have been tougher down the stretch, but tonight we just could not get the win. The last 3 to 4 minutes are the most important of an NBA basketball game. They got some easy looks and our defense broke down. Either we couldn’t get the stop or if we did they would get the rebound. I knew at half time if we couldn’t keep Sacramento away from 100 points then we wouldn’t get the win."
Rasual Butler:
"Our effort just wasn’t good enough tonight. We needed a couple of more shots to go down and we needed to get a couple of more key rebounds. I gave up a huge lay up to Peja; he just went straight down the middle. We need to find a way to knuckle up a little more, and play a little harder. We need to just make it tougher on the opponent, I think we tried, but we need to play with a little bit more of a sense of urgency. Those last few minutes are key, that’s why I am so pissed at myself for letting Peja get that lay-up. We cannot let guys get easy buckets down the stretch like that."