Postgame Comments: Sacramento Kings 105, Bulls 101 | 02.02.08

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( 22 - 24 )

Boylan

On struggling to put all the pieces together:
“The effort was good. What I would like to see us do is come out and play for an entire game at both ends of the floor. It seems that we struggle every game at one end. We addressed it at half time and I thought we came out and played better defense in the second half. We had our chances down the stretch. We missed some shots and a few things got away from us. If we can do that through the whole game, we will bounce back okay.”

On the defensive attention focused on Ben Gordon:
“Teams are doubling Ben (Gordon) off of any pick-and-roll action and staying with him until he gives up the ball, and Ben did. He did a good job of giving up the ball and finding open teammates. We have to play as a team. We have to rely on each other. We have to make them pay when they double him.”

On giving the Kings easy buckets off of mistakes:
“Any time you turn the ball over and give teams easy opportunities it is cause for concern. Those can be momentum-changing plays and we can’t let that happen in close games. You don’t want teams to be able to put the pressure on you and force those things when it is tense. It can break your rhythm and throw off what you’re trying to do.”

Hinrich

On why the Kings controlled the end of the game:
“We get to that point in the game and had to make plays. We played good enough to win, but couldn’t get it done. In the second half, we just were not as aggressive. We struggled to find baskets towards the end of the game. All the losses have been frustrating. It is tough because I feel like we have played well enough to win a lot this year but we have not won as many as we should have.”

Theus

“They were almost twice as fast as us in the first half. They had 17 points in the third quarter; that was our lock down quarter. Points in the paint, they (Chicago) were at 36 in the first half and in the second half they were only at six. All I have to say is that Brad Miller really is playing well and was doing the intangibles. When we needed a free throw he goes and gets five. He’s just coming up with everything that we need.”

“I think that our guys right now are in a really good place in terms of playing. We are coming up at 11 games of being together as a total unit and we seem to be finding cohesive way to play. Even when you only shoot 38% and win, that really hard to do and normally we don’t do that.”

“The game had a strange pace to it. It felt like we were losing. The guys were really fatigued, but I still understand we were winning the basketball game. We had to withstand that and stay together and keep our composure. The thing that was tough for us was that they were just driving the ball at us. That had a lot to do with their energy level.”

“I think that we have had great lockdown moments of the game where we have had five or six minutes of the game where we have played great defense. Offensively, our spacing looked very good. Also, the passing has been more consistent. We are not trying to do too much and I am very pleased with our level of confidence.”

Miller

On tonight’s win:
“It’s big for us. Our goal is to obviously get to .500 by the end of this homestand. We started off kind of bad. Just not playing too good defensively but we were still able to be up at half. We made some adjustments and got a good lockdown quarter finally in the third. You have to have grind out games going back and forth and we just hung on tonight.”

Commenting on player of the week discussions:
“It just feels good to win and that’s all I care about. Just play well and win. Life is good for me right now.”

Is this your best season here?
“My first year here was pretty hard to top. It was just one of those special years that you get. You don’t get a lot of special years in this League where everything just comes so easy and you have so much fun.”

Artest

On tonight’s game:
“We found a way to get it done. Brad was huge again and he got to the board and got the rebounds.”

On his dunk over Joakim Noah:
“I was just trying to get to the hole. I was just trying to do anything. It was just over for me and I was just trying to finish it up.”

Martin

On Brad Miller’s game:
“If Brad does not get player of the week, I wouldn’t have anything else to say about that. The way he’s been playing all week, it’s just been incredible.”