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| Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Final Score: New Orleans 111, Sacramento 110 Hornets Post Game Quotes
On the last play designed for Rasual Butler: “Yes it was. I knew everyone would really focus on CP (Chris Paul). I just tried to make him a decoy and I told Rasual ‘your probably going to be wide open so get ready to shoot it.’ You just go for the win; we didn’t want to play overtime. He got a great look obviously. When I saw it leave his hand I had a good feeling it was going in.” On being surprised Rausal was so open: “Yes. I told David (West) as well, ‘if you think they are going to switch, screen your man as well.’ So I thought he did a hell of a job setting the screen. They didn’t switch it and he came out wide open. He pretty much screened two guys. We really let them back in the game and got lucky. Rasual bailed us out.” On letting the Kings back in the game: “They did a great job. They shoot the ball so well. They spread you out and make you defend them, and then they are good off the dribble. I thought the zone had a big time effect on them. But later on in the game, we were not getting up on the three-point shooters like we talked about. We were laying back then (Francisco) Garcia and (Rashad) McCants, all those guys started knocking them down.” On the night by David West on a bad ankle: “I knew if I took him out, he probably would not have come back in. Tomorrow we will just have to wait and see. Right now, I would say for tomorrow it does not look good.”
On doing whatever it takes to win: “I said that right after the All-Star game, for the second half, whatever we have to do to win, we are going to do. If that means tough shots or just playing until the end, that’s what we are going to do.” On Rasual’s game winning shot: “Rasual is a shooter. I have the utmost confidence in him. It was a heads-up play for him to not shoot a two and go for the win and he knocked it in.” Kings Post Game Quotes
“It’s just really sad to fight the way that we fight, to have gone through the diversity we’ve gone through all season in playing games, trying to come together as a unit and play hard. We finally do that and then little things just caused us to lose a basketball game tonight – it’s just very unfortunate.” “That’s a very good basketball team we played against tonight. It just shows that the guys that we have are still hanging in and playing hard, playing together. We’re doing a much better job of executing and screening the basketball, moving the basketball, and passing. So yes, there’s a lot of positive to that from that standpoint because as I said, it’s a very good team that we played and we could’ve bowed out from the start. We’ve gotten off to some slow starts but again tonight we came out and really held our own. There were a lot of encouraging things that we saw out there tonight. It’s just unfortunate that we weren’t able to pull the game out.” “We’ve had a lot of pain this year – it’s hard. A loss is a loss in my eyes and we’ve had a lot of them. Obviously it hurts a little more from the standpoint of playing as hard as we did, hitting that shot that Beno (Udrih) hit and then not able to execute a simple defensive assignment on our end of the floor at the end and its the ballgame. In that sense it is a little more painful, but it’s another loss.” “I just believe that sometimes when the team is flowing we’ve made some great plays at the end of the game – (tonight) guys had a flow going; Francisco (Garcia) hit a big three. Sometimes you call a timeout and you break the rhythm of a team – I thought at that point we were set in our position, so why call a timeout – just go ahead and run with it. Fortunately enough we got a good look at it as I said. From the offensive standpoint we did a great job tonight – obviously our defense has to get a lot better and game playing discipline.”
The way we played that game and went back and forth with them and make plays like we did down the stretch. We thought we had it and that just shows you it’s not over until “she’s singing.” We have to wait till the final buzzer. On the last play by Rasual Butler: It’s just a breakdown, a defensive breakdown. On his emotions on Vlade’s retirement: It was great to see him and all the other guys come back and have him get the recognition he deserves for what he did for this town and especially for this community. Not even as a basketball player. I think the Kings honored him for his greater good than what he just did on the court. Part of it you watch as a fan and think that it is great that he is getting it and as a player part of you watches it and hopes that may be me one day.
We knew exactly what happened. If it wasn’t us putting ourselves in the hole early, it's us making a foolish play at the end, to leave us saying that we should have done something different. Championship teams have never and will never have regrets on the floor. If you lose by a one second shot, it’s not because you made a mistake, it’s because they made a great play. It is the opposite for us. On Beno’s last shot and his confidence: It does a lot (to help his confidence), but it doesn’t really help it too much when you go down the court and we lose the game on the end. It really doesn’t mean anything. It shouldn’t be a long term thing. I think it is pride, passion and determination to win with your teammates. When we have a scheme that we do and everyone understands how to do it. There shouldn’t be any reason why a guy hits a three wide open. On seeing the support for Vlade does it have effect on their play tonight: Most definitely, the crowd was into the whole game. I think we needed it and we rallied with it. We used their energy to take us all the way to the end. |
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