"It was a tough first half. I'd like to think that the team who we are played more in the second half. We were plus-12 rebounding in the second half; they had 42 points in the paint in the first half and only 16 in the second half. I'd like to think that's closer to who we are. Other than that, I'm encouraged because I think our guys saw that they were a better team than they played in the first half."

"You've got to want the last shot. I thought that Kevin came off, he was basically a decoy (on) the first pass. Bobby Jackson was coming back off the other side, Kevin made a good pass to Spence, and I thought Spence had a good look. I want Spencer Hawes to take that shot. He's a good shooter, he had a great basketball game and he has to be confident in taking that shot. I'll take that shot from Spence all day long."

"If Kevin has any type of game at all, we beat this team by 10. But it's not what happened. It's a team game, and I thought that Spence played extremely well. I thought Jason Thompson played extremely well -- made a few mistakes defensively, but overall played big, like big guys are supposed to do around the basket. We know that Kevin was probably pressing a little bit after a couple of shots weren't going in. But John came through at the end and I thought Bobby came in and played well. It was a team effort the second half and clearly, in our opinion, I think that (Minnesota) played pretty well and they accomplished what they set out to do and win the basketball game. But I thought we outplayed them in the second half. We just didn't play well enough in the first to sustain the game."

"It's not necessarily about (Jefferson), it's about playing big. I think that what he scored on were offensive rebounds and just little stuff around the basket. We had a plus-12 rebounding (advantage) in the second half and I thought that really helped us a lot... I've seen (Love) play for a long time. I've known him since about the eighth grade, so I've seen him do different things. He's a rookie, he's got a long way to go, he's got a lot to learn. But he played solid. I thought he played solid."

"When you're building a team, when you're trying to look and win games and get your big guys better and your young guys better, it's a positive thing. Spencer knew coming into this game that he was going to have to play big. He was going to have to play physical, he was going to have to be seven feet. I thought he did a great job with it. I was real encouraged with the way those two guys (Hawes and Thompson) played, and hopefully other guys recognize the rebounding. Guys who rebound are going to play."

"We can't ask for anything better than that... We gave ourselves a chance to win the game, but sometimes the ball will go in and sometimes not. All we can do is get shots at the basket and they go in or they don't. They didn't go in tonight."

"It says a lot about this team, especially us being young. We really held together in the fourth quarter, and for the majority of the year that's what we are going to have to do if we want to win games. We've got to execute but we've got to make baskets. I'll take that performance every night and we can take that. You can't play like that for 82 games, but (if) we come out with our minds set playing every night, we are going to be really good."

"First game, they kept us on offensive boards in the first half with 10 offensive rebounds and that was the thing that killed us. For 42 points in the first half in the paint, you can't do anything about that, but we capitalized in the second half to make sure we didn't let that happen again. All we can do is ask for a chance to win, and that's what we had."

"We hurt ourselves in the first half and then played well. We turned the ball over, they killed us in the paint, they killed us on the boards. Second half we did a much better job with that, but it was too much to overcome... We had our chances. We're proud that we hung in there, never gave up and kept fighting. That's the encouraging thing. We definitely built some character today."

"It definitely is (encouraging to play well while being shorthanded). We have a lot of talent. We have a young team and are trying to put it all together. We've got some key guys out, but we're still there."

"It feels good (to play well), but this ones stings. We fought so hard -- especially on the defensive end -- to get back into it, made plays down the stretch and just came up short. The way we started out, especially giving up all those offensive rebounds, we kind of handicapped ourselves. I think the way we played in the second half, if we could have just kept half those rebounds off the first half we would have won. But that the way it goes. You've got to play a full 48."

"The biggest thing they say, especially with young guys, is consistency. You can't come out one night and do it and the next night not bring it, so I think that's what we're working towards. Doing it on a consistent basis every night."

Head Coach Randy Wittman
"It's good to open up with a home win. I thought after the first quarter we settled down a little bit defensively. As I stated before the game, I thought this was going to boil down to keeping them off the foul line. We did an okay job of that, defending the ball off the dribble without fouling. Then making plays at the end... We made some good decisions on drives, but then we just didn't finish plays. We've got to do a better job of that and continue to work on that situation as much as you can in practice. It's hard to emulate 17,000 fans in the gym screaming, but we've got to do a better job of that."

"I take my hat off to Sacramento, too. I thought Sac played well. Salmons was a handful for us. We tried a number of different guys on him and that last five minutes they finally went small, which the league is doing now, and moved him over to the '4' and was negated... I thought Kevin Love played great for his first game as a rookie. We had to try to match up. I wasn't going to try to leave Kevin Love on Salmons defensively, and we made him make some tough shots."

"I thought the last play of the game, after 24 seconds, we defended absolutely wonderfully, as good as you can defend a play to get them to take the shot that they took. We didn't secure the offensive rebound and gave them an opportunity to get one more shot up there, but that 24 seconds coming out of the timeout was fantastic for our guys. We've got things to work on, but it's always fun to work on things after a win in the first game. I know one of the first things we're going to work on is free throw shooting. I think we had the lead at eight to nine points, I think, four different times. That's when you've got to break that glass and make it 15 or 16 instead of letting them come back. That's where we've really got to focus. When you've got a team down with four minutes to go, you've got to make sure you keep your foot on their throat."

"That's who Kevin (Love) is. Kevin does a little bit of everything. He shoots and he rebounds, I thought he rebounded excellent tonight. I thought he kept more balls alive offensively, I don't know how many offensive rebounds he ended up getting, but he got his hands on how many others? He kept them alive. He had 12 points and nine rebounds in 18 minutes, that's a pretty good opening night for him."

"Yes, again, we became too predictable. We put them in positions where we've got to react to what the defense is doing. If they're going to push your pick-and-roll down, you've got to try to run through them. We got a little bit too predictable. That was one of the periods, right before the end of the third quarter, we were up eight or nine leading up to that point, and they closed the gap on us there. That's the area where we've got to improve. That's where we've got to become more efficient and recognize that we're at that point of the game. Sometimes you can't call timeout every time that happens. We've got to do a better job there, no question."

Mike Miller
"The ball seemed like it hung on the rim a lot (on the last possession). It was one of those situations, we did a good job defensively (but) sometimes we have to secure the rebound better. I probably should have made both free throws. It would have eliminated that, but we got the win and that's what is most important."

"It's great, always fun out there. If we can continue to win games here, it'll bring excitement to this building. If we get excited in this building, then we're a dangerous team, so we appreciated the fans tonight. They were great."

"We can work a lot on the defensive end, but they made some tough shots. You've got to give them some credit. We could have played a little better defense at times, but at the same time our goal was to make them shoot jump shots. It's what we worked on in training camp. Tonight they did a good job of that, but we still got the win and that is the most important part."

Ryan Gomes
"Kevin Love played well tonight. He was in there fighting for balls, got a lot of rebounds, made some good passes and he poked it up and made some easy shots around the basket. Like I said before, we are happy with the acquisition of getting him in here. Kevin Love stepped up tonight and played well for us."

"Like we said, we knew it would be defense, keeping guys away from the rim, but guys made shots over our hands. Hawes made some big shots. Their shots are going to go in. As long as we don't let them get high-percentage shots, it'll make us tougher."

Kevin Love
"I had more butterflies before the game, saying two sentences (to the crowd). Wishing everyone luck before the game, especially Sacramento more than anything, but once I got in a groove, once I got out there for the first time, it was good."

"I always go to the offensive glass, that's what I've said all along. There's no such thing as a selfish rebound, so I go for every single one that I possibly can. Hopefully that will be a theme for the whole season and my whole career."

"Now that one felt good! Usually I'm not the guy dunking all the time (but) getting that first dunk, in that first game, felt very good.""