SONICS COACH NATE MCMILLAN:

On the Bobcats:
The Bobcats are well-disciplined and they came out and played well-disciplined basketball. We knew they would come out and play hard.

On the Sonics success:
It seems like each guy has come out and had his night. Rashard (Lewis) has really played solid every night. We take one game at a time and we didn’t want to take this team for granted.

GUARD RAY ALLEN:

On the Bobcats:
They are just learning to play with each other. They were a lot better than I expected but I did not think they would be bad to begin with. They have a good coach and they will only get better.

On this road trip:
We don’t approach a road game any different from any other game. We take one game at a time.

FORWARD RASHARD LEWIS:

On the Bobcats:
They killed us on the glass. They were stopping us on the defensive end in the third quarter. They are a high-energy team who comes out to play.

On his success:
My main focus in the off-season was to be more consistent. You can’t take any games off in this league. Every player is going to have a bad game from time to time, but the key is to be as consistent as possible.

CHARLOTTE COACH BERNIE BICKERSTAFF:

On the refereeing:
I may be biased, but in my opinion, the twelve guys in that room that suited up tonight deserve better than what they got. They played against a great basketball team and they played well. They got back in the basketball game. Those guys deserve better than what they got.

We’re twelve down, and Seattle is good. They play well, they shoot the basketball. But it appears when we got back in the game, that every play, whether it was a defensive play or an offensive play, they got a second chance.

These kids compete too hard night in and night out. My hat is off to Seattle; they are a heck of a basketball team, they play with confidence.

On seeing progress in his team:
There’s no doubt about it. We made 11 out of the 13 free throws that we had. That is much of an improvement. Primoz (Brezec) shot the ball in the second half, which made a huge difference. He was encouraged by his teammates and the coaching staff to shoot the basketball. If you notice that from the other team, when they are open, they pull the trigger. That’s what you have to do. That’s what happens, you have three or four guys who understand this guy is going to pull the trigger and they go to the boards. They all get the boards. My hat is off to our guys - this was a good basketball team, one of the best basketball teams in the league. We could have folded up. But we fought to get back in the basketball game.

On the difference in the second half:
We were much better; defensively we got blocks and contested shots. I’m proud of those guys. We didn’t get the W, which is what we want, we’re not into moral victory, but I’m proud of those guys in that room that laced them up.

FORWARD EMEKA OKAFOR:

On the Sonics:
They shot the crap out of the ball, everybody on the floor. You think you have them, they swing it and swing it and then swoosh. They have good rebounders to gather the misses. Sometimes you’re like, ‘Man they must have a cheat code or something.’ But we hung in there.

On his own shooting:
When we were warming up, (assistant coach) JB (Bickerstaff) made me take 10 extra jump shots. It felt good, and it carried over to the game.

CENTER PRIMOZ BREZEC:

On the game:
We played hard. We played a great team. They’ve got great shooters. Whenever they penetrate, somebody’s got to help, and that leaves somebody open. They’ve got four shooters from the three-point line. It’s tough to play against Seattle. A couple of times (Antonio) Daniels penetrated and I had to stop him and that left (Vladimir) Radmanovic wide open. I think we played the right way; they just made the tough shots.

GUARD KAREEM RUSH:

On the Sonics shooting:
We were more conscious of getting out there in the second half because they made so many shots in the first half. They were just making shots. A team’s not going to be able to shoot that well for the whole game, so we knew that they were not going to keep falling. They just made bigger plays towards the end.

On the Bobcats performance:
We’ve just got to get more patient. I’ve been doing that a lot, taking the first open shot. We need more ball movement, more wide-open shots that guys can knock down. We’re still young. We haven’t been together that long. So we’re still learning each other’s games.

Notes: