December 12, 2007
SONICS HEAD COACH 
P.J. CARLESIMO:
On the game:
Our bench was great. They had 60 points or something like that. I think two of the biggest plays of the game were when
Kurt Thomas drew a charge and
Nick Collison drew a charge. A lot of guys played good. I can say good things about a lot of guys on the team.
On 
Kevin Durant's performance:
I thought he was awfully impressive. He looks more and more comfortable. He made a mistake late, but again he was very composed. I thought he played with a lot of poise. The one thing that has been consistent is that he has been very good in the fourth quarters. He is pretty good. There isn’t a lot of coaching with that. He is a pretty good basketball player.
GUARD KEVIN DURANT:
On the game:
I think we all were in a groove tonight. We just have to bring it every night.
On his fourth-quarter performance:
I feel worse about the turnover. I should have picked it up and threw it. It was my fault. My teammates did a great job.
On his dunk late in the game:
I was trying to go up and get the foul. I saw the rim and I just wanted to finish.
CENTER KURT THOMAS:
On his role as a leader:
I am a mentor for my whole team. It is not about one particular player. We are a family in this locker room.
On Durant:
It is amazing to see a big guy, 6-9 or 6-10, the way he can shoot the ball from outside and the way he can put the ball on the floor. He is almost 7-feet. The way he moves on the floor is definitely amazing.
On returning to New York to play his former team:
I love New York. I always look forward to coming back here. I have a lot of friends and family here. It is just exciting. I love playing in the Garden. There is no arena like the Garden.
NEW YORK HEAD COACH ISIAH THOMAS:
On the end of the game:
I thought Durant got it going. He was everything as advertised. He was spectacular tonight. We missed some opportunities on the defensive side where we could have come up with some loose balls. Durant was the guy that really killed us and that we really didn’t have an answer for.
On his team's effort:
I thought we had enough effort. We didn’t have enough good play. We can have effort but we didn’t have good play. We didn’t have smart play. The stat sheet is kind of deceiving from a rebounding and a turnover standpoint. We only had 14 turnovers but they scored 27 points off of our turnovers. They were bad turnovers. When you have a team out in transition, making layups, it is kind of difficult to make stops we need to make.
On Eddy Curry's performance:
Right now, I think, you look at his offensive output, he was 6-for-11 and he had six rebounds in 24 minutes. That is a good stat line, but defensively we need him to affect the game more defensively and he has to be able to do that for us. If he can do that, he can stay on the floor longer. When you are just giving up baskets and trading baskets, that just makes it difficult.
On potentially making lineup changes:
You give it some thought, however again, if things do change it will be a conversation we have with the players before I have it with you, out of respect. I am not going to come in here after a loss, tell you I am going to be changing things before I have said it to the players. We definitely have to regroup. We are not playing good basketball. We are not a good team and we have to get better.
GUARD JAMAL CRAWFORD:
On Durant:
He is very tall and very athletic. He has a sweet stroke and is going to be a special player. He hit big shots and I think it helped him to step right into it and not have to take a backseat to anybody. That way he can advance faster.
On the loss:
We can’t let these wins, I mean potential wins, get away from us. Everybody is pretty frustrated; we want to win. We are very disappointed and we can’t let games like this get away from us, especially when we are in it until the last two or three minutes.
On getting on track:
We need to get the first win. We can’t let it get to an eight-game slide like earlier. If we get one win I think we can get out of it.
FORWARD DAVID LEE:
On the game:
This was a game we really wanted to win and we’ve been close a couple of games. It’s tough to get that one victory and get back on track. There is a lot frustration here, a lot of guys that want to win.
On the fans:
The fans just want us to be playing hard, and they want us to give everything we have. Unfortunately we’re coming up short right now.
2007-08 Postgame Quotes/Notes Archive
