TIMBERWOLVES: Wolves - Bobcats Postgame

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NBA Postgame Quotes
Minnesota vs. Charlotte
April 8, 2008 @ Charlotte Bobcats Arena

Charlotte 121
MINNESOTA 119

Minnesota Head Coach Randy Wittman:
“We should have scored on both (final possessions). We executed, we just didn’t finish the plays. That is how you win games like that; making plays down the stretch.”

(On the team’s second-to-last possession)
“I have to look at it again. It probably should have been a bounce pass. You have to give him an opportunity to catch it. I think he threw it on a straight line. It was kind of hard, and it caught Al (Jefferson) off guard. He made the right play but he just didn’t execute the connection.”

(On Michael Doleac, Mark Madsen and Greg Buckner)
“These guys have to learn how to be professionals. Doleac, Madsen and Buckner have sat and watched and kept themselves ready. I didn’t feel at the beginning of the game that we cared too much about playing them. Our young guys should learn from these three guys. Bucker hasn’t played in a couple of months, yet he was ready. He didn’t complain about not playing and he was the reason why we had a chance to win, nobody else. We didn’t have a chance to win this game if I didn’t put Buckner in.”

(On Al Jefferson)
“He was just going through the motions in the first quarter. He is a young kid. He has to learn. There aren’t any games in this league that we don’t get paid for, and there are no games that you take off. We got embarrassed a little bit and then he woke up and played pretty hard.”

Minnesota Center Al Jefferson:
(On the final play of the game) “I thought it was a good shot, I just missed it. I think it was a good play and we ran it real well and I got the open shot but I just missed it.”

(On tying his career high of 40 points)
“I just had to get going. I’m a scorer, that’s what I do. There should be no excuse why I am turning the ball over or missing some shots. I just have to get it going and that’s what I did.”

(On the team’s resiliency to fight back after being down by as many as 18 points)
““We did a good job getting back in the game. I just had to step my game up. (Greg Buckner) came off the bench and hadn’t played in six months. I had to step my game up because my teammates were doing a hell of a job keeping us into the game, so I needed to get going.”

(On the play of Jason Richardson)
“J-Rich is a heartbreaker. He hit some tough shots and every time we tried to make a run he hit another tough shot and that just hurt us. But we tried to keep going and we finally put ourselves in a position to win and it just didn’t work out for us.”

Minnesota Guard Randy Foye:
(On the presence of veteran Greg Buckner)
“He’s a guy who a lot of us on this team go to. We have great respect for him. He acts like a professional every day and is ready to play. He’s always helping the younger guys out.”

Charlotte Head Coach Sam Vincent:
(On the closeness of tonight’s game)
“It was closer than we wanted but we are trying to learn how to win close games. Hopefully this will be a learning experience for the guys to be able to weather some storms and still come out with a win.”

(On Jason Richardson)
“He has been incredible. Offensively, you can look at the stats and see that he always has a range between 35-38 points. It doesn’t even look like he is scoring that many points, but his three-point game has been so effective. He’s been our life source because without him scoring the way he has we would struggle.”

(On the team’s offensive effort)
“It was nice to get all of the guys really involved. Nazr Mohammad got off to a really nice start and Matt Carroll had a really nice shooting game tonight. We did some good things tonight but I think what really hurt us was that we just were not able to control them on their offensive boards. Al (Jefferson) got too many second chance opportunities and with the big kid Craig (Smith), they were active around the boards.”

(On Jared Dudley’s development)
“Jared has grown a lot like the team has. I thought early on he was trying to find his niche and trying to figure out how he was going to be a scorer, but somewhere during the middle of the season he realized that getting offensive boards and put-backs was going to be his niche. He has just really excelled at that. We don’t really run any plays for him but he finds a way to get the ball in the basket and be productive.”

Charlotte Guard Jason Richardson:
(On the second half and sustaining the Minnesota run)
“We just kept on playing hard. We knew they were going to make a run, and they made a big run. They had a chance to tie the game at the end, but we kept our composure and we got a win tonight.”

(On his recent scoring surge)
“I’m just going out there and being aggressive and trying to finish up the season strong. With Gerald (Wallace) going down, I have to pick up some offensive slack because that’s 20 points (per game) that we’re missing.”

(On the difference between this game and close losses earlier in the season)
“We sustained their runs. We didn’t get rattled at them. We’ve been going through that all season where we’re winning at halftime and we let a team make a run (in the third quarter) and we lose our composure and end up losing the game. (Tonight) shows that, as a team, we’re building and we’re getting better. That’s going to help us out next season.”

Charlotte Guard Matt Carroll:
(On his purposely-missed free throw with one second left)
“I was surprised that only three-tenths of a second went off the clock (when Minnesota got the rebound). The idea (in missing the second free throw) was that more time would come off the clock.”

(On the win)
“We had a good team effort. We were trying to come out and set the tone early and put them away early, but they kept fighting until the end and made it a good game. Fortunately, we got the win at the end.”

(On the upcoming three-game road trip)
“It’s always tough to win on the road, but we’re going to try to win the rest of the games we have left. That’s our goal. We have to finish strong and carry the momentum into next season.”