After Minnesota's 108-103 victory over the Sacramento Kings, we caught up first with Randy Foye to catch the injured point guard's reaction to his team's victory:
Randy Foye Interview
Subsequently, we went into Randy Wittman's postgame press conference, which you can watch in the WolvesVision player. Next, we moved onto the locker room and heard from guard Rashad McCants, who scored a career-high 33 points to lead Minnesota to a win.
Rashad McCants Interview
Lastly, you can listen to audio highlights of the game from our broadcast team:
Wolves-Kings Audio Recap
NBA Post-Game Quotes
Minnesota vs. Sacramento
November 14, 2007 @ Target Center
Sacramento 103
MINNESOTA 108
Minnesota Coach Randy Wittman:
"Well, finally... I thought our guys put ourselves in position like we did out there on Saturday. We made plays down the stretch tonight. I thought we really did a nice job in the second half of concentrating defensively. We gave them too many lax buckets in the first half."
"We won that game... As we talked about the last four minutes in every timeout, here we go again. Are we going to make the plays? And our guys did."
"I thought Marko came in in the second half -- I was really displeased with how our point guards played in the first half. In the second half, he stepped up and took the challenge. He leads us in rebounding, and I thought he did a good job of finding people and didn't turn the ball over and made free throws down the stretch."
"Antoine, as we talked about, there are people here that can play and want to play. His opportunity presented itself and he was ready as a veteran guy who has been around. I wasn't surprised that he stepped up and played big for us. To give us 19 points off the bunch was huge."
"This is (McCants') opportunity to be that type of player. We knew that he is probably our best guy at getting to the basket. This was the first game that we won the free throw battle, and that is the difference, I think, between us winning more games than this."
"We were able to play a good inside-out game tonight. We were able to use Al especially in the first half. We really got him going a little bit and then I thought Rashad really kind of took over in the second half. He was aggressive and I don't ever really remember him taking a bad shot."
Minnesota Guard Marko Jaric:
"It is good to get the monkey off our backs. We were there for the previous five games. We are working hard, we know we are there. We definitely had a sour taste in our mouth before this game... We played much more loose and we had much more confidence."
Minnesota Forward Al Jefferson:
"I think it was that we made shots and got deep posts. Our guards did a lot of attacking, trying to draw fouls. We made shots... It feels good (to get the first win). We have more to come."
"We blocked out and got every rebound. Marko stepped up big. Everybody was getting into the boards. We came together tonight... A lot of guys helped us rebound tonight. Gomes got some big offensive rebounds for us."
Sacramento Coach Reggie Theus:
"It's a tough loss for us. Once again we're minus-15 on the boards, and they got 48 points in the paint. It's hard to fight through that. We had our shots early but we didn't knock them down. It's a tough situation when you're able to get any shot you want on the floor. I was trying to make sure that the guys understood that just because you're open doesn't always mean that's the right shot, you still have to take it to the hole. We didn't shoot many free throws in the first half and we should've been driving to the basket. Listen, they played well and they made plays down the stretch to win the basketball game and that's the big difference. They got the big rebounds, came up with the loose balls and when they got it to Jefferson, he put it in the hole and that really is the way you finish games."
"(McCants) is a good player. Defense is always a team game, but individually you have to at least stay in contact with your man and not let him get easy shots. I thought our best defense tonight was when we had to take Ron and put him on Jefferson, and I don't think from that point Jefferson scored. That's tough on Ron to have to do that the whole game. I didn't see, there wasn't a particular point in the game when (McCants) took over the game. He just got them in the flow of the game."
"(Salmons) has got to make an adjustment. That's his role and he's got to make an adjustment. That's all. There's really nothing more that you can say about it, he's just got to get it done. It's tough, it's a tough scenario when you've been starting and playing well and now you come off of the bench. It has nothing to do with him personally. It's just trying to get a better rotation in terms of the entire team. I'm actually very pleased with the way John and Francisco played. I made the lineup change to try and better the entire team and not just work out their games."
Sacramento Guard Kevin Martin:
"Every game is a game you could win. They made big plays down the stretch, got some key rebounds and putbacks. They were just hungry for their first win... The whole team played well though. (McCants) was hungry for a win and they all were hungry for a win. He definitely made some good moves tonight."
"It seems like we're starting to get used to having players out and then come back, so we can't use that as an excuse any more. It might be tough at some times, but we just have to keep playing our game and hope everything comes together."
"(I was) very average, just because I like to judge my game on wins now and we didn't win, so it was just an average game."
Sacramento Center Brad Miller:
"It's tough, it's the NBA. Most games are decided in the last five minutes and obviously we had a chance to be in it right there. We made miscues on a couple of plays, a couple turnovers. Just basically all the things to lose instead of, you know, the other night we made the plays to win."
"It's one of those team things that's frustrating. We've got to try and win these close games when we get there on the road. When we have the chance, we have to make these games count, because there's other games like Dallas, San Antonio and New Orleans where we don't have a chance to win at the end of the game on the road."
"We just need to make sure we keep John (Salmons) in there. He did so well for us. He did a lot for us. He brought the ball up, guarded point guards, guarded big guys, did a lot of things. That's what makes it so tough when you have a guy like Ron who's kind of similar, the same type of games. We need John, so it's something we've got to work on."
