Transcribed from CSN Bay Area’s broadcast:

Don Nelson (opening statement): Well, we had a very good start, and I thought Hunter played his best game for us. (He) was what I was hoping for, so I was glad to see that. The bottom line was, we just couldn’t sustain (after) the fourth foul on Monta. It took him out of the game, mentally, after that, and then when he got the fifth, it just took all the spark out of him. But we couldn’t survive the fourth foul on him, in the second period. It was just a total flop. It should have been a no-call, if anything. Anyway, the good teams survive stuff like that, but at this point, we can’t survive a kick in the teeth like that. We’ve got to have Monta out there, full steam, all the time. But I thought Memphis really played well and they’ve put together quite a team. Their bench really kicked our butt tonight. When we had our opportunities, they just played better than the starters. That’s the way you want your team to play. I think (Lionel) Hollins has done an outstanding job here, putting this team together, and he has them playing winning basketball.

Q: After the first quarter, did the Grizzlies do anything to take you out of your offensive rhythm?
DN: Oh, you can call it what you want. I don’t know . . . we tried to do the same thing the whole game, so if that was the difference, their defense, then yes, they did. They must have. To me, I think it was more our best player was unavailable for a while, that got us in a bit of a hole, and then it took all the starch out of his game. So you call it whatever you want.

Q: You mentioned Hunter. Can you find minutes for him when Andris Biedrins and Ronny Turiaf return?
DN: Yeah, because I’d like to play a third center some. And again, you never know about Turiaf, when he comes back, about how his knee is going to respond. So I’m going to have to have that third big guy. I like him a lot, and it’s the first game he’s really played for me. He’s showed me bits and pieces once in a while, and then he’s let me down a few times when I started to lean on him. He had his opportunity tonight and he played a really fine game.

Q: How difficult was it to make adjustments to Zach Randolph.
DN: Well, we can’t, right now, make adjustments to anybody. We’re smaller than hell back there. But eventually, you’ve got play Zach with a bigger guy, a stronger guy. We just didn’t have him out there.