Flip Saunders Bench Quotations

We'd like to start getting our bench in that 70- to 80-minute range to give our starters some rest.

We wanted to try to start establishing our bench more, so basically we're playing three guys and giving those guys a little bit more minutes.

It's not always about how many points they score. I thought our bench really gave us a lift tonight in a lot of different ways.

It's natural. We're in a very different situation than a lot of teams. A lot of teams, the reason they play their bench is because they don't like their fourth and fifth guys that much. I like my fourth and fifth guys. That's why our bench doesn't get the minutes some of the other benches get. You have a tendency to go to a comfort level.

Going into this game we needed the bench to give us both good minutes and good production, which they did. Chicago plays physical, they play hard. But to our credit, we can play that way.

Last night's game was a big game just because it put us up (9 1/2 games) with 15 to go. Now we're in a situation where we want to try and extend our bench a little bit, get those guys more minutes, and get our guys where we can stay competitive and fresh.

We're not going to chase that record, but if it comes, it comes. Our focus right now is health and staying sharp. We're going to rest some guys and give our bench extended minutes to get them ready for the playoffs.

Mo (Evans) gave us a boost at both ends tonight. Guys have confidence in him. The guys on the bench want to play more, but they have to do what he did. He came with the right frame of mind.

He's going to be bench pressing a lot of weight come Wednesday.

Two of the last three games that we won were because of our bench, and (Sunday) night, our bench got us in the game. We say we're going to make a very conscious effort to play them, create a role for them, create a niche, create an identity, and I think that's what we've done.

The bench has been great. And that creates that vicious cycle. When the bench is playing well, they play more minutes and the starters get more rest.

The way this team is built, our bench guys are meant to play together in clusters with our main group. When you put all five guys on the floor, they're not as effective as when three of those guys play with a couple of starters.