Flip Saunders Defend Quotations

We're not going to lose our personality. Our personality is still our ability to defend and to execute offensively, and we did both today.

There are no unknowns at this point. But from their standpoint, the X-factor is that they are a team that takes as many three-pointers as anybody. If they get hot like they can, they can cause you a lot of problems. But, one of our strengths all year was defending the three. Hope that continues.

We have not defended how we need to defend. We've been too soft on the ball. ... They kicked out butts every which way. I would like to point to one area and say that we did something well, but we didn't.

You have to try to change up how you defend him. You can't play the same way.

When he's got his legs, what he can do, he can defend in the post with his feet. He can use his quickness and play different angles in the post and not have to rely on totally fronting and totally just playing behind. He gives you an added dimension defensively to do some things.

They're playing better now than when they had those guys. What they're doing right now, they're not as predictable. They have a lot more perimeter movement, a lot more player and ball movement. They're not as stagnant offensively when they're looking to just throw it into Jermaine and play off him, so they're more difficult to defend right now.

The positive was we defended down the stretch. That's what we're going to have to do when playoff time comes.