Flip Saunders Win Quotations

To our credit, we calmed down and just played basketball. The thing is, especially on the road, you put yourself in a position to win games. We don't beat ourselves.

We wanted to win big right away. We didn't let things happen, we tried to make too many spectacular plays.

If we don't win the title, no one will remember that we were 35-5.

Kind of how we've been for 37 games. Different guys lead us over different parts of the game, play unselfish. Thirty assists, eight turnovers, that's kind of where we've been when we win games. I think how we played tonight against New York is pretty much how this team has played through the first half of this season.

I think what it does is it shows the character of the team, the whole roster, your ability to go out every night and perform at a high level. To win that many games, you don't take too many days off. Especially the start that we had, it seemed like everyone was playing pretty much their Super Bowl.

I think what happens is that experience takes hold as the series progresses, that's usually what happens. Whether there are adjustments to be made or how you react after a win or a loss. Sometimes, those young guys don't know any better, when they haven't had experience.

Our main guys played really well in the third quarter. Then we gave our young guys some fourth quarter experience against a team trying to get a win after losing 10 straight. It would have been better if they would have got the win but overall they did some good things and got some good experience in a close game.

People have been talking about 35-5 and the Tigers a lot lately, but the reason that people remember it is that they won the championship. If we don't win the title, no one will remember that we were 35-5.

I thought offensively we were very anxious. I told our guys that offensively we wanted to do it too quick. We wanted to win big right away.

We were mentally a step slow. We had some defensive breakdowns, we played out of character. But as bad as we played, we still had a chance to win the game with a minute to go.

This season, as much as anything, has been a grind. When you win 63 games and how you've played, it's as much as mental grind as it is physical.

We also are in the entertainment business. I've always been one to go out and win games but also entertain, and I think we've become a team now that a lot of people like to watch play, because we play extremely aggressive at both ends of the floor.

This was a three-game swing. We get an extra win and they get an extra loss.

You have to have players that really accept challenges, that like to compete and really like to play on the road more than they do at home. It is more challenging. It's tough to win on the road, no matter who you play.

You have to have a lot of character to win on the road. You have to have players who love to accept challenges and are extremely competitive. It's almost like they enjoy playing on the road more than playing at home.

As I said in the locker room, people die to get to 50 (wins). To get to 60 is really something. Every win beyond that shows that you've been able to play at a pretty high level for a long time.

The scary thing is he's only 21. Watching him when he was younger, I always thought one of his main strengths was the ability to make other people better. That can always be your major weakness if you do that too much. What he's done in the last month is on the fine line of when he needs to take over a game and when he needs to take a shot to win a game.

The thing I love about these guys is that, when we lose, they have taken it hard and decided to bounce back. This was a great win after a poor performance last night.

I've always said that to win on the road you have to defend, you have to not beat yourselves and you have to not turn the ball over.

It's a five-step process. One, you want to get in the playoffs. We did that about two weeks ago. You want to win your division, which is going to pretty much lock in home court, at least through the first two rounds. Now what you want to do is secure home court in the East. Then secure home court overall and then the championship.

I told our guys, we're not playing Milwaukee. We're playing ourselves. We have a certain way we want to play on offense and on defense. And if we do that, we give ourselves a chance to win against anybody. We can feel good about this right now. But we have to get back to work and prepare to go to Milwaukee.

It's been pretty much a mirror from the standpoint of both teams have established their ability to win at home, they got great crowds at both places as far as the enthusiasm, and both our teams have been the best teams on the road. It's different sports, but we're both looking each other in the mirror.

I'm sure they will want to get a win and split the season series. We'll want to be competitive, and stay sharp.

In pro sports, you want to win, not only now but down the road. If somebody does something, is it going to affect your ability to win down the road? You make your decisions based on that.

If he didn't get hurt, he might have been the favorite to win Most Improved Player.

You want to try to win every game you step out, but I think it would be nice to try to accomplish something like that at home. It's one of these situations, when we go in, all 12 guys got to play well because all 12 guys are going to have opportunities.