Jerry Sloan Great Quotations

Nelson did a great job keeping us off balance. I thought his play was terrific. He's strong ... he can score, he was able to get people the basketball and help them get the kinds of shots they wanted. That's one of the big things that hurt us.

Give (the Heat) credit, because they're a great team. They've got guys who can get to the basket and get to the free throw line. We don't have a guy who can get 20 free throws a night. So how are we going to play? We've got to do it from a team concept, by passing the ball and being ready to pass it.

He may have gotten a little bit tired, but I thought he was a factor for us, because he could go get the basketball. I thought he helped us a great deal defensively a couple of times. He stepped way out and tried to give us help on Paul, so he couldn't have the lane to get on top of the basket.

He came into this league a great player. He obviously has gotten better, but experience is a great teacher. He's just a great, great player.

He came in this league as a great player, in my opinion. But he obviously gets better.

He's a very confident guy, but I probably got into his confidence level a little bit. The important thing to me was he fought threw that little spell we had and his confidence grew and grew. He can see a lot of things on the floor not many guys can see. I've been around a long time and watched a lot of different guys play this game. He has great knowledge of basketball.

We made some mistakes, but we also had some situations where I think we could've hung in there a little better if we'd had a couple of things go our way. I'm not going to take anything away from them because they're a great team, but it's frustrating.

He was terrific. He made his shots and he's just a wonderful player. I think we're intimidated by him a great deal.

We didn't show a great deal of toughness. We were tired out there and we have to get into better shape.

This team is going to be a great, great team.

I'm not asking them to be Karl Malone, but I think I have a right to hold players accountable. If I do that, then I'm being a little bit too harsh on them at times. But we have a tendency to think that no work is the best policy and that will cause you a great deal of trouble.

He's progressed a great deal. The biggest thing was understanding what we're doing. He's a lively guy. A little wild sometimes. But he's becoming more under control, doing more things that really help his teammates.

He's in much better shape than a year ago. One of the important things for guys to remember is to be in great shape, so if you do have something go wrong, you don't get yourself behind to start.