Scott Skiles Couple Quotations

It's no secret that the last couple of years we were trying to rebuild and redo our team, and there's a lot of teams that try to do that and can't get in the playoffs. For our guys to get in is a tribute to the way they have been resilient and stayed with it.

All you need to do is watch a couple NBA games to know that's an automatic timeout. We have guys with enough experience to know that. It's inexcusable.

At that point, you call an automatic timeout. All you have to do is watch a couple of NBA games to know it's a timeout. We had guys out there with enough experience out there to know that. It's inexcusable.

It was kind of a typical exhibition game. We had a couple of guys who had trouble relaxing. I thought we had some really questionable shot selection and we struggled stopping them early in the game.

We need to play 40-plus minutes of really good basketball. The last couple games, we've got 30-plus, but that's not good enough at this level to win the game.

We made free throws, they fouled us and we made free throws. We were able to get a couple of baskets when it was starting to get tight, and we held the off and kept them at bay. It was really just making free throws.

In the third quarter we got up on those guys and made them penetrate. We were there to take the charge. When things stopped going our way for just a couple of minutes, that all stopped as well. We became very tentative on both ends of the floor.

We got it tight there a couple times, kind of left our feet, got a little out of control. But having said that, we got a decent look at a 3-point shot to tie the game with 18 seconds to go. We had our chances.

I told the guys a couple of days ago that whoever I thought played the best the next two days is going to start, so that's what we did.

Our focus early in this game was unacceptable for a game this big. Not all across the board, but a couple of our starters just weren't ready tonight.

Ben made shots. He got hot early, missed a couple and got it going again.

It wasn't like we had a total letdown or anything; we just softened up enough to let him get going. And once he got going, it was very difficult to get any momentum back. Early in the third, we went under a couple of times on screens. He made one, and that really opened his eyes. He put one right in the middle. That's a lesson that needs to be learned -- playing against great players like that, just one possession can get them going. Obviously, if you look at the whole year, the four games we played them, he's averaged well over 30 points against us. We didn't get it done against him this year.

He has been very good. We were a little concerned putting him back on the bench. The first couple of games off the bench he did not play very well and we were concerned. Since then, he has been fantastic.