Scott Skiles Good Quotations

We're in an enviable position. We have good young players, (high) draft picks and money to spend. Yet we're in last place in our division, so it's logical that people would call John and gauge if we're jittery and feel a need to make a big move. We happen to value our young players, and we're not gonna do anything silly.

We have played better at the end of the games. We have tended to make some pretty good plays on both ends of the floor when the game is on the line.

We have a play that we run there where we to try to get Ben on a run around but it didn't develop. Snow (was) pretty much covering it real good there and we couldn't get off of him to get Ben free.

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.

Luther's been great. I liked watching him in college. I think he's a great all-around player. My feeling is, wherever his career is going, he's probably going to continue to get minutes. He looks like a good pro guard to me.

Luke's an interesting player. He's got size, good hands, a nice touch. We can use size right now.

For whatever reason, we meant business when the ball went up tonight. That's the team I see in practice. It was good to see them take it into the game.

He is obviously a good shooter and moved down the floor well and scored in the post. I like the way he has played.

He's got to get in better shape. That's the first thing. He's got to get in good enough shape to where he can at least attempt to be a big-minute player. He's got some nice natural post-up moves, but he has a ways to go. But he does a lot of good things. He's a very, very skilled player.

There are talented players over there, but from what I read, (McMillan) is still dealing with players showing up late. Those are things that are very difficult to deal with. I'm an outsider, but I think he has done a good job of it.

Kirk was outstanding tonight pretty much from beginning to end. Defensively he was as good as he always is and he played with a nice tempo. He didn't really force anything, ran the offense well, penetrated and made a lot of good decision.

I thought we were active on both ends. Our defense is coming around. We are going on a good month now with solid defense. A lot of times in critical moments we have not been able to get stops. That activity carried over to the offensive end. We did a good job of trying to penetrate, get in the paint, and make plays for each other.

I thought the way that game unfolded made that a very good win. We knew we'd have a battle in the second half. We battled and made a lot of big plays on both ends. When it got really tight, we raised our level of play.

Our defense was good again tonight and we needed it. We sort of went cold in the second half. We went 12-for-42 in the second half. To win a game when you only make 12 field goals in the second half, obviously our defense was good.

I suppose that's a good question. I don't know. Would there be a conflict of interest there because he was in Washington? I really haven't given that a whole lot of thought.

Malik has had some good minutes lately. He's shooting 49 percent. He doesn't have a lot of attempts, but he's been able to knock down the perimeter shot, hold his position and he's had some good minutes.

We played hard for the most part. We had a lot of good stretches. Then it came down to the end, could we make plays, and we did.

We dug a 20-point hole against a good team at home. It's very difficult at that point to come back and win.

We played terrible defense (on Monday) and he was talking about touches. I thought that was the incorrect thing to be talking about. I thought Ben was good tonight.

We had good performances across the board. We like the tempo of our offense, the way it's been going these three games. ... We want to push it up. Tonight, we were more fortunate with it because we were able to get more stops.

We had good life from start to finish, and we played very good defense with the exception of a handful of possessions. That allowed us to get out and get our running game going, and get some good looks in transition; and we shot the ball well tonight.

We have had several of those so far. We cannot have that. We are not good enough to play like that and win. We have to play inspired ball all the time, or this will happen to us.

We need every win. The problem is we started the second half like five blind men. We were not executing, not talking to each other. Maybe one half is good enough for us right now. We have to get that rectified.

We did what we had to do. We were able to get off to a better start. Our guys were confident and relaxed, yet focused from the start. We had good performances across the board.

We did what we had to do. We came out and played with energy, I thought we had good ball movement. Our shot selection was excellent, and I think they were a little bit off.

We were able to pick up a full game on the team right in front of us. I think it is important that the guys go home with a good game under their belt. Maybe we will have a little momentum coming out of the break.

We liked Stephen. It's just that we wanted to take a look at a big guy also with the 10-days. It's good for them and it's good for our guys to know we're not afraid to bring somebody in and give them a look.

We had a better-than-average NBA effort. But that's not normally good enough for us to win.

We were on the fortunate end of it. We did a nice job of getting our bodies in and not the silly sort of reaching, slapping fouls we've been guilty of sometimes. Overall, I want to give my guys credit. They had a very good defensive effort.

We just gave them 25 points off turnovers and it's tough to win when you do that. I'm concerned about this one good half, one bad half routine, one good quarter, one bad quarter that we've been in and just the carelessness with the ball. And, a lack of respect for the basketball out there was pretty amateurish.

We did a lot of good things tonight with the exception of four or five minutes with our defense breaking down. Other than that we had 40 plus minutes of pretty solid defense. We moved the ball well. We got a lot of open looks.

We had pretty significant breakdowns for a good portion of the game. So we were fortunate to be in the game and have a chance. We turned it up late and we got really active around the basket and got in there and defended some balls and just kind of changed the tempo that way.

Ben is one of the most unique players I've seen. It is uncanny how one moment he is out there and not having a good game, then all of a sudden he just starts throwing in shots.

Ben has had a good year. Not starting isn't a reflection of Ben. When considering a lineup move to get some energy out there, you have to consider how that player will respond. Ben has proven he can come off the bench, score and be very productive.

Ben got the ball, so we went to a high pick-and-roll setup. Mike made a good play.

At one point we had 11 field goals and eight of them were assisted. I thought our ball movement was good again, we played very unselfishly in general and we did what we had to do. We talked about trying to put them down early at least. It doesn't always work out the way you talk about it, but at least you get a nice lead and see how they react.

Our defense hasn't been good enough to win. We haven't been physical enough, and they've taken it to us.

Antonio Davis can't help but be a good influence on the other guys and Jerome Williams hustles all the time. He gets up and down the floor.

As long as they're good shots. You have to earn the right to take that many shots, and you do that by taking good shots, making a good percentage of them, by playing good defense and staying out of foul trouble.

The way they've closed the season speaks to what kind of group this is. We've had many opportunities to let the games go by, win a couple, lose a couple, and go on vacation (after the regular season). I think every chance, when that presented itself, the guys fought their way out of it. They've earned themselves a very good season.

It's not only that we talk to them. The league does a good job, and the players association, of going through all that at the beginning of the year. The players have union meetings where that's discussed.

It's been a good impression; he's a very good offensive player. He's got a lot to learn on the defensive end, as all rookies do. I'm not sure, yet, what his future holds here. But he's definitely on the verge of being an NBA player.

Even when we got it close, Jamison got away from us. He's been a key guy whenever we've played against them. If we would've been able to do a good job on him and make him shoot a poor percentage, we've had some success. Arenas is normally going to have a pretty good game; it's hard to stop him. But Jamison got away from us.

No, because I've heard similar things throughout the course of the year. It's something he's going to have to get over. He needs to face the personal responsibility of what he needs to get done. I just look at it as an opportunity to learn a good lesson at this time of year.

Nothing. I told 'O' the other day we certainly have not lost confidence in him. I wanted to make sure he hasn't lost confidence in himself, and he assured me he hadn't. Tonight he got some good looks, and he was able to knock them down.

If Luke gets to play, Luke's a good passer and he can make his hook shot. He knows how to play and he knows what we're doing. In limited minutes he's gotten, he hasn't hurt us or himself.

I'm happy for Tyson. I'm sure a good amount of grief he's gone through has been self-imposed. He's kind of tortured himself for some of the games he hasn't played well in. He's really broke out the last three games and he was obviously excellent again tonight.

If you never done it the way Kirk does it, it's hard to explain how hard it is to chase some of the game's best players around two, three, four screens sometimes in the same possession and almost always taller than him, sometimes stronger also, so he does such a good job of it. I thought it wore him down a little bit, but he really responded late in the game. I thought overall it was (one) Kirk's better games.

He's settled into the role of being one of the first players off the bench. He's shot the ball well for us. He's passed it. He's played very good defense. He's just a very good all-around player and is having a very good year for us.

I didn't see the replay yet, but I'm sure it was a good call.

These guys can go home with a good game under their belts. I think that is important, that we gain a little momentum coming out of the break.