Ben Wallace Guys Quotations

I enjoy being here. I enjoy these guys that I'm playing with. I owe everything to these guys here not talking about this, not making a big buzz about me being a free agent. We just go out there every night, and (I) do whatever I can do to help this team win.

Guys came out tonight and played with a lot of energy, just went out there and played basketball. Moved the ball from side to side and forced the defense to make a couple mistakes and made them second-guess.

I think it says a lot about the character of the guys in this locker room. We have had guys who have been hurting a little bit, who could have taken some time off. But they choose to come out and give us whatever they've got. That's all we ask.

I think that says a lot about the guys here; being dedicated to winning. And it says a lot about the organization being dedicated to winning and what they have to do to keep this group together.

When a team is short-handed, you can't allow them to hang around and feed off their emotions. Knowing that they got guys out, guys want to come out and play a little extra hard, try to pick it up. You can't afford to let those type teams hang around too long.

We got a couple of new guys coming off the bench. Our bench has been doing a great job for us, coming in and maintaining.

We just wanted to give ourselves every opportunity to win games. Guys came out ready to play with a lot of energy but the playoffs is a whole different beast. This game won't mean anything for that. Everybody knows teams step up their game once the playoffs start.

You got a chance to see some of the younger guys get out there -- you know, have a little fun, get their feet wet, so to speak.

It says a lot about the character of the guys in this room. All we ask of everybody is to give what you have every night. Just show up and give what you got, whether it's 20 minutes or 30 minutes. These guys do that and I tip my hat to them.

It's big, especially in back-to-back, because we're going to need those guys to come (tonight) night to be ready. I think (Wednesday) was a little tune-up for them out there. Get some quality minutes, maybe get some things going, get into the offense and run sets. We're going to need that same type of energy (tonight).

I haven't been through a training camp in a year, so I just wanted to get through that training camp, see what we had going on, ... Give the young guys a chance to shine.

I didn't know anything about it, but I think that's a sign of consistency. We go out and play hard every night, not take shortcuts and we usually don't pick up fouls. We keep guys off the line, force them to take tough shots, force them to beat you, not beat yourself.

All it takes is for guys to come out and make a couple shots, and you find yourself on the losing end. We know what teams are capable of doing.