Flip Saunders Game Quotations

We have players we are trying to get rest over the next 11 games. But you get into the heat of the battle sometimes and you need a billy club to get them out of the game sometimes because they are so competitive. We might have a few tangles coming down the stretch.

If we weren't 33-5 and doing as well as we are, you'd go in thinking, 'Boy, this is a big game to try and show them they made a mistake or whatever. Just where we're at, record-wise, you don't have to worry about that. For us, it's another game.

He turned down some threes. He took a couple of dribble-penetrations, and that collapsed them more and helped out some of our other guys. Sometimes he might take some threes when he's covered, a little bit contested. (Wednesday) he didn't force too many, he let things come to him more. I think he didn't try to force too many, he let the game come to him more.

Going into this game we needed the bench to give us both good minutes and good production, which they did. Chicago plays physical, they play hard. But to our credit, we can play that way.

He's gotten really aggressive and he's making big shots. Watching them play a lot, he gets a lot of shots in the last five seconds of games. He will put pressure on your defense because he can shoot the three, but he's also improved his game getting to the basket.

He causes problems. He has improved his perimeter game so much.

This was a good overall game for us. We did what we said we were looking to do with these last few games. We were sharp, we played a lot of people and were able to keep the starters' minutes down.

This was a game I wish I could have been in the stands, just sitting there watching. This was a great basketball game between two teams who played hard and with a lot of emotion. It was a very entertaining game.

I think it means something because in this league confidence means so much. You never want a player to have so much confidence that he feels he can take over a game at any time. The positive thing about this is that he's not going to think he can walk out on the floor and score 17 straight against us.

Last night's game was a big game just because it put us up (9 1/2 games) with 15 to go. Now we're in a situation where we want to try and extend our bench a little bit, get those guys more minutes, and get our guys where we can stay competitive and fresh.

I think we kind of checked out at that point and thought the game was over. They have a lot of young players, and what they bring you is enthusiasm, energy and they (don't) know any better.

I thought our full-court trap changed the tempo of the game out of free throw situations. And I thought we played some zone the first half that helped us a little bit. I think both teams tried some things to see what worked and to use down the road.

I was worried coming into this game because I heard at shoot-around some guys mention Miami. I was concerned that they'd overlook Atlanta.

My mom told me before the game whatever you do don't get a technical. The way things were going in the first half I really had to bite my lip.

I think people will understand that when we go in together, they will understand what it really is all about. A few years ago ... there were rule changes that were made to make the game aesthetically better and to make the game more team oriented, not as individually oriented. I think the reward that the coaches gave our players kind of signified a little bit maybe that's the way our league is going.

I think if a guy gets in the game and he's productive, then he's going to get more minutes. That's what it's about. And it's that fine line: Do you become productive when you get minutes, or do you get minutes and then become productive? That's always the fine line between players and coaches.

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.

We have to know that they have other guys that are capable. Charlie Bell has played well. T.J. Ford had a pretty good game overall and we've got to continue to find those two. Just do what we normally do. Our philosophy is to contest whatever shot is taken, try to limit three-point shots and rebound the basketball. Those are three things we did.

Were not going to keep Michael at 11 or 14 points. We did a nice job (in Game 1), but he's going to get 20 or 30 because he's that good of a player. What we've got to do is make him earn those and make him be a volume scorer. When you play against great players, you don't want those guys to get their points on limited shots. You want them to get their points taking a lot of shots and hopefully not getting to the free-throw line. That has to be our main focus.

We were able to put ourselves back in the game in the first half. We just could not shake them. ... You knew it was going to be a game that went down to the wire.

We didn't have our heads in the game in the first half. But this team never ceases to amaze me. They were challenged and they stepped up.

We've played 37 games and different guys lead us over different parts of the game and play unselfish...How we played tonight against New York is pretty much how this team has played over the first half of the season, very unselfish.

The defense turned it up, no question. Offensively, we turned things up. ... It was at both ends. That's why this has been a championship team. It was a fun game to watch. I'm sure the people at TNT got their money's worth.

Every time I go into a game I have, I don't know if you want to call it a cheat sheet or whatever, but I have a list of plays that I'm probably going to run that night. And there's no question that this last week that list has been a lot shorter as far as things we're going to run. There's some things we've put in, some wrinkles in some situations and maybe we'll lay away from some of those not to give them an extra scouting opportunity.

Ben was phenomenal. People talk about Bruce Bowen and others as the best defender. Bruce is a great individual defender. Ben is a great individual defender. But Ben Wallace might be one of the best that's played the game as a team defender.

Coming in from the outside, you could see that this team was hurt from what happened last year in Game 7. Sometimes you think over the course of time, they say that time heals wounds. But time just didn't seem to heal that wound.

These are the dog days, because the season seems like it's never going to end. You have to take every game one game at a time. When you're on a big run and winning games, that's the biggest challenge you have -- can you withstand the pressure night in and night out of what teams throw at you?

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 satisfying thing about this game is it puts us 16 games up over our next closest team in the division with 26 to go. That's pretty good.

You saw both teams as basically who they are -- meat-and-potato teams. Maybe this is why the game wasn't hyped as much. This is what basketball was meant to be like -- play defense, play team basketball.

You never want to have a player that has so much confidence against you that he thinks he can just take the game over at any time. At least he's not going to think he can walk on the floor and score 17 straight on us.

This is going to be a great game for the fans. It's going to be a competitive game. But I don't know how much bearing it will have for either team down the road. I mean, if we go out and dominate them, I don't know what bearing that would have come playoff time, and same thing the other way.

This is our seventh game in seven different cities in 10 days. This has been a rough stretch and I think the common thing that has happened to us the last three games is that our shooting percentage in the second half is going down, which is usually a sign of dead legs.

All of our guys, we sense what's coming. We know what's going to come here in two weeks, and you have to have an edge. You have to not only have an edge, but from an individual standpoint you want your game and the things you do to be at top form.

It seems like every team comes out and plays their best game against (us). As a team, it's like taking body shots every game.

It was intense. The players love to compete. The Spurs love to compete against big teams just like us. It was a good game to watch.

It's going to be a great challenging game for both teams. They are a great defensive team, but the reason we had some success in Minnesota was because of offensive ball movement and player movement. They want to lock you down on one side of the floor. If you can get the defense moving, you can have some success against them.

I told Avery (Johnson) after the game that I'd like to see him seven more times, starting in about three months.

It's always tough to play on the road and I thought Seattle played really, really well. This is always a tough place to play. We were able to get ourselves back in the game in the first half but we just could not shake them.

They came out extremely aggressive and we, for the second game in a row, didn't come out sharp. I've always said that whichever team is most aggressive usually has success.

They came out and were very aggressive. As I told the guys before the game, in an emotional game like this, they're going to play extremely well and play aggressive. You have to match their intensity and make shots. The two things you need to do to start the game, we didn't do.

Anytime you're in a game and you have 42 buckets and 30 assists and only nine turnovers, you're distributing the ball, playing pretty well.

I looked back at that. What always seems to happen is, the guys will play well, and they'll have one stinker game that week. They'll have one game where Chauncey might have 11 points, six assists. Or Ben might get nine rebounds instead of 18. Rip might have 13 points instead of 23. And in this league so much, it goes down to statistics.

I have to thank Charles (Barkley) for giving a great halftime talk when he said the game was over. I thought we were playing too perfect, but in the second half we played exceptionally well. When our four guys (four All-Stars from Detroit) were in we started to run some plays, and I think that helped us.

Charles (Barkley, TNT commentator) gave a great talk for us at halftime. He said the game was over.

He took a couple of hits both on the face and in the head, I thought it was best for us not to take any chances if we didn't have to. He's going to get enough punishment, hits and bruises on our next game (facing Shaquille O'Neal ). He's a pretty resilient guy, but still, you don't want to see that.

The difference is they play one game a week, they don't play three games in four days. We're kind of in a different situation. And part of it was how sharp we've been. We've been extremely sharp the last few weeks. That's how they played (Sunday) night together as a group.

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.

The game is not black and white, the game is grey. If I could tell you everything that's going to happen, it'd be really easy.

The first game back after a West Coast trip is always dangerous. I thought we had terrible energy and terrible passion in the first half. We seemed very disinterested.

And I didn't understand how good a perimeter shooter he was and how good a passer he was. He's got some things as a coach you can't teach, as far as his feel for the game passing-wise.