Flip Saunders Tried Quotations

We wanted to win big right away. We didn't let things happen, we tried to make too many spectacular plays.

We surrounded (Kevin). We brought in two veteran players in Sam Mitchell and Terry Porter that we thought were two very professional type individuals that would show him how to handle practice situations, what it was to be professionals, to prepare for practice, to prepare for games, how to deal as far as off the floor, not to put yourself in any awkward-type situations. And then we tried to communicate with him. Our biggest thing was we gave him enough responsibility on the court that he was able to perform, yet still improve.

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.

Rip did a good job of understanding where help might be, tried to send him to as much help as he could and contested pretty much most of his shots.

We didn't move the ball like we normally do. We got to make easy plays. I thought we tried to make too many spectacular plays. We've got to make easy plays. We had 21 fast-break points; we could have had 40.

They tried to beat us off the dribble as much as they can, which they did. We closed things down in the stretch. We had some guys who made some big plays.

Chicago plays physical. They play hard. I think that they found out that if they just let us do what we want to do, we can be very effective. So they tried to turn it into a muck it, grind-it-up type game.