Flip Saunders Quotations | Page 5

It's one of those things, if you put him out there for 10 minutes, he wants 15. If you put him out there for 15, he wants 20. That's the toughest thing about young players coming to championship-caliber teams.

It just means we can put different people out there and play different ways.

It's almost like a classroom. A lot of teams are very temperamental. We have a sense of calm.

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.

It's going to be a good challenge for us to play against them. I think our guys are all of the opinion, no matter what anyone says, when people play against us, they want to show that they're better than us or can beat us.

It's been pretty much a mirror from the standpoint of both teams have established their ability to win at home, they got great crowds at both places as far as the enthusiasm, and both our teams have been the best teams on the road. It's different sports, but we're both looking each other in the mirror.

Dog days. Especially after the holidays. After the holidays, you've had some big games last week. So what happens is you come in and it takes time to get your energy going a little bit. I thought we came out and traded baskets too much.

The nice thing is we have a couple of days off.

Then we'll reevaluate him. But I would say it would be very doubtful that he would play.

Even when I got fired, I thought I could be part of the solution. I wasn't the problem. People make decisions, and like my dad said, 'Things always work out for a reason.' You never know why it happens, but things always work out for the best.

That's a decision that every day as a team they have to make. Fortunately for us, those two guys are pretty good decision makers, and depending on what they give us, is what we'll usually take.

It's like he's coming out of the weight room.

It's not going to mean much come June.

Everyone can get better. You can always get better rebounding-wise. The toughest thing in our league is, with the way the rules have changed from last year, where you have to contain people out on the perimeter, and you can't touch people. That's always something that's very difficult.

Everyone at times did things to carry us.

Everyone has their own reasons why they do things. All I know is this is my team right now, and the guys have bought into what we're trying to do. The playoffs are what drive everybody in this league, and we're looking forward to what's going to happen.

The biggest thing that I was impressed with was the last three or four minutes, our defense was (good). It we played like that for 48 (minutes), we'd make things a lot easier for ourselves.

The biggest thing is he turned down some threes tonight and took a couple of dribble penetrations. It helped out some of the other guys to make some plays.

The biggest thing is he's going to help us so much defensively, people aren't going to beat him out there.

The biggest thing is going to be now he's on a team that's a championship-type team. It's just that mind-set. But I think that's the reason he came here, because that's what he wanted to get into.

Nothing, really. I didn't talk to him. It's not an issue.

The bench has been great. And that creates that vicious cycle. When the bench is playing well, they play more minutes and the starters get more rest.

That I liken to players that are extremely disciplined and players who know their roles. They don't try to play out of character. That shows something from Day One about the basketball intelligence of the whole team.

Tay had an unbelievable game. Not only did he shoot 10-for-15, but he did all the rest. He was all over the place.

Tay had an unbelievable game. He was all over the place.

It's incentive to get days off (to rest players) and preparation for coaches. Any time you can get into a playoff situation and get a three- or four-day rest, you can get back to your basics with some good practices.

It's incentive to get days off. ... Any time you can get in a playoff situation where you can get a three- or four-day rest, it's almost like a mini-training camp situation, and you can get back to your basics. Get back and have a couple of good practices and really kind of get calmed down from winning a series and get rejuvenated and get back up and get into that crescendo where you're playing extremely well again for the first game.

I told Ben when I talked to him that I have a lot of respect for him and everything he does.

I told Ben after, I had been in the Western Conference for a lot of years and I have coached against Dirk many times. I don't think I had seen as good a job of playing a guy one-on-one as that. Dirk made some shots, but he really had to work. We wanted to make him a volume scorer, and 25 points on 23 shots, that's pretty good.

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.

It'll be a good situation for him to get in and get a feel of things, and hopefully he'll play well and use this as kind of a building block for the next eight games.

It was a good learning experience for those young guys to play a team that was basically in a must-win situation.

It was a great reception. A lot of great fans, the people were great tonight and it was a good evening.

It's tough. It's always tough to play on the road. It's even tougher when you feel you aren't getting a fair shake.

They controlled the tempo. We played out of character.

They caught us at a time where we were a little on edge from what happened in Orlando.

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.

They were aggressive and we played out of character on defense. They're 18-0 run really dictated the game.

They'll be more comfortable at home, but we're not playing Milwaukee. We're playing ourselves. Whether we're home or away we want to play our offense and our defense. Hopefully, if we do that there won't be a letdown.

The thing is -- like it or not -- a lot of teams don't prepare much to play against zones, ... They don't have as expansive an offense as they do for man-to-man.

Not only because of the votes but with how he's played. Right now, he's been the best power forward in the East with how he's played through the first 40 games. Look at what our record is and how he's played, and I guess you'd have to give me a reason why he shouldn't.

After the second half started, we locked down and were a lot better defensively. Even though we got down, we didn't lose our aggressiveness. But we came down and ... scored three times on them. We just kept controlling it.

It's not always about how many points they score. I thought our bench really gave us a lift tonight in a lot of different ways.

It's never an easy situation. The biggest thing is you can't give them any hope.

It's natural. We're in a very different situation than a lot of teams. A lot of teams, the reason they play their bench is because they don't like their fourth and fifth guys that much. I like my fourth and fifth guys. That's why our bench doesn't get the minutes some of the other benches get. You have a tendency to go to a comfort level.

Anytime you can coach the greatest athletes in the world for a day, it's a thrill.

Anytime you got a guy that can score 50 points in this league, you know he can score.

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.

Anytime you lose someone, a death in the family, it's very, very emotional. We're not in any situation to pressure him one way or the other.

Any time you are a competitor and you're not winning, you get frustrated. The great ones all do and he's going to be one of the greatest that ever played this game.

Any time you take a job where a team won the championship and got within five minutes of winning another, you wonder, how are they going to accept you? But they've been very open to coaching, very open to doing whatever we've asked.

That's even more unbelievable than not missing any games. Part of that is the (players') makeup and how they take care of themselves. And part of it is our medical people and the job they do. It's a total approach.

That's especially true for them at home. They are improving. They play with a lot of energy in this building.

(The Lakers) were extremely aggressive. We got pounded on the glass and they took things to the basket. We played out of character defensively. We were switching and getting little (guys) matched on big (guys) and we took the easy way out by settling for jump shots.

The last thing we need is for him to go out there and really pop it and have to miss six to eight weeks.

The last six games you want to stay sharp and you want to improve in some areas.

Their organization has always been very first-class. Opening night, sometimes they get really excited. Some of their people, they just really weren't quite thinking all the way.

I'm not going to let it go. I can only judge by what I see. There are things we have to clean up on Friday. And we'll work to address those things.

I have only been here three months, and I took offense to it. I just don't think that's right ... especially in our league right now. Commissioner David Stern has made a statement that he wants this league to be classy and to clean things up. To do something like that was uncalled for.

I'm sure they will want to get a win and split the season series. We'll want to be competitive, and stay sharp.

I knew it was time then to get him out. All of them.

I knew he would play. He's a competitor. That's why he's going to run away with the rookie of the year this year.

I'm pretty comfortable right now. There're still a lot of things that can happen. You always continue to look and see what's available, and I think you wait. There will be things that shake out here in the next few days, I'm sure.

I like these games. I don't want us to lose what our personality is.

If you give Rip (Hamilton) shots and he's in rhythm, he'll often make those shots.

I noticed the same thing you noticed. I told him and I have told all of our players -- nothing is given. You earn your minutes. You earn what you get. What we're going to do is put guys on the floor that are going to compete on a daily basis.

In pro sports, you want to win, not only now but down the road. If somebody does something, is it going to affect your ability to win down the road? You make your decisions based on that.

I just told the guys, we have to get dirty. We have to do what we do best, and that is putting our nose to the grindstone and going after them.

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 look at their team, and we are mirror images from the standpoint of we both have some exciting players, but because both teams are so unselfish and there's not a lot of controversy, they don't get a lot of individual notoriety. Bottom line is, both teams are about winning, and about doing whatever it takes to win.

I haven't thought over the last week we've been very sharp. We've let teams hang around. That's why I've said, whether guys are tired or whatever, we're not playing with the zip and the sense of urgency.

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.

In the past, you had a guy who got nicked up, you had to make a decision. You put him on the IRE and he sat out days and games, or a coach said, 'Well, we're going to sit him out, but we're not going to replace him.' Right now, you have the luxury of, if a guy gets the flu, you can sit him out that night and if he's better the next night, you can let him play.

In the back of their minds, there's a little bit of a mental letdown. The other team, when they're missing a player they always get a little more juiced up to play because they know they have to play at a higher level.

If you took a team from the West and made it play in the East on a nightly basis, they would find out how tough it is. It's such a grind. The East is tougher mentally. It's a grind night in and night out. . . . Trust me. The East is not as bad as they make it out to be.

Because what teams, coaches, players try to do is set the tone for referees when they come in.

Before the season, we said there were going to be two tough stretches -- being on the road so much early and this one, where we are playing 10 games in 10 different cities leading into the break. We knew it would be tough. We're just trying to grind our way through.

He's still a young guy. He's going to be an All-Star (one day). Who knows? Maybe he'll still get voted in. We'll have to see what happens.

He's the barometer for their team. He is the heart and soul of their team. He can play three positions (shooting guard and both forward spots), and he works so hard. He is kind of like their Ben. Ben is our energy guy, and Shane is theirs.

He starts to get hesitant. He'll turn down shots the first time and then all of the sudden, he ends up taking a shot that's a worse shot than he had the first time. Or a contested shot. So with him, I talk to him about staying aggressive offensively.

Hopefully we'll play these guys again. But we both have a lot of work to do before that.

Chauncey looked a lot livelier. A lot of guys looked a lot more livelier tonight.

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

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.

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.

He's worked hard. He's come in more than some of the other guys. He's been coming in at night, like 8 p.m., and shooting for an hour, hour and a half.

He's the one guy we've had who has been a little sore in the legs.

If he does, we're going to play zone. And we'll see if those guys can shoot from 23 feet. (Johnson) might do it, but we have a few things up our sleeve.

If he didn't get hurt, he might have been the favorite to win Most Improved Player.

I'd say that 37 points, nine assists and one turnover make a pretty good statement for the All-Star game. He felt good tonight, and when he feels that good, we're just going to let him go.

I'd really like him to see the 'Detroit' on the front of our jerseys a lot. That would mean we're on him.

I don't see any holes. I think all the pieces are there.

I don't think we got in any flow offensively or defensively. We just didn't make stops or chase down long rebounds like Indiana did.

He's making progress. What will help him is that after Orlando (tonight) we have two days of practice. He will be able to have two hard team practices, and we can evaluate him after that.

He's in a great rhythm. When you get someone who's playing in a rhythm, you don't want to change their routine. He feels comfortable, and he's playing well.

He can get a jump shot whenever he wants, he can get to the basket almost whenever he wants, and he just does things so easy.

You can't overlook everything he's done for this organization and for me as a head coach.

These guys have been there. They know that this is when it all begins.