Flip Saunders Last Quotations

One of the reasons I played him a lot, I thought it was better for him to be occupied than to sit and think. And considering his circumstances, not sleeping much last night after hearing about it, he played pretty good.

(McDyess) has been like that the last week or two. It takes him a little while to get into his flow. I consider him one of the starters, and that's how he's playing.

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.

Fortunately for me I've had some older guys where we do the same thing. We did that for two years with Ervin Johnson. He didn't play the first 45 games but he started in the last 25 and started in the playoffs. Sam Mitchell was the same way. You have to understand the guys that have a lot of wear on their tires and know how much tread you have left. You want to try to utilize it in a very productive manner.

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's been like that the last few games. I like when he's a bit more aggressive. A part of it is he tries to conserve energy when he thinks he has to and gets other guys going.

I think what's happened is (starters) minutes have gone down in the last few games because of the play of (Antonio) McDyess, the play of Mo (Evans), the play of (Carlos) Delfino, the play of (Carlos) Arroyo. Those guys have played well, and if a team plays well, you keep them on the floor.

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 I recall that we lost our last couple games in the exhibition season, and we got off to a pretty good start with the regular season. These guys have been there. They know that this is when it all begins.

I thought the last three or four minutes our defense was impressive.. If we play like that for 48 minutes it would make things a lot easier for ourselves.

That was the best pass I've seen in the last minute of a close game.

We'll continue to throw different things. I think the last few games we've done a better job as far as some of our rotations.

We've talked about Chauncey and how it would be a travesty if he's not an All-Star. It's the same way with Parker. He's really played at that level the last couple of years, and I can't see any way he doesn't make that All-Star team this year.

We ran about three different options last night and had some pretty good success with some of them.

We've won 22 of our last 24. You play 82 games, and you don't like to say you didn't have it, but we didn't have it tonight. We didn't capitalize on our opportunities down the stretch.

Whether we play well or don't play well come Sunday, will have no bearing on how we've done this season. As I recall, we lost our last couple games in the exhibition season and got off to a pretty good start in the regular season.

To our credit we came back and located him in the last few minutes, and didn't give him any good looks.

Ben played 56 minutes last night (in Memphis), and he played 41 tonight. Yet, he was able to do what he did. When we needed to lock down in the final two minutes, he pretty much did it.

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.

The starters have always been a fan vote and Vince has probably gotten more votes for the last seven years almost than anybody that's played the game. He had a lot of votes this year.

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.

Very much so. It's something as coaches that we're not used to. You don't really go through that very much. I guess I would liken it to maybe the last week of the exhibition season when you're trying to get ready for the regular season. You want to improve and you want to keep sharp, you want to give people opportunities, you want to be competitive and you still want to win.

We've had, what, four sets of back-to-backs here in the last 15 days? It's been a grind.

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.

The thing is, we're not going to change. You have to understand something: This team has a lot of playoff experience. They've been to the Finals the last two years. They're not playing differently than what they've played. That's how they play.

The thing I love about these guys is that, when we lose, they have taken it hard and decided to bounce back. This was a great win after a poor performance last night.

Two of the last three games that we won were because of our bench, and (Sunday) night, our bench got us in the game. We say we're going to make a very conscious effort to play them, create a role for them, create a niche, create an identity, and I think that's what we've done.

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.

You're in a situation where the other team doesn't have anything to lose. Their backs are against the wall, and they're going to come out and play with a great amount of energy. They're going to play with confidence from the way they've played their last couple games. You know going in about that situation, so you know you have to go in and have a superior performance. You can't just come out and have an average performance.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

This is a guy who played a role for 82 games. His role isn't going to change that much, especially when you are talking about a guy who's been hurt for the last five days. I don't think anyone should expect him to come in and be a superman.

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.

They made plays. We didn't. As I told our guys, I haven't thought over the last week that we've been very sharp. We've let teams hang around. Guys are tired or whatever, but we're not playing with that zip, with that sense of urgency.

They made the plays, we didn't. I haven't thought over the last week that we've been very sharp. We've let teams hang around.

They might as well take the defensive player of the year award and send it to Ben. He's been on a mission in the last three weeks, and when you look at all of the things he's doing - rebounding, blocking shots and making steals - he's phenomenal.

The last three weeks, they might as well take the Defensive Player of the Year trophy and send it for the fourth time, or whatever, because when you look at all the things he's doing, as far as from defensive rebounding, blocking shots, steals, he's doing everything. He has been phenomenal.