Flip Saunders Playing Quotations

When we're taking shots from the corners and we did a lot tonight, that shows we are playing a lot of ball movement, a lot of player movement and making the extra pass. That's pretty much how you'd want to play offensively.

To get 30 assists as a team after the way we started out - we started playing the way we were capable of playing offensively.

When he's got his legs, what he can do, he can defend in the post with his feet. He can use his quickness and play different angles in the post and not have to rely on totally fronting and totally just playing behind. He gives you an added dimension defensively to do some things.

We've done some things in practice where we'll play a bigger lineup, playing a two at the point. And even the development of (rookie Alex) Acker at practice, in certain situations, we might not be afraid to play him some.

He's playing and getting in shape and he makes a difference in games. Guys on opposing teams typically don't want Lindsey to guard them.

He's playing great right now. I said one of the reasons they're playing so well right now is because of the play of Johnson and the play of (Danny) Granger. Those two guys have stepped up and they're playing at an extremely high level.

He's playing pretty good. He's been playing with the main guys and I think he's a lot stronger and obviously, playing on his national team (Serbia-Montenegro) this summer, he's in great condition.

We can feel good about winning, get over it and get back to business tomorrow. I think the big thing with us, we're not playing Milwaukee, we're playing ourselves.

I think what it does is it shows the character of the team, the whole roster, your ability to go out every night and perform at a high level. To win that many games, you don't take too many days off. Especially the start that we had, it seemed like everyone was playing pretty much their Super Bowl.

I talked to the guys at halftime and basically said that we were not as competitive. I thought that the second half they played exceptionally well. In these type of games, it takes a lot of time to get used to playing with guys. Every guy did something in a very positive way.

I thought that McDyess and Evans played extremely well. (McDyess) has been extremely effective. I said in the beginning of the year, we have six starters -- and I consider him one of the starters. He's playing like that right now.

We have the ability to get by without him, but he's going to want to play. That's how he is. I don't anticipate anything holding him back from playing, and playing a lot of minutes.

You know, early in the year everybody was questioning his minutes. But given his history, there was a reason we weren't playing him a lot. We wanted to get him fresh and ready for now, and you see he's playing at an unbelievably high level.

To have 36 assists on 43 baskets shows that we are playing team basketball. We aren't as good as we looked tonight, and we aren't as bad as we looked in Dallas.

We were much better locked in defensively. Offensively we had 33 assists on 39 buckets, which shows you we're moving the ball and playing how we want to play.

We have been playing a lot of games home-road-home-road, so I think we were a little tired tonight. We'll have to give some guys a rest down the stretch.

We're trying to accomplish things. Playing a lot of people. Doing some things, playing some full-court pressure, play our bench. But always what happens, when you get in the heat of the battle, competitive juices flow, and our guys got juiced up a bit and really executed defensively and carried over the offensive end.

We wanted to try to start establishing our bench more, so basically we're playing three guys and giving those guys a little bit more minutes.

We still only had 10 turnovers for the game. They were magnified as far as when they happened a little bit. When you're playing well, they try to throw everything at you. From that standpoint, as I say, the more things that are thrown at you, the better prepared you are come playoff time.

When you play 82 games, it's tough to play at an unbelievably high level all 82 games. Right now we're playing at a high level. Our level that we're playing at is where many teams' mountains are.

Every team has a chance to win, whether you are playing Detroit, Miami, New Jersey or whoever. There are no bargains in this thing where somebody is just going to walk through the first round. That's just how this league operates.

When you get up 15 in your division through 45 games, what you're trying to do is you're focusing on what you have ahead and that's the playoffs. I think the players are going to be very focused and very excited about coming here Sunday night and playing in front of a great crowd in a great atmosphere.

When you get 30 assists, it shows you are playing team basketball, ... This league is about finding where the mismatches are and exploit the weaknesses.

You have to have a lot of character to win on the road. You have to have players who love to accept challenges and are extremely competitive. It's almost like they enjoy playing on the road more than playing at home.

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.

They're trying to find out who they are. I think everyone who is playing against them is trying to find out who they are a little bit, too.

They showed us how to start playing again. Our first group started playing a lot of one-and-one, and that's not us.

There's a fine line. As I told our guys, it's not a matter or winning or losing, it's playing good, and if you play good, you win.

We had 30 assists, and that shows you are playing team basketball. We share the ball.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Antonio's been playing like that for the past month. He's been playing phenomenal.

Antonio was great tonight. He's been playing like that for a while now. He has a lot of confidence in himself.

You've got a team that had three days off playing against a team that played four games in five days, in four different cities, and a back-to-back situation. They played with a great amount of energy and they carried that energy to a win.

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 got a run, we got undisciplined. We were looking for the home-run shot instead of doing the best thing that we do, and that's execute offensively. We were playing 45 feet from the basket with no dribbles.

We lost focus. When you have two starters thrown out in a three-minute span, I wouldn't say you're playing calm at that time.

I told our guys, we're not playing Milwaukee. We're playing ourselves. We have a certain way we want to play on offense and on defense. And if we do that, we give ourselves a chance to win against anybody. We can feel good about this right now. But we have to get back to work and prepare to go to Milwaukee.

They're playing better now than when they had those guys. What they're doing right now, they're not as predictable. They have a lot more perimeter movement, a lot more player and ball movement. They're not as stagnant offensively when they're looking to just throw it into Jermaine and play off him, so they're more difficult to defend right now.

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.