Flip Saunders Playoff Quotations

He can put the ball on the floor and make a play, and make a play for somebody. There's no question he's going to have opportunities during this playoff run.

I think they were all superficial deals. You hope that somebody might help you out a little bit but I don't think there's one deal where you can say, 'This is the guy that's going to put us way over the top.' They were deals that might help a little bit, maybe improve your playoff position, but that's all.

I thought for playoff situations that was maybe the most important, to have home court in the Eastern Conference. With the way that it's set up, 2-2-1-1-1, I think home court becomes extremely important.

We played 82 games that we considered playoff basketball. That's the way we're going to play. We're going to defend, we're going to move the ball offensively, and that's why I told our guys.

The positive was we defended down the stretch. That's what we're going to have to do when playoff time comes.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.