Jeff Gundy Playing Quotations

(McGrady) played super hard today. He just doesn't make (shots) at home like he makes on the road. I can't explain it. We don't have an inside presence right now (without Yao) to throw the ball into to keep the defense honest. He's trying to make a lot of tough shots while playing big minutes.

Going forward, (McGrady) is going to have missed 35 games and a few more by not being able to finish the games. Most of those games were home games. On top of that, he had a period in January and February, he was healthy enough. We're going to need him to be healthy and playing very, very well for us to make the improvement we want to make going forward.

We can expect much better from (Yao) defensively and on the boards. He had one rebound in the second half, and he was not active defensively. He's been playing great on offense, really great, and he's not been as good on the boards or defensively in the last three games.

Part is schedule. Part is health. Part is good play. I think all three of those things have had an impact on playing a little bit better. But this is a whole different level, this (Suns) team. This is upper-echelon, top-five team.

Our bench is obviously inexperienced. We're playing two rookies off of there. We're either really inexperienced or really old off our bench.

We realized they weren't playing their best guys.

We realize they weren't playing their best guys out there at the end. But you feel a lot better about yourself when you win than when you lose.

There are some things we could have done better, I think, that could have changed the result. Our guys are competitive and are playing a lot more minutes than they probably should. There's a lot of things that we can be proud of.

(Yao) did all right, but it's not about individual performance in this league. It's team play and playing collectively. He's still trying to get back in game mode, and we know it will take a while before he's back at full strength. I thought overall, though, he did some good things, but he's still not at 100 percent.

We're eliminating the nonsense. I'm fed up. I'm sick of losing at home and playing terrible basketball. Nonsense is always a distraction.

When he feels like he's capable of playing and the trainers and doctors concur and I concur, then he'll go back out there and play.

That's where it starts ? get the effort so you don't beat yourself that way and then playing intelligent basketball. You just want to give yourself a chance to play your best. If you don't beat yourself in this league, you win a lot.

There's going to be some bumps in the road certainly. You don't sit out that long in this competitive of a league and make it back the you were playing before. You saw tonight he started out great and then he couldn't make (shots).

The way we're playing ... we're offensively inept. Last year, the 3-point shot was a huge weapon for us. This year, it's a huge detriment.

I know what inspiring basketball is. When we're dead in the water and we're not playing the way we're capable of, I'm going to say that. But tonight we were very inspiring.