Jeff Gundy Team Quotations

If we play great and bring an intangible package that you need, and we play well, then we'll be right in the game. Our respect level for (the Mavericks) is great, yet my respect level for my team is high. Knowing that if we do play really well that we'll be in the game, and if you're in the game you have a chance to win.

He's as valuable to his team as any player in the league.

Our guys try hard on defense. Any time a team goes 1-for-18 (to start a quarter), they are probably going to hit some of those shots most times. We got back and made things difficult for them.

I think in the last quarter, neither team would use it on a teaching tape for defense. I know Gilbert Arenas gets credit, but he's Allen Iverson in a different package as far as body size and strength. He's competitive. He's quick. He attacks. He makes 3s.

We're a little small right now and may not have as much firepower as some teams, but for the most part we come ready to play. We've had a tough schedule and I am happy with how the team has gone about business.

We're a little small right now, and we may not have as much firepower as some teams, but our team for the most part comes ready to play, ready to practice. You get their best.

We have to rectify so many things on offense. We're a high-turnover team now, which is No. 1. Secondly, we're a very poor shooting team from all areas, from 2-point range, 3-point range and the free-throw line. We shoot more air balls now on the perimeter than any team ? I've never seen any NBA team miss as badly as we do.

We're a team that does ... just enough to put yourself in a position and not enough good to win. That was poor defense, poor, poor defense. They scored 49 points in a half with very marginal offensive players. When they missed, they crushed us on the boards.

We didn't try hard enough. It gives you pause to think what do we really have here? We should've been frothing at the mouth, like pit bulls. I so much want to have a team that really, really, really wants to play every day, every night.

We didn't play well and we didn't have the personality on our team of mental or physical toughness.

(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 left a lot on the board today. Free throws and turnovers are problem number one but when a team shoots that well you have to give them credit.

When you score that little in a quarter, it's probably part defense and part you're missing some shots that you normally make. So we're not going to pound ourselves on the chest because I remember three or four they had right in a row at the basket over our midgets where the ball just happened to fall out. We try to play good defense yet we understand how good of an offensive team they are.

We have to get a team that represents what our standards are. On the road trip and the Boston game prior to that, we represented ourselves well. In the last two games we have given very, very little to the game, to each other and to the organization.

(With their) team speed, in general, they cause us some problems. When they play both point guards ( Chris Paul and Speedy Claxton ) together it makes it doubly difficult to try and keep them out of the lane, because you've got two guys who are trying to catch-and-go or pick-and-roll, multiple pick-and-rolls.

Because I knew we were trading for Keith, I thought it was the right time to get together and evaluate where we were going. We came to the conclusion that it would be best if we try to find another team for (Anderson).

There have been a lot of questions about the use of their bench. How can you question a team that's in first place (in the Atlantic Division)?

Every team relies on greatness down the stretch. However, I do believe that good teams can function efficiently with or without one player. Our chore to function without the one player is going to be tested.

I know we haven't played well enough or near hard enough the last two games to play well enough to have a chance against two first-place teams, and obviously not well enough from a shooting standpoint. But every player and every team is going to go through the ability to make or miss. That's why you need to have other parts of your game that are consistent, individually and as a team.

If you have Tracy McGrady on your team and play really hard and smart, you can be in games.

That means zero because it doesn't matter who we win against, whether it is a division team or not. We are happy any time we win.

It's hard against a quality team like Jersey. They're very, very good defensively.

It starts always with the two best guys (Yao and McGrady) and their energy level. Tracy McGrady obviously was very efficient tonight and when he is efficient, we as a team have a better chance of being efficient.

As much as I loved the team last year and still do, when you lose in the first round (of the playoffs) you have to make some moves. It's all about the results we get. Hopefully, we're going to get some good results.

They really showed our other guys absolutely no regard. I've never seen a team just leave small guys wide open behind the three-point line, but that proved effective.