Flip Saunders 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.

My take is that these guys need challenges. Sometimes maybe they can get a little bored out there. But when they're locked in, it's like a curtain goes up and you can see it in their faces. They go from fifth gear into a sixth gear.

On the road, you can't run as much at times. You just have to control tempo. The thing we did the first two games, we ran when we had opportunities and when we had man advantages, and when we didn't have it, we didn't. We didn't force things, and that is the big key.

I wish I could have been in the stands.

I would have liked to have seen the guys get off to a better start early, with their main group.

When I came here, a lot of the players told me it'd be like that. We float under the radar a lot. So I think that's fine with us.

Like I said, I think a coach is as good as the players he has. You do have to drive them. You've got to make sure to put them in the right situations. And we have a group that's very committed as far as what we're doing.

One, you've got to be lucky. Freak injuries are the things that usually put you down sometimes. I don't know how Mo is, but I know KG is a guy who really took care of his body. During the season, he gets massages every day. He's done a lot of work with his body. He knows that's his tool, that's his profession. And he doesn't do anything that's going to harm his body, and I'm sure Mo Pete has to be the same way.

One of the strengths of this team is we grind it defensively but we get fast break points. We have the opportunity to get points in the open floor.

I got to know him when he was a player and he had season tickets right next to our bench. I didn't know him just as a season-ticket holder but as a friend. It's a great loss to the sports world and Minnesota. He always had a smile on his face and cared about kids. He always took time to sign autographs and talk to kids and try to help them.

I don't judge somebody that's had five years of stellar work -- not only with the team but in the community, and how he has been in practice -- and judge him by one incident. You judge him on the long haul.

If we don't win the title, no one will remember that we were 35-5.

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.

Mo (Evans) gave us a boost at both ends tonight. Guys have confidence in him. The guys on the bench want to play more, but they have to do what he did. He came with the right frame of mind.

Mo gave us a spark at both ends of the court.

(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.

Simmons is their second-best scorer, and he's got the ability to post up. If you take your three-man off of him, now all of a sudden, you've got Rip guarding somebody down in the block a lot.

The only negative was I wanted to play Carlos (Delfino) and I didn't. I think he could have probably helped us. We went with Mo, and Mo gave us energy.

What I didn't understand was how good he can be defensively, blocking shots and he has a pretty good presence of understanding what he's supposed to do in the team concept defensively,

What I'd like to do is get him the ball more in low-block situations and not as many things in pick-and-pop situations. He played well with Carlos, but he'll play well with anybody, how he plays.

Kind of how we've been for 37 games. Different guys lead us over different parts of the game, play unselfish. Thirty assists, eight turnovers, that's kind of where we've been when we win games. I think how we played tonight against New York is pretty much how this team has played through the first half of this season.

This was a game I wish I could have been in the stands, just sitting there watching. This was a great basketball game between two teams who played hard and with a lot of emotion. It was a very entertaining game.

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.

I can only judge what I have seen,

From what I read and hear, as a team and with Shaq, they feel like they are going to be able to turn it on when they need to. Veteran players have that belief. We go through that here in some games But I expect them to come with a great deal of energy.

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.

I don't think it's even an issue. He's going to be fine.

For whatever reason, we just weren't as mentally alert. We had a lot of mental breakdowns on defense, and offensively we didn't make the extra pass as often as we normally do. You hate to say it, but we just didn't have it tonight.

I don't think you can chase anything. Anytime you chase something, you never end up catching it. So it if comes, it comes.

Carlos had fresh legs, because he didn't play the other night and we had yesterday off. But he's improving. In the past, he's been overaggressive and turned easy plays into hard ones. Today, he was just taking the easy plays.

Carlos works extremely hard on defense. He is big and extremely strong. Now he is starting to understand where the help is coming from. He is learning how to pressure his man into the help, and he isn't feeling like he's out there on an island so much.

Cato was out of his boot (protecting his injured right ankle). He was shooting and jogging. He's still at least a couple of weeks away (from being able to practice).

I don't always judge things by wins and losses. I just go by how you play and the opportunities to win. We played 51 games, and out of those 51 we had nine losses and probably only three of those games where we basically didn't have opportunities to win in the fourth quarter.

I have been impressed with him from Day One. He always seems to be pretty effective for us. He has a chance to be an impact player in this league. He's still young and he's still learning, but he plays with a lot of aggressiveness.

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.

He's a different presence. There's no question that without him, they didn't go inside as much. He gives them a low-block presence. He's more of a go-to guy as far as inside down the stretch. Defensively, he's a shot blocker. It just gives them more bodies up front.

He's a barometer a lot for us. ... I was not as concerned about him not scoring or shooting or not being aggressive, but his rebounding totals were way down. He had some games in the first half where he'd come in with zero or one.

He's a flat-out great shooter. You can never have enough of those guys.

We surrounded (Kevin). We brought in two veteran players in Sam Mitchell and Terry Porter that we thought were two very professional type individuals that would show him how to handle practice situations, what it was to be professionals, to prepare for practice, to prepare for games, how to deal as far as off the floor, not to put yourself in any awkward-type situations. And then we tried to communicate with him. Our biggest thing was we gave him enough responsibility on the court that he was able to perform, yet still improve.

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.

We've faced a lot of teams that have had that sense of urgency, so what has happened, teams have kind of jumped on us early. We've had to fight our butts off to get back in games.

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.

He causes problems. He has improved his perimeter game so much.

He was incredible. We had a hand in his face all night, and he goes 5-for-5 on threes in the first half. Some of those shots were unbelievable.

We locked down defensively to get the lead. We got to do what we wanted to do offensively. We didn't turn the ball over. We forced turnovers early and turnovers late. We took care of the basketball and didn't give them chances to score out of our offense.

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 am happy we won, but I am not overall pleased with how we played. When we don't play well, we hold the ball. Tonight, we held the ball. I know our schedule had something to do with it, but we can't be effective when we play like we did tonight.

He turned down some threes. He took a couple of dribble-penetrations, and that collapsed them more and helped out some of our other guys. Sometimes he might take some threes when he's covered, a little bit contested. (Wednesday) he didn't force too many, he let things come to him more. I think he didn't try to force too many, he let the game come to him more.

If we weren't 33-5 and doing as well as we are, you'd go in thinking, 'Boy, this is a big game to try and show them they made a mistake or whatever. Just where we're at, record-wise, you don't have to worry about that. For us, it's another game.

He did a nice job. He helped us defensively, scored some in there. I thought for the first time extended minutes, he did a lot of positive things for us.

He was a really nice kid, really fun to be around, and that's what makes it even more difficult.

He's had some other things from a mental standpoint. When you're dealing with that type of situation, it's got to affect you from a mental standpoint.

He has his niche. Defensively, he's got that quick first step. He can take away that first move. And most times defensively, people get beat off the first move.

He was trying to miss it. He was trying to hit it off the back of the pin to no avail.

Going into this game we needed the bench to give us both good minutes and good production, which they did. Chicago plays physical, they play hard. But to our credit, we can play that way.

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 should be OK, but we felt he'll take enough hits on Thursday. He could have played if we needed him.

He seems to be pretty effective and I think that he's a guy that has a chance to be an impact player in this league. He's still pretty young, learning things. But he plays with a lot of aggressiveness, which is something I love, guys who are aggressive as far as defensively. And he can make plays not only for himself but for other people.

He's been so barraged by things right now. I want to wait a little bit until things all are done and then I'll reach out to him.

He's just going to have to be a good boy. Bite his lip. We were thinking of getting Judge Judy, getting it on TV. But I don't think commissioner ( David ) Stern would go for that one. They'd probably get very great ratings.

He's got size, and he's done a nice job. I have been really impressed with him. He's starting to get heat-of-the-battle minutes now and he's been productive. He's not shied away at all.

He's been a solid player in all 29 games we've played.

He's been good, ... He's a wide-bodied guy. He's undersized, but he plays bigger than he is.

He's been good. He's a wide-bodied guy. He's undersized, but he plays bigger than he is.

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.

He's better than I thought he would be. And I thought he'd be pretty good.

He's better today than he was Tuesday, and you don't want to sit him out and have the ankle get weaker.

He's going to be bench pressing a lot of weight come Wednesday.

He's going to get enough punishment, hits and bruises next game.

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.

He made some shots early. Maybe got carried away a little bit in the second half. You can see that he's getting into better shape. He's lively. And he's one of those guys when he's guarding somebody, they don't want him on them.

He has the ability to make big shots. He gives us good energy and athleticism.

He finally got tired at the end. I told him that, the way he was rolling, we were going to him until he couldn't move.

He had a good look when he came off, and I saw Ricky (Davis) was trailing him. I knew he was going to get a good look, and earlier we were doing our shooting games and Rip said, 'I never miss from the corner.' So when he got it down there, I felt pretty good.

We took, I thought, too many quick shots. We took 50 shots with one pass or less out of 75 shots, which for us is way too many. And that's one of the reasons we only had 17 assists. Even though we won by 18, they made a couple of runs at us, and I think we have a big area of improvement to get more people involved offensively and move the ball a little bit more.

My thing is, if you're going to let them play, let them play. There was a little bit of inconsistency, so it was hard to adapt to that.

I want to win. My thing was not what this team has done in the past, it's what we have an opportunity to do in the future. So, my decision came pretty easy.

My mom told me before the game whatever you do don't get a technical. The way things were going in the first half I really had to bite my lip.

I was concerned because at shoot-around this morning I heard a couple of guys mention some stuff about Miami. I was concerned we might overlook Atlanta. But we came out and played like a well-oiled machine in the first half.

I was concerned because everywhere you walked the past three days, that's all people talked about. They didn't even know we played Friday night. I think most of the people were talking about Sunday -- except the TVs. They were talking about Miami and the Lakers.

I was disappointed in the defense, and I told them that at halftime. These are the dog days, when it seems like the season is never going to end, and it takes a while to get your energy levels up. And when you have a gaudy record like we do, every team is going to come out hard against you.

Lindsey has really worked at his game. He's really done a lot of extra shooting and sometimes the things you work on, you get better at.

Players in that league are trying to get here. So a guy that is up here and goes down, they want a chance to see how hungry he really is.

Part of it is teams that were not very good have gotten better, which makes for a much more competitive conference. What developed for a few years in the Western Conference has now come back to the East, where there aren't really any gimme games.

Our main guys didn't have much rust because they've been playing. At least I've been able to keep an eye on them. The one thing you've got to appreciate about Atlanta is they play hard no matter what the score is.

Our main guys played really well in the third quarter. Then we gave our young guys some fourth quarter experience against a team trying to get a win after losing 10 straight. It would have been better if they would have got the win but overall they did some good things and got some good experience in a close game.

People have been talking about 35-5 and the Tigers a lot lately, but the reason that people remember it is that they won the championship. If we don't win the title, no one will remember that we were 35-5.

I think what happens is that experience takes hold as the series progresses, that's usually what happens. Whether there are adjustments to be made or how you react after a win or a loss. Sometimes, those young guys don't know any better, when they haven't had experience.

I think what it does do is let players who, in the past, have been on the IRE all year, those guys will probably have chances of being activated more. You can use more of your depth, and it keeps guys hungry.

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 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.

I think what we can do now is we can change our personality. Defense can carry us at times. But I thought in the fourth quarter, our offense, we executed. To score 28 points down the stretch in the fourth quarter that's pretty impressive.

I think there has been so much, too much, made of the bench, how they are developing and such. People don't realize that just because our guys don't play in a game, that doesn't mean they're sitting around for two hours in practice. I've got confidence in all those guys, they all bring something to the table.

I think everyone is getting confidence in Mo. He makes spectacular plays at both ends of the court. It's just the basic ones that he needs to work on. That's the frustrating part.

I think everyone thought he had the opportunity to be a good player. I thought he was a good player when I came here, but I never understood how good he was until I saw him day in and day out. His commitment to the game, his commitment to the team, and just how versatile he is.

Otherwise, I would have put him in. I think we're in a situation -- Dale is a guy we have to get ready, too. It's just kind of how we went.

Our guys have to be stimulated mentally. I've always said this team gets bored at times. When you're forced to react, forced to move, you don't really have a chance to maybe think about getting bored. You just go out and your instincts take over.