Paul Woolpert Quotations

Leonard's done an outstanding job despite playing out of position, particularly on the defensive end. This will allow him to step out and utilize his perimeter game he's so effective at.

He'll allow us to go big and still be athletic. He gives us that presence inside.

From a selfish standpoint, for me, he's a great basketball player. But for the franchise, and for everything Ronny has done in this state, it's the biggest one we've ever had. And he hasn't even stepped on the floor yet.

He's a big guy. We let him get too many offensive rebounds in the second half.

If that's something I have to worry about, we're in trouble. But honestly, I don't think that's a concern.

He's come a long way. He's learned a lot about the game and does a great job communicating with the other players.

He earned my respect. He played with more passion that the rest of the team combined.

I was completely positive at halftime. I knew we were too good to shoot 25 percent. We just had to keep working and I knew things would fall into place.

Mark's agent called and said Mark felt he was not really going to reach his ultimate goal of getting called back up to the NBA and wanted to explore other options. Mark really played well for us.

Someone gets hot (in the playoffs). Our problems were all on offense. We were never able to get into an offensive rhythm.

We need some help. At least we'll know Tuesday what we have to do. If we have an opportunity (to reach the finals), we have to capitalize.

We'll give Brandon some minutes. I've seen him play and I have confidence he'll pick up what we're doing relatively quickly.

We have to improve our pick-and-roll defense and stay up on their shooters. Then again, even when we did stay up on them, they hit tough shots.

Most betting people wouldn't have thought we'd win this series. From Day 1, we've preached 'team' and that's very hard to do in professional sports because a lot of them have agendas -- to get out of here and to the NBA.

We need to re-establish the kind of dominance at home that we've lost.

That's veterans getting the job done. That's why they're here. They've gotten it done their entire careers.

We only got into the bonus once, at the end of the third quarter. They called 26 fouls on us and 16 on them. We attacked the basket all night and were not rewarded.

We have four or five ways to defend their pick and roll ? although none of them seemed to work the other night. We'll try to mix it up and try to make is so they don't even get into their pick and roll.

We're soft. If we don't toughen up, we're in a lot of trouble.

Elvin, in practice and the last two, three games, has been phenomenal. We all know what he can do defensively, but he's been phenomenal at both ends.

We've proven we can win on the road, now we have to prove we can win at home.

We're taking more individual accountability and taking more pride in stopping their man. We're getting very important stops and finishing it by grabbing rebounds.

We did a lot of things well in the first half but shot atrocious and we let that affect us at the other end of the floor. You can't let that happen.

First and foremost, we have Anthony Goldwire back. With Goldy, I see us executing much better at the offensive end. I see everyone being involved in the offense and I see far less soft offensive possessions.

Both times he got up and kept playing.

Ronny has lifted attendance. This is uncharted waters having a young man in here who just had open-heart surgery, so I told him we had to keep our lines of communication open. ... I'd be lying if I said I didn't have some concern.

There's no question fatigue has played a role in our sluggishness.

This will give us a chance to step away for a day or two and get refreshed and refocused.

In both games, we've had a number of good looks ... but we haven't hit them and it's just snowballed.

If there's any coach in America, in the world, who could figure out how to control momentum, all of our records would be better than they are. (Momentum) is a phenomenon. Guys talk about being in a 'zone,' but I haven't seen a team shoot the ball that well for a game. It was impressive.

It's to the point where he knows it's not going to go (out), so he's crossed a major hurdle. He's just going to get better every day.

At the end of the third, the bench really stepped in and provided us with an outstanding lift.

I hope, at some point, we're all going to understand the importance of defense and how good a team we can be if we play defense.

I put a lot of weight into being a good teammate as opposed to talent. From the minute he got here, he didn't big-time anybody. He got online. Checked out our team, knew our roster, knew our record and did a little research. I think guys respected that.

It's constantly in the back of my mind. Fortunately, there are very few of us who've been in this situation, but I think the only way to go about this is with extreme caution. It's uncharted waters.

The doctor thinks he's still a week away.

You could definitely feel his energy tonight. He missed playing and you could see he enjoyed being back on the floor.

That's playoff basketball. You've got to get it done on the defensive end and make plays down the stretch.

That's a bonus when the bench plays so well.

They (other coaches) know that he's the ultimate point guard. He gets everyone involved throughout the game. Then, when he has an opportunity to take over, he has that capability.

They're going to go in and clean up whatever they find.

They're playing with a purpose. They're very aggressive and making plays to get the job done.

The last two games, in the final three quarters, we're playing the game the way it's supposed to be played ? as a team.