I was really pleased with the play we got off the bench. When we've got two guys in Ervin and Gabor that didn't play particularly well, it's nice to have two guys (Dunlap and Whitfield) help us out. It keeps us well-balanced.
When the guards are doing a good job of getting the ball down in the lane, you've got to reward them the second that anybody collapses.
If we don't turn it over and just execute, I don't know how people are going to stop us. We have multiple guys who can score. It's just a matter of our getting to the point in trusting one another and trusting in ourselves that we can make a play when we need to.
Gabor shot it well - again - and was aggressive with it. Personally, I don't think we do a good enough job of getting the ball to him - especially after he hits two or three.
I also thought we did a good job of finding him. He really got going, and we did a good job of recognizing that.
If teams want to play us one-on-one outside, we'll score. If you want to double down, we'll still score and be fine.
Go figure. We did what we were supposed to do, and we won.
Hopefully, we can maintain our focus. We've been making some progress as of late, and we certainly saw some of that tonight. Hopefully, we'll continue to maintain that focus, keep working and continue to get better.
There is nobody who works harder on a daily basis than him - period. He's awfully hard to stop down inside, and the more confidence he gets in being able to attack, the better it's going to help us.
I was a little disappointed that we couldn't close them out. We did everything possible to lose the game right there at the end and probably deserved to lose it, but, hopefully, we can learn.
Our inability to guard continues to be very problematic.
Our ability to score has never been a question. We have good balance and depth offensively. It's just a matter of everyone trusting one another and doing what we're supposed to do, then things will go well for us.
It comes back to the fact that we practiced well Thursday, Friday, and we practiced well today. We're doing what we're supposed to do, and that is paying attention to detail. And - go figure - you win.
We were just better than them, and it was as simple as that. We were the better basketball players who made plays, so there is no substitute left for that.
I was pretty disappointed with our defensive effort right at the start. Our starters didn't play any defense at the beginning.
We played pretty solid defense and did a good job of just containing them and keeping them in front of us.
We ended up doing a few things right and ended up pulling it out.
We thought we could attack them inside on the glass.
We really don't need them to have a huge game, just a solid one. One of the things you need to do when you get into a playoff situation is let the guys realize that they don't have to play an extraordinary game. They just have to do their job.
We were rolling right along, and then all of a sudden we stopped playing at both ends. We never could fully recover after that.
When he gets the opportunity to be in the open court, he's so good with the ball. He makes good plays by either scoring or kicking it out to other people.
When we do what we're supposed to do, and we have execution, we're going to be hard to stop.
The only downside was that we started the second half with the same crap we've been doing. We had turnovers on our first four possessions, and all a sudden, our lead goes from 18 to 11.
We started off on a spurt, but every time we got up by eight or 10 (points), we let them back into it.
What (Palmer) has figured out again is work ethic. He's had the tremendous ability all season long of buying into what we're doing, and his effort has always been good.
We're the 1986 Celtics when we don't turn the ball over. The fact that we can turn it over that many times and still win a ballgame is a pretty good sign.
When the game is being played up and down the floor, he's very good.
We've got the right schedule for us down the stretch to see if we're going to have a chance.
We've got to get him some more shots because he's too good at shooting the ball for us not to do that.
(Briggs) and (Papp) both do a great job. They are two guys you don't see a lot of who stepped right in, and that is where we get our balance and depth. Those guys were ready when they were called upon. Those are the qualities we need to see.
We didn't let them hang around. We simply put them away, and that was great to see.
Offensively, we were doing what we were supposed to be doing. We were taking good shots; the ball was moving, we had some resemblance of execution, and it went that way until 13 minutes to go.
Offensively, when we execute, we have enough pieces and weapons that we can put points on the board. It's just a matter of if we'll execute and if we are going to play defense. If we do, we'll be fine.
Offensively, if we don't turn it over, we're going to score, and we did a good job of that in the first half. We can shoot, so when we get a shot at the basket, good things are usually going to happen for us.
With Terry, when the lights come on and it's game time, we know he's going to be very good. He came out and was aggressive . . . He had good energy and was aggressive at both ends.
They stepped up and made some shots, but this should've been one of those games where we should have steadily pulled away from them. We kind of refused to do that, though, which was kind of frustrating.
In the first half, I thought we were playing well defensively, but we just weren't making any shots. For once this season, it was our defense that held us up.
The irony of the game is that they controlled the tempo with a slower pace, and that dictated how the game was played. It's unfortunate that we were unprepared to play both mentally and physically.
They did a great job controlling tempo. They made us play in the half court, and we struggled for quite a while until we got a lead in the second half.
They aren't a particularly good shooting team, and I thought we would be able to weather the storm.
I guess the good thing we take from that start was, after getting down by that much, we executed better and got back into it.
The character of the kids we have in the program is great. The talent obviously helps, but even when I'm not happy, like after tonight, our character is still there.
It's obviously a very good win because we won a slow-paced game. That was very good because the times when we've lost, we've been in that type of situation. It was a good thing for us to see and, hopefully, our guys can generate a little bit of confidence from that.
We were pitiful (in the first half). We turned the ball over too many times, and we were inconsistent on defense.
It was one of those things we wanted to do tonight, so we could get some reps with it.
We just did what we were supposed to do, and we kept doing what we were supposed to do.
There is such a dramatic correlation between practicing well and playing well. . . . Talent has never been a question, either. We knew that last year when we recruited him. He has a ton of ability.
The kind of success we've had this season and still having three games to go hasn't happened since the (President) Bush Sr. years. The fact that we've been able to have this kind of success is nice. Those are things to be proud of.
