Scott Skiles Plays Quotations

This was a game that had a little bit of everything. I thought we showed a lot of fight and we made plays when we had to. They also made plays. Fortunately we had the ball for the last shot.

We took them down to the end. We had our opportunities. We just weren't able to make the big plays when they were necessary.

I thought we were active on both ends. Our defense is coming around. We are going on a good month now with solid defense. A lot of times in critical moments we have not been able to get stops. That activity carried over to the offensive end. We did a good job of trying to penetrate, get in the paint, and make plays for each other.

I thought the way that game unfolded made that a very good win. We knew we'd have a battle in the second half. We battled and made a lot of big plays on both ends. When it got really tight, we raised our level of play.

We have played better at the end of the games. We have tended to make some pretty good plays on both ends of the floor when the game is on the line.

We had some great moments and we had some shaky moments. I'm certainly happy to have the win, and we had some guys that played well. Then when it got tight, we had enough big plays to hold them off.

Even though he was hurt ? he played some, didn't play some ? it was nice to have him around every day. There are few players who seem to see the plays before they actually happen, and he was one of them.

Every game he plays in, he's ... one of the toughest guys on the floor. He's got size, strength, athleticism, and he can play. He gives them one of the best players in the game, and you can see that they've played with a little more pop since he's been with them. He seems to have an effect on their group, the way they get after it a little bit.

Tonight was similar to other games we have played lately. We had our chances and weren't able to make plays when we had those chances.

We've had so many close games in which we weren't able to make the big plays at the end.

We didn't play as smart as we needed to in some instances. But we put it all out there. ... We took it down to the end. We had our opportunities. We just weren't able to make the big plays when it was necessary to make them.

I made it very clear to him what my view was. We have more plays in our offense (for Ben) than any team has in their offense for any player in the league.

I had 20 or something and guys have gotten into the 20s, so there's reason to think that at some point somebody is going to do it. But the opponent had an awful lot to do with that, and no one plays like that anymore.

It has happened to us so many times this season. We didn't make our free throws, and there were an awful lot of odd plays that were right in our hands near the basket but couldn't come up with them. Those will cost you in a close game like this.

I didn't think either team was especially sharp tonight, to put it mildly. It was anybody's game for the taking. They turned it up a little bit and we weren't able to make any big plays to stay with them, we could have at any moment exerted ourselves we could have come back, we just couldn't do it.

They were able to make big plays at the end and we weren't.

He plays 20 minutes a game and consistently blocks shots all over the place. He's a great defender and still changes ends very well. He's an intimidating-type player. To have a backup center like him is a luxury.

The last two games have been very similar to a lot of wins we had last year where we're not playing our best but we keep battling, stay in the game and make the big plays in the end.