Scott Skiles Second Quotations

He can pretty much forget almost everything from one second to the next. I don't know if he did or not because he certainly knew. I hope he didn't.

Our defense was good again tonight and we needed it. We sort of went cold in the second half. We went 12-for-42 in the second half. To win a game when you only make 12 field goals in the second half, obviously our defense was good.

Our guys always come back. But it was the second game in a row we weren't ready to play when the ball went up. We're still learning on the fly. We don't have guys with 30, 40, 60 games of playoff experience.

I thought it was a great effort. Tyson (Chandler) was a big lift. I thought he had his best game of the year. Our game was proactive and most importantly, we got a lot of rebounds and second chance opportunities.

I think he is the most-improved player (in the NBA). I also thought he should have been all-rookie (NBA selection) and things like that. But people look at him as already a pro player. I understand that because he has played professionally for a long time. I know everybody respects him around the league, they just tend to look at him as a long-term veteran, or whatever, even though he's in his second year.

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 need every win. The problem is we started the second half like five blind men. We were not executing, not talking to each other. Maybe one half is good enough for us right now. We have to get that rectified.

Well, I normally err on the side of telling the truth, so I'm going to tell it. I'm really embarrassed by what happened out there. I thought we came out in the second half, we were pretty much as soft as I've seen. We played with very little heart, very little aggressiveness.

We had a nice lead at halftime. Then we came out casual with the ball and sloppy with everything that we tried to run in the second half.

We were very, very fortunate. Clearly, we were tired right from the beginning of the game. It wasn't a pretty game. We just played hard in the second half and really battled for it.

We kind of felt at halftime it was one of our poorer halves in quite a while. But it was a great second half for us. We were much more aggressive defensively and had at least 25 points off turnovers. It was a quality win against a team playing as well as anyone in the league right now.

We should have won that second game of the season at New Jersey (a 100-99 loss). It is nice to put one behind you against a team that has kind of dominated us.

We should have won that second game of the season at New Jersey. We missed a free throw and gave up a three-point play basically at the buzzer. It's a game we felt like we should have won. I guess it is nice to pull out a win against a team that's dominated us.

To win a game where we only make 12 field goals in the second half, obviously our defense is good. I thought we were very active and it won the game for us.

We did a much better job in the second half of getting aggressive. We were a little fatigued or distracted in the first half, there's no doubt. We felt at halftime it was one of our poorer halves in quite a while.

I'm really embarrassed by what happened out there. I thought we came out in the second half and pretty much, we were as soft as I've seen.

I gave it some thought until he missed the first bus and came on the second bus, and the thought was over. That was the end of that thought.

But in the second half, they were putting them in and they ended it pretty quickly.

The guys played much better in the second half. In the first half, we just didn't show up. We came back. The problem is coming ready to the building. We haven't done that enough this year.

It makes you realize that we blew an opportunity to be closer. Going all the way back to the second game of the season, we've had some difficulty making clutch free throws. If your mind is on anything else but your technique, you're probably in trouble. If it's on the score and the clock -- 'I hope I make it,' and all those kinds of things -- you're probably in trouble.