Flip Saunders Quotes on Time (24 Quotes)

I was more concerned coming in with the defense. I feel in time, we're going to be able to do preparation to be effective offensively. Let's make sure we don't lose our identity defensively.

This is going to be a great game for the fans. It's going to be a competitive game. But I don't know how much bearing it will have for either team down the road. I mean, if we go out and dominate them, I don't know what bearing that would have come playoff time, and same thing the other way.

It's incentive to get days off (to rest players) and preparation for coaches. Any time you can get into a playoff situation and get a three- or four-day rest, you can get back to your basics with some good practices.

The dog days are always the 10 days prior to All-Star break. That's always a tough time. You see a lot of teams get upset because guys say, 'OK, I've got a week off, I'm going somewhere for All-Star break.' Multiply that on top of our situation of guys wondering, 'Well, am I going to be an All-Star or not' There's always that anxiety of wondering.

When you've got a guy who is later in his years and you think you have opportunities to win championships, you want to take advantage of those situations because time is running out. I think he looks at that. He's had a very, very good focus in practice and games.

They still shot extremely well today, but we were more aggressive defensively and forced more turnovers. It was one of those games where they either turned it over or scored almost every time.

We still only had 10 turnovers for the game. They were magnified as far as when they happened a little bit. When you're playing well, they try to throw everything at you. From that standpoint, as I say, the more things that are thrown at you, the better prepared you are come playoff time.

They caught us at a time where we were a little on edge from what happened in Orlando.

Delfino really took advantage of his time. He's the one guy we have (on the bench) who can beat people off the bounce, off the dribble. He can create plays for himself and for other people.

When you get to 41 games you get him a few minutes at a time, start getting into the rhythm.

As I said in the locker room, people die to get to 50 (wins). To get to 60 is really something. Every win beyond that shows that you've been able to play at a pretty high level for a long time.

Coming in from the outside, you could see that this team was hurt from what happened last year in Game 7. Sometimes you think over the course of time, they say that time heals wounds. But time just didn't seem to heal that wound.

He's really been focused. He's a guy who is getting into his later years and when you think you have an opportunity to win a championship, you want to take advantage of it. Time is running out and I think he looks at that.

The guy that has been on a mission here is Ben. They might as well take the Defensive Player of the Year trophy and send it here for the fourth time, because when you look at all the things he's doing - defensive rebounding, blocking shots, steals - he's just doing everything.

These are the dog days, because the season seems like it's never going to end. You have to take every game one game at a time. When you're on a big run and winning games, that's the biggest challenge you have -- can you withstand the pressure night in and night out of what teams throw at you

It's incentive to get days off. ... Any time you can get in a playoff situation where you can get a three- or four-day rest, it's almost like a mini-training camp situation, and you can get back to your basics. Get back and have a couple of good practices and really kind of get calmed down from winning a series and get rejuvenated and get back up and get into that crescendo where you're playing extremely well again for the first game.

You never want to have a player that has so much confidence against you that he thinks he can just take the game over at any time. At least he's not going to think he can walk on the floor and score 17 straight on us.

The last three weeks, they might as well take the Defensive Player of the Year trophy and send it for the fourth time, or whatever, because when you look at all the things he's doing, as far as from defensive rebounding, blocking shots, steals, he's doing everything. He has been phenomenal.

That's phenomenal. That's why they ended up the way they were. I think their approach is a very similar approach that we've kind of taken, just take one game at a time and see what happens.

It really helps any time you have it. The coach is the authority figure, and you've got to be able to communicate with players. Over the course of seven months, things are going to happen, and you've got to deal with those situations. The main thing is the players know that I respect them. It's because of that mutual respect that we're able to deal with any kind of situation.

I think it means something because in this league confidence means so much. You never want a player to have so much confidence that he feels he can take over a game at any time. The positive thing about this is that he's not going to think he can walk out on the floor and score 17 straight against us.

To get to 60 (wins) is really something. It shows we've been able to play at a high level for a long time.

I talked to the guys at halftime and basically said that we were not as competitive. I thought that the second half they played exceptionally well. In these type of games, it takes a lot of time to get used to playing with guys. Every guy did something in a very positive way.

We lost focus. When you have two starters thrown out in a three-minute span, I wouldn't say you're playing calm at that time.