Flip Saunders Quotes (326 Quotes)

I told him I'd like to do this seven more times in two or three months.

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 don't think you can chase anything. Anytime you chase something, you never end up catching it. So it if comes, it comes.

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.

I told Avery (Johnson) after the game that I'd like to see him seven more times, starting in about three months.

I thought we played maybe 10 to 13 minutes of championship basketball tonight. We didn't play how we're supposed to play, even down the stretch. We won the game, but there were definitely some learning experiences.

Like I said, I think a coach is as good as the players he has. You do have to drive them. You've got to make sure to put them in the right situations. And we have a group that's very committed as far as what we're doing.

Everyone at times did things to carry us.

Were not going to keep Michael at 11 or 14 points. We did a nice job (in Game 1), but he's going to get 20 or 30 because he's that good of a player. What we've got to do is make him earn those and make him be a volume scorer. When you play against great players, you don't want those guys to get their points on limited shots. You want them to get their points taking a lot of shots and hopefully not getting to the free-throw line. That has to be our main focus.

He was somewhat emotional. It's a tough situation, and that's one of the reasons I played him a lot. I thought it was better for him to be occupied than to just sit and think.

We're not going to chase that record, but if it comes, it comes. Our focus right now is health and staying sharp. We're going to rest some guys and give our bench extended minutes to get them ready for the playoffs.

The scary thing is he's only 21. Watching him when he was younger, I always thought one of his main strengths was the ability to make other people better. That can always be your major weakness if you do that too much. What he's done in the last month is on the fine line of when he needs to take over a game and when he needs to take a shot to win a game.

Our starters broke a sweat and didn't get too stale or hurt and I was happy to see the young guys play. It was good to see those guys in that type of situation.

It's an old coaching adage, something the old-timers used to tell all the young coaches. Do what teams do to you press a pressing team zone a zone team run on a running team. If you take what is their strength and make it your own, you can get into their heads a little bit.

We've started to look at things. But we mostly worry about ourselves more than we worry about the other teams.

I think from talking to a lot of coaches, I'd say there's a pretty good chance of three going and a possibility of four. Just from talking to coaches. But you've had a lot of coaches say they would vote for five. Whether five could make it would be tough. Even if four makes it -- even three -- when you don't have any of them voted in by the fans, that's pretty unbelievable.

But even in a league where analysis and scouting are a way of life, there's no learning experience like the real thing. It's always different to scout someone and then to really be in the heat of the battle against them, ... And so there's no question I think it does help. ... That might not translate to wins, but at least you're not going to be surprised too much.

When you play 82 games, it's tough to play at an unbelievably high level all 82 games. Right now we're playing at a high level. Our level that we're playing at is where many teams' mountains are.

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.

Sometimes in these types of situations, you want to get some organization. I thought that the way these guys play together, they can get some organization. We went through some stuff with Paul (Pierce) and he seemed to pick things up and play well off those guys.

If you took a team from the West and made it play in the East on a nightly basis, they would find out how tough it is. It's such a grind. The East is tougher mentally. It's a grind night in and night out. . . . Trust me. The East is not as bad as they make it out to be.

They don't quit. They keep on coming at you. There were times we had them down, they could have (given up), but they came right back. That's why they've been able to beat some good teams lately.

We had terrible energy and terrible passion in the first half. We just seemed very much disinterested, and then we really picked it up and played with more energy.

I thought the last three or four minutes our defense was impressive.. If we play like that for 48 minutes it would make things a lot easier for ourselves.

We don't change our style of play. A lot of teams, they play one way during the regular season and their style of play has to change once they get to the playoffs. When you play for seven months one style, and now you're going to change in a three-day span, you're not as prepared, you're not as comfortable.

It's the same thing. Keep sharp, not get anybody hurt, be in a situation to go out and have some success.