Nate McMillan Quotes (129 Quotes)

You can't turn the ball over 24 times and win. We were just trying to do too much and we weren't recognizing what they were doing to us defensively. Our shot selection was also poor...too many quick shots.

It's really nice to get this win before we go on the road. I thought our guys scrapped all 48 minutes. Jack played much bigger than his size. I think it was his best game of the season.

Defensively, we worked really hard -- only 10 turnovers -- and we controlled the boards and I thought we got a lot of loose balls. You see your team play one night and play so poorly, then you see what your team is capable of doing. We just played a solid game. Steve (Blake ) ran a great game for us.

I don't know if people look at the Olympics like they used to. That's a huge honor to be asked to be part of the team. Who knows if players feel the same as they did back in the '70s and '80s.

They are well aware that they can't carry firearms on the plane. That is something bigger than the organization. The league is involved in that. ... Whenever you are doing something with the NBA, you can't carry any type of weapons, whether they are guns or knives or anything else when you are doing business with the NBA.

It was a mistake. ... I'm sure he is embarrassed by the situation. There's nothing he can do about it now except to make sure that he is aware of where his weapons are.

We lost our heads a little bit late in the ballgame. We're right there with two minute to go, then they knock down a three, and I think that really took the air out of us.

We've had some good days. We've got to get better in that area. We've been working on that, and hopefully we'll continue to improve.

The other night, I could see he was bothered in the game by the play of some of the guys, and he bit his tongue.

We want him to commit. If Zach commits to working and getting himself in shape and committed to carrying this team, where he is a big part, then he can help this team out a lot. He is a very good player with a lot of potential.

He's going to land on his feet.

I am encouraged by the fact that we've been in two games against two very good teams, we had control of the game. When you have the lead, you don't drop your heads. That's when you go even harder.

No defense at all. There was no commitment at the defensive end of the floor. Whether it was rebounding the ball, containing the ball or defending the perimeter, we just stopped playing. We quit.

I think he's worked hard, but he needs to play. The thing is, that's not a league where you just go and it's a cake walk. For him, there's going to be guys down there challenging him because he's up here, he has a position, and they want to come up here.

I know we are a much better basketball team than how we played. Tonight, our minds were not together as a unit. We just didn't show up as a team and do the things necessary to win.

I thought we were a different group last night. I thought both groups played good, played hard. There was a focus there.

I guess if you get right to it, we're not playing with a sense of urgency. We've got to start to get it together and start working harder. As a pro, if you shoot poorly at the free throw line, you stay after practice and work on your shot. We don't have that commitment right now. We've got to get it together and start working harder.

We got caught watching several times. They've got several guys to put in the post and we just got beat several times. I thought we just got caught ball-watching tonight.

You can't turn over the ball 24 times and win. They scored 25 points off our turnovers.

Letdown is written on this game. For us, we have other factors that should motivate us, not so much that we played a good game against the Lakers. We only have 11 wins. This is an opportunity for us. Just as those guys are missing some pieces over there, they also see opportunity.

It's almost impossible. They (opponents) can keep you from getting to the basket, because part of the reason you don't want to go is because you are thinking about your free throw shots.

The ball stopped moving in the fourth quarter. We were content to play finesse basketball instead of power basketball. When they got hot, I thought we tightened up a bit. We did make plays down the stretch, however, to win it.

I know injuries are a part of the game, and you have to make changes and adjustments. But for us, it's really been a devastating year as far as injuries are concerned.

He's all about business, from what I've seen on film and the games we've played.

That's very tough. And that's a good question. It's something we talked about today. (Miles) was available. He was ready to play, wanted to play. And as an organization, (we) decided that we would put him out there. We'll see.

Those were two big three's. I thought that took the wind out of our sails. We couldn't respond and I saw heads drop as if the game was over.

What it has done for Orangeburg is provide a common philosophy we can all put our arms around, ... It's the one thing that will keep us moving forward.

I was pleasantly surprised when I was asked to be a member of the coaching staff ... I am so honored to have been asked. This is the greatest achievement of my basketball career.

That knee is pretty sore. He's been off it for a day and this morning and he's gotten treatment, and it's just too painful.

I thought we fought and played really hard. They beat us tonight because they made a few more plays than we did and got a few more breaks. In the past, we would have fallen apart in some situations and pouted and lowered our heads. But tonight we didn't let it bother us.

We can't put together 48 minutes. We're saying the same thing every single night and every single day. It's just drama.

It's like being a parent of a kid that's close to getting out of the house. They're tired of it, and want to move on. I was feeling that I couldn't take (the Sonics) any further.

He knows that he has an opportunity to win the division after the success the last half of the season,

I thought they were playing this game, once the game got started, for me. I couldn't really tell in the locker room how they felt ... at the end they started to celebrate for me and with me and that's special. That means a lot.

It didn't look like he had his lift, but a guy like that is playing on adrenaline. For them, I think they wanted to get him out there and get him up and down the floor, hear the crowd and get the butterflies out of his system. You know he is a pretty good player coming off your bench.

This game just shows you where we are as a team. A young, inexperienced team needs to learn how to keep control of the game when they have the lead and finish a game.

It want to split he and Zach (Randolph) up mainly because we want to get more ball movement. It's to try and find something that will give us that scrappy, that balance that we need.

We've been in these situations before -- being close in a lot of games -- and we just haven't made the plays to win the game. I thought we did that tonight. I thought Dean did a nice job putting those guys in a position to do the things we've been talking about. The calls that he made were very similar to what I was thinking. I thought the guys also did a good job of responding.

What I was hoping for by bringing him in would be that these guys would be excited to see him and get a lift. I thought he came in and did some pretty good things. He made some nice shots, we ran a couple of pick-and-roll sets with him, and he was able to knock down some shots.

It's a reality here. We're a team that at this time of the season, with teams trying to get to the playoffs, it's going to be difficult to win.

This is what we've been talking about for a while. The effort, scrappy play. We played smart for the majority of the game.

We have to be the aggressors, especially against a team like this. You can't sit and wait for them to punch you in the mouth.

We dont have fire. I don't know where our fire has gone. These last two games was basically like a repeat. Just the fire and motivation, inner motivation, is not there. We've got to think this is a time for someone to step up, other than the staff, out on the court and try and lead. It's an opportunity we desperately need and were searching for it.

And I told him 'Don't you bite your tongue, you say it.' You only got a few more games anyway, you say it. I don't give a (rip) if you (tick) someone off, you say it and get it off your chest. Because you are going to have to make a (free agent) decision, and if you don't say it now, you won't say it later. Say it. I don't care who it is, you say it.

That's not what basketball players do. We just won't allow that. The decision to send him home has been made, and that's behind us now.

We didn't show up, and there's no reason for that. I know we played last night, but to come out and just not be ready to play, that shouldn't happen.

Defensively, I just thought that we weren't aggressive. We want to get up into our man's chest.

Once he gets to that point, he'll be able to carry this team, this team will have some success, and he'll have a better opportunity of making the all-star team. It's a learning year for him. When you talk about developing, no one is developing more than Zach Randolph is right now, in my opinion.

I am excited to add Bob Burke to my coaching staff, ... Bob is a true teacher of the game of basketball and has over 30 years experience as a college coach including the last four at the University of Hawaii.

I thought we looked a little fatigued early in the first half. I thought we scrapped and fought to keep ourselves in the game, but early, they were just quicker to the ball.