Scott Skiles Quotes (289 Quotes)

O'Neal is in charge of that. We are not in charge of that. When O'Neal wants to get things done, he will. He got in some foul trouble, he had an off-night. He doesn't have many of those.

We're in an enviable position. We have good young players, (high) draft picks and money to spend. Yet we're in last place in our division, so it's logical that people would call John and gauge if we're jittery and feel a need to make a big move. We happen

They still haven't proved they can play well in a big game at home.

Tyson's done the best job defending O'Neal. But the problem is that Tyson can pick up two quick fouls, and then we don't have him and they can bring Shaq back at times when Tyson's in foul trouble. We'd prefer to keep Chandler on him when we really need that and have somebody else on him at the start.

It was just a great comeback. Their defense was active, but we finally got it going. We started to get some stops and then Ben was just huge.

I thought we looked panicked right from the jump ball. The way that we attacked them in Philadelphia, and in practice yesterday and then the shoot-around, we just went away from those things.

We did what we had to do. We needed both of these games and we got it done. They won at home and we won at home. We know going into the series we have to win one in their building assuming you win at home. This makes it a series right now. We'll go down there and do our best.

We have had games like that where we haven't been sharp. I was hopeful that we were going to come out and play well. We pretty much got dominated all over the place.

He's got to get in better shape. That's the first thing. He's got to get in good enough shape to where he can at least attempt to be a big-minute player. He's got some nice natural post-up moves, but he has a ways to go. But he does a lot of good things. He's a very, very skilled player.

We need to play 40-plus minutes of really good basketball. The last couple games, we've got 30-plus, but that's not good enough at this level to win the game.

Anytime you get on that kind of roll in the NBA, it's not only impressive, but guys are playing with more confidence. They appear to be playing very well together. They're a well-rounded team, good defensively and offensively. Jason Kidd is one of the best players ever in the league. He makes the whole thing go.

We know we're not a title-contending team right now, but in the history of teams winning titles they tend to take their lumps for a little while before they finally get there.

Occasionally, I may say something to see if I can get a response. Certainly, they responded, not that I want to take any credit for a comment like that. Each time they could have faded away, they found a way to come back and get after it again.

We did what we had to do. We were able to get off to a better start. Our guys were confident and relaxed, yet focused from the start. We had good performances across the board.

I've never been part of a team where that didn't occur at some point. And sometimes behind the scenes is way worse than that.

It's a disappointing loss because of the way we played. We didn't play particularly well in the first-half. Yet we had a two-point lead and they didn't have Webber. We just came out after halftime really flat and looked bewildered. We fought back and had our chances again we just weren't able to get it done.

It's not like he's hurting us in the low post as much as he is by when he touches the ball, it sets off a chain of events that we've had hard time dealing with. We've got to do a better job stopping that chain of events.

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.

We got it tight there a couple times, kind of left our feet, got a little out of control. But having said that, we got a decent look at a 3-point shot to tie the game with 18 seconds to go. We had our chances.

They didn't play like they did in Miami. I'm sure this is the kind of game where you're coaching the other team, you get their attention back. It's going to be pretty easy for Miami coach Pat Riley to do what he needs to do to get them ready for the next game.

We'll just have to rely on our depth. It's not something we can control right now. I saw the play several times, and he rolled it pretty good.

I was less concerned by the way we shot the ball 36.6 percent and more concerned about how timid we were on defense. Bobby Simmons is a good player, but we gave him so many open looks all over the place. We just weren't there.

Tyson had the blocks. Two of those blocks were big league blocks, the one from behind and the one directly on Paul when he came down the middle. We were able to make our free throws. It was just a gutsy win.

They made three's but the free throw disparity we could not overcome. We had a lot of head-hanging and guys feeling sorry for themselves. There are points in the game where there is a simple choice you fight or you bleed. We did not fight our way out of it.

My guys almost every night battle really hard. They've had a lot of things go against them in late game situations and we haven't been able to seize the moment. Lately, we've been able to do that and our guys appear to growing up as a team.

We're three games down with 17 to go and two tough ones this weekend. That's why it's the NBA it's a tough business. We got to respond now.

Jason Kidd is always capable of something like that on a given night, (Steve) Nash, too. But the opponent had so much to do with that night, that it's hard to envision.

We waited too long to start playing. We kind of sleep-walked through 2-12 quarters. Then near the end of the third quarter, we finally started getting aggressive. We started driving the ball, and our defense picked up. We clawed ourselves back into the game.

Fouling him and putting him on the line makes him theoretically shoot less field goals and puts him on the line, but it also puts their team in the penalty earlier every quarter. And then other guys are going to the line. ... So if we're just fouling Shaq sort of indiscriminately, it can be a long night.

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.

There was a lot of out-of-position fouling. If we don't let them go to the line that much, we probably get the win. We had a lot of trouble (defensively). The last three games, we haven't, but tonight we did it again. We didn't move our feet and play proper position defense.

He's setting off a chain of events that we're having a hard time dealing with.

They obviously still have the advantage. They have two games left in their building.

We looked panicked right from the jump ball. That's the only word that I can come up with.

We want to make sure we do not fall too far behind. We've dug ourselves a hole and it is pretty simple We have to dig ourselves out or we do not make it. At some point we are going to have to win some games in a row.

We've got to put together a string at some time. It doesn't mean we have to put together seven in a row or anything like that. At some point, we have to win five of six and maybe add another four out of five in there.

We've dug ourselves a decent hole here and we're going to have to dig ourselves out. This is a game, if you're going to get serious about what you're going to do this season, (that) you've got to lay it all on the line there in the third quarter when we have a chance to win. We just looked out of it most of the night.

We know the odds. Ninety-five percent of the time, the team that is up 2-0 wins the series. I imagine we're going to see the best Miami has on Sunday, and we'd better be ready for it.

Ben is one of the most unique players I've seen. It is uncanny how one moment he is out there and not having a good game, then all of a sudden he just starts throwing in shots.

We played hard. We didn't play as smart as we needed to in some instances.

We dug a 20-point hole against a good team at home. It's very difficult at that point to come back and win.

Our defense hasn't been good enough to win. We haven't been physical enough, and they've taken it to us.

We didn't handle it very well the last time we played them. We had a hard time reacting to it.

I would never commit ahead of time that he wasn't going to play. I would hate to tell somebody they're not going to play or their minutes would be limited, then all of a sudden 6 minutes into the game put him out there. That wouldn't be fair. I think it's better that he stayed ready, but unfortunately he didn't get in.

We kind of lost our poise out there and they ran away from us. In a matter of minutes, the game was gone.

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

We just couldn't stop him in key moments.

They're on a level we're not even near yet, although we can play with them on a given night. What are they, 49-11 I guess 'aspire' would be the right word.

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 think that, if maybe something so bizarre ever happens one time, (the NBA) will take a look at (the seeding system). That's probably what it's going to take. Some crazy thing.