Flip Saunders
Flip Saunders
Philip Daniel "Flip" Saunderswas an American basketball player and coach. During his career, he coached the Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons, and Washington Wizards...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth23 February 1955
CityCleveland, OH
care days dog fairly gone leading mentally next ourselves overall preparing taken
I think we've gone through the dog days now. What we are doing now is preparing ourselves mentally for the next 29 days leading up to the playoffs. We are 53-13 overall and 29-2 at home. I'd say we have taken care of ourselves fairly well.
carry change defense fourth points quarter score stretch
I think what we can do now is we can change our personality. Defense can carry us at times. But I thought in the fourth quarter, our offense, we executed. To score 28 points down the stretch in the fourth quarter that's pretty impressive.
few games gone guys happened last minutes played plays team
I think what's happened is (starters) minutes have gone down in the last few games because of the play of (Antonio) McDyess, the play of Mo (Evans), the play of (Carlos) Delfino, the play of (Carlos) Arroyo. Those guys have played well, and if a team plays well, you keep them on the floor.
ability character days high night perform playing seemed shows start super win
I think what it does is it shows the character of the team, the whole roster, your ability to go out every night and perform at a high level. To win that many games, you don't take too many days off. Especially the start that we had, it seemed like everyone was playing pretty much their Super Bowl.
chances guys keeps players
I think what it does do is let players who, in the past, have been on the IRE all year, those guys will probably have chances of being activated more. You can use more of your depth, and it keeps guys hungry.
experience guys happens hold react series takes whether win
I think what happens is that experience takes hold as the series progresses, that's usually what happens. Whether there are adjustments to be made or how you react after a win or a loss. Sometimes, those young guys don't know any better, when they haven't had experience.
bit deal deals guy help hope improve maybe might playoff somebody
I think they were all superficial deals. You hope that somebody might help you out a little bit but I don't think there's one deal where you can say, 'This is the guy that's going to put us way over the top.' They were deals that might help a little bit, maybe improve your playoff position, but that's all.
bring confidence developing guys hours mean people realize sitting
I think there has been so much, too much, made of the bench, how they are developing and such. People don't realize that just because our guys don't play in a game, that doesn't mean they're sitting around for two hours in practice. I've got confidence in all those guys, they all bring something to the table.
guy situation
Otherwise, I would have put him in. I think we're in a situation -- Dale is a guy we have to get ready, too. It's just kind of how we went.
bored chance forced gets guys instincts maybe stimulated team
Our guys have to be stimulated mentally. I've always said this team gets bored at times. When you're forced to react, forced to move, you don't really have a chance to maybe think about getting bored. You just go out and your instincts take over.
execute freedom half open second takes team
We executed pretty much, ... You have to be aggressive. If a team takes something away, you have to have enough freedom to go in and attack. And they didn't do that, but you can see in the second half they started to execute better and get some open looks.
carry good people tougher
We've had different people carry us at different times. That's what has made this a very good team, and has made us tougher to play against.
expect guys hurt williams
Palacio, Williams and Ostertag all hurt us in overtime. Those aren't the guys you'd expect it from.
broke good guys happy hurt stale starters sweat type
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.