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
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.
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.
basically guys halftime played playing positive second takes talked type
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.
cause defending hope hot strengths takes team unknowns year
There are no unknowns at this point. But from their standpoint, the X-factor is that they are a team that takes as many three-pointers as anybody. If they get hot like they can, they can cause you a lot of problems. But, one of our strengths all year was defending the three. Hope that continues.
consider last takes week
(McDyess) has been like that the last week or two. It takes him a little while to get into his flow. I consider him one of the starters, and that's how he's playing.
came dog energy games happens last takes time traded
Dog days. Especially after the holidays. After the holidays, you've had some big games last week. So what happens is you come in and it takes time to get your energy going a little bit. I thought we came out and traded baskets too much.
anytime bad bounce carries coach energetic energy excitement initial takes whether
There's always an energetic bounce - whether good, bad or indifferent - because a new voice, a new energy comes in. Anytime a coach takes over a team, there's always that initial excitement that carries over to the team.
against dog energy gaudy hard levels record season seems takes team
I was disappointed in the defense, and I told them that at halftime. These are the dog days, when it seems like the season is never going to end, and it takes a while to get your energy levels up. And when you have a gaudy record like we do, every team is going to come out hard against you.
both bottom exciting images individual line mirror standpoint takes teams unselfish whatever
I look at their team, and we are mirror images from the standpoint of we both have some exciting players, but because both teams are so unselfish and there's not a lot of controversy, they don't get a lot of individual notoriety. Bottom line is, both teams are about winning, and about doing whatever it takes to win.
concerned everywhere except friday miami past people played sunday talked talking three walked
I was concerned because everywhere you walked the past three days, that's all people talked about. They didn't even know we played Friday night. I think most of the people were talking about Sunday -- except the TVs. They were talking about Miami and the Lakers.
came concerned couple guys heard machine mention might morning overlook played stuff
I was concerned because at shoot-around this morning I heard a couple of guys mention some stuff about Miami. I was concerned we might overlook Atlanta. But we came out and played like a well-oiled machine in the first half.
bit both lost played
I thought we played really well for stretches and periods, both defensively, offensively. I thought we got up 18-20, we lost a little bit of our concentration.
basketball definitely learning maybe minutes played supposed won
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.
bit built control nice relax
I thought we did some nice things. We built a lead, then you relax a little bit and they made some plays, but it wasn't where we didn't have control of the game.