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
beat breathing contest great job jump looks position produce reasons rip team teams top
Rip did a great job and Redd didn't have a lot of breathing room. One of the reasons we aren't a big fouling team is that we don't produce a lot of steals. We don't jump out and we don't gamble. We play position defense. That's why so often our man-to-man looks like a zone. We try to make teams beat us over the top and contest every shot.
care happens hope mouth people saying says shut speak top
I think everybody, when you're the top team, a lot of teams, everyone says they want you. I always say that usually when you speak out like that, usually it's the opposite. When you're saying you want something, usually you really don't want it. That's how it usually goes. The people that when they really want something usually you keep your mouth shut and hope that it happens and then take care of business. That's how it usually goes.
against anybody broke guys hurt opportunity situation stale sure sweat top
We said going in the idea was to not get anybody hurt and make sure that the guys we had to play broke a sweat and didn't get too stale and give our young guys an opportunity to play in a heated situation against some top players.
game individual standpoint top
All of our guys, we sense what's coming. We know what's going to come here in two weeks, and you have to have an edge. You have to not only have an edge, but from an individual standpoint you want your game and the things you do to be at top form.
anxiety days dog guys multiply prior situation somewhere teams top tough upset week
The dog days are always the 10 days prior to All-Star break. That's always a tough time. You see a lot of teams get upset because guys say, 'OK, I've got a week off, I'm going somewhere for All-Star break.' Multiply that on top of our situation of guys wondering, 'Well, am I going to be an All-Star or not?' There's always that anxiety of wondering.
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.
basketball might minutes played won work
I thought we might have played 10 to 13 minutes of championship basketball tonight. We won the game, but there are things we need to work on.
ability beat great second talk team turn turning
I thought we made great adjustments in the second half. You can talk about turning it up, but I think the big thing is that our team has the ability to see how a team plays, then make the adjustments to get into their weaknesses. You can turn up your energy, but you still have to be able to beat the other team.
passion seemed terrible
I thought we had terrible energy, terrible passion in the first half. We just seemed very disinterested.
passion picked played seemed terrible
I thought we had terrible energy, terrible passion in the first half. Just seemed very much disinterested. Then we picked things up, played with more energy, got the lead.