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
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.
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.
biggest brought court deal far gave handle mitchell players porter practice prepare responsibility sam surrounded terry tried type veteran
We surrounded (Kevin). We brought in two veteran players in Sam Mitchell and Terry Porter that we thought were two very professional type individuals that would show him how to handle practice situations, what it was to be professionals, to prepare for practice, to prepare for games, how to deal as far as off the floor, not to put yourself in any awkward-type situations. And then we tried to communicate with him. Our biggest thing was we gave him enough responsibility on the court that he was able to perform, yet still improve.
affect dealing mental type
He's had some other things from a mental standpoint. When you're dealing with that type of situation, it's got to affect you from a mental standpoint.
guys paul pick seemed stuff types
Sometimes in these types of situations, you want to get some organization. I thought that the way these guys play together, they can get some organization. We went through some stuff with Paul (Pierce) and he seemed to pick things up and play well off those guys.
chicago found plays tried turn type
Chicago plays physical. They play hard. I think that they found out that if they just let us do what we want to do, we can be very effective. So they tried to turn it into a muck it, grind-it-up type game.
both deserving driven team type
They're both very deserving because you look at where their team is at and what their team is doing and how important they are to their teams. But you know what? Our players, we're not driven by that. We're driven by rings, and so those type of things, that's not even up for discussion.
adversity built challenged love people rise team types
I think the one thing that people underestimate is that when there's adversity and they become challenged they rise up to the occasion. They love those types of situations. That's why this team is built for the playoffs.
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.