Flip Saunders
![Flip Saunders](/assets/img/authors/flip-saunders.jpg)
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 calmed played position win
To our credit, we calmed down and just played basketball. The thing is, especially on the road, you put yourself in a position to win games. We don't beat ourselves.
basically bench bit giving guys playing start three
We wanted to try to start establishing our bench more, so basically we're playing three guys and giving those guys a little bit more minutes.
ability both defend execute lose
We're not going to lose our personality. Our personality is still our ability to defend and to execute offensively, and we did both today.
defense lock
We know when to lock down. Our defense hasn't slipped at all.
far iceberg tip
We are at the tip of the iceberg as far as where we are and where we could be.
far happened playing playoff prepared throw thrown
We still only had 10 turnovers for the game. They were magnified as far as when they happened a little bit. When you're playing well, they try to throw everything at you. From that standpoint, as I say, the more things that are thrown at you, the better prepared you are come playoff time.
energy lack maybe quick rest spots watch
When you watch film, you see we're maybe not getting to spots quick enough. Or there are some things where we lack the energy that I know when we get rest that we have. So we'll see.
bit dust ran run
We ran some things we hadn't run in a while, just to dust them off a little bit and do them in a game-type situation.
couple last level played talked team
We've talked about Chauncey and how it would be a travesty if he's not an All-Star. It's the same way with Parker. He's really played at that level the last couple of years, and I can't see any way he doesn't make that All-Star team this year.
gave helped negative
The only negative was I wanted to play Carlos (Delfino) and I didn't. I think he could have probably helped us. We went with Mo, and Mo gave us energy.
blocking concept good presence shots supposed team understand understanding
What I didn't understand was how good he can be defensively, blocking shots and he has a pretty good presence of understanding what he's supposed to do in the team concept defensively,
coach committed drive far good group players sure
Like I said, I think a coach is as good as the players he has. You do have to drive them. You've got to make sure to put them in the right situations. And we have a group that's very committed as far as what we're doing.
capitalize last won
We've won 22 of our last 24. You play 82 games, and you don't like to say you didn't have it, but we didn't have it tonight. We didn't capitalize on our opportunities down the stretch.
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.