Scott Skiles
Scott Skiles
Scott Allen Skilesis an American basketball coach and former player. He most recently served as the head coach of the Orlando Magic. He also coached the Phoenix Suns, Chicago Bulls, and Milwaukee Bucks. A first-round draft pick out of Michigan State University, Skiles played ten seasons as a point guard in the NBA. He holds the NBA record for assists in one game with 30, set in his fifth season in the league and second with Orlando, in which he...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth5 March 1964
CityLa Porte, IN
against aggressive anyone felt great halftime halves league playing points poorer quality quite second team win
We kind of felt at halftime it was one of our poorer halves in quite a while. But it was a great second half for us. We were much more aggressive defensively and had at least 25 points off turnovers. It was a quality win against a team playing as well as anyone in the league right now.
free gave points pressured run
We gave them 29 points off our turnovers, 27 second-chance points and 25 free throws. When they made a run at us and pressured us, we didn't have much poise.
defense games gets happen hope kept last points rely struggle won
Our defense kept us in the game. It was reminiscent of the way we won so many games last year. There are always points in the game when you struggle a little offensively. You hope it doesn't come at the end of the game. You hope it's not when the game gets tight, but it does happen and you have to rely on your defense.
feeling fight free game guys points simple sorry throw
They made three's but the free throw disparity we could not overcome. We had a lot of head-hanging and guys feeling sorry for themselves. There are points in the game where there is a simple choice: you fight or you bleed. We did not fight our way out of it.
guys hung last points proud seven
After it got to seven points our guys just hung in there. Our guys were fatigued after last night's game, so I'm really proud of how they all battled.
choice coming either fight game handling inevitable ourselves points posture run
You could see it coming in our posture and the way we were handling ourselves out there. It was inevitable they were going to make some kind of run. There was no way we were going to run away from them. There are points in the game where you have a choice to make. Either fight or flee.
against averaged couple difficult early four games great learned lesson momentum needs opened played players playing points possession total
It wasn't like we had a total letdown or anything; we just softened up enough to let him get going. And once he got going, it was very difficult to get any momentum back. Early in the third, we went under a couple of times on screens. He made one, and that really opened his eyes. He put one right in the middle. That's a lesson that needs to be learned -- playing against great players like that, just one possession can get them going. Obviously, if you look at the whole year, the four games we played them, he's averaged well over 30 points against us. We didn't get it done against him this year.
bad basketball concerned gave good half lack points quarter respect tough win
We just gave them 25 points off turnovers and it's tough to win when you do that. I'm concerned about this one good half, one bad half routine, one good quarter, one bad quarter that we've been in and just the carelessness with the ball. And, a lack of respect for the basketball out there was pretty amateurish.
hard missed mistakes played pop step
I thought we played hard tonight. We kind of had a pop to our step most of the game. We made too many mistakes and missed too many shots.
defense hot johnson playing three tired
I thought we got a little tired after playing sensational defense for three quarters. Then Johnson started getting hot and they got close.
attacked jump looked panicked practice yesterday
I thought we looked panicked right from the jump ball. The way that we attacked them in Philadelphia, and in practice yesterday and then the shoot-around, we just went away from those things.
battle both game good knew level plays raised second
I thought the way that game unfolded made that a very good win. We knew we'd have a battle in the second half. We battled and made a lot of big plays on both ends. When it got really tight, we raised our level of play.
average following game job overall played
I thought overall we played better tonight. We have a lot of energy. We did a better than average job of following the game plan. We could have had the game in regulation. We just weren't able to get it.
overall
I thought overall it was one of Kirk's better games.