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.
contested good help job might rip send tried understanding
Rip did a good job of understanding where help might be, tried to send him to as much help as he could and contested pretty much most of his shots.
chance goes guy hungry league players trying
Players in that league are trying to get here. So a guy that is up here and goes down, they want a chance to see how hungry he really is.
conference developed few good gotten teams western
Part of it is teams that were not very good have gotten better, which makes for a much more competitive conference. What developed for a few years in the Western Conference has now come back to the East, where there aren't really any gimme games.
against close experience fourth gave good guys losing main overall played quarter team third trying win
Our main guys played really well in the third quarter. Then we gave our young guys some fourth quarter experience against a team trying to get a win after losing 10 straight. It would have been better if they would have got the win but overall they did some good things and got some good experience in a close game.
appreciate atlanta eye guys hard main matter rust score
Our main guys didn't have much rust because they've been playing. At least I've been able to keep an eye on them. The one thing you've got to appreciate about Atlanta is they play hard no matter what the score is.
extra mentally normally pass whatever
For whatever reason, we just weren't as mentally alert. We had a lot of mental breakdowns on defense, and offensively we didn't make the extra pass as often as we normally do. You hate to say it, but we just didn't have it tonight.
games guys last mitchell older productive sam tires tread understand utilize wear
Fortunately for me I've had some older guys where we do the same thing. We did that for two years with Ervin Johnson. He didn't play the first 45 games but he started in the last 25 and started in the playoffs. Sam Mitchell was the same way. You have to understand the guys that have a lot of wear on their tires and know how much tread you have left. You want to try to utilize it in a very productive manner.
game mistake worry
If we weren't 33-5 and doing as well as we are, you'd go in thinking, 'Boy, this is a big game to try and show them they made a mistake or whatever. Just where we're at, record-wise, you don't have to worry about that. For us, it's another game.
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.
fun nice
He was a really nice kid, really fun to be around, and that's what makes it even more difficult.
bit collapsed couple force game helped might took turned
He turned down some threes. He took a couple of dribble-penetrations, and that collapsed them more and helped out some of our other guys. Sometimes he might take some threes when he's covered, a little bit contested. (Wednesday) he didn't force too many, he let things come to him more. I think he didn't try to force too many, he let the game come to him more.
hit miss pin trying
He was trying to miss it. He was trying to hit it off the back of the pin to no avail.
beat people quick
He has his niche. Defensively, he's got that quick first step. He can take away that first move. And most times defensively, people get beat off the first move.