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
control gain lost second
We had control. We lost that control and couldn't gain it back in the second half.
control force man ran run
On the road, you can't run as much at times. You just have to control tempo. The thing we did the first two games, we ran when we had opportunities and when we had man advantages, and when we didn't have it, we didn't. We didn't force things, and that is the big key.
controlled played
They controlled the tempo. We played out of character.
came controlled defense good
I thought we came out with a good focus, especially after a back-to-back. We came out methodically offensively and defensively went into a swarming defense and controlled things right from the beginning.
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.
basically both control played third took unit
I thought the first unit played well in both of their stints. They basically took control in the third quarter.
ability available basket both bring creating effective good instant knew offense scoring tony
Tony is in a good rhythm. We knew when he was available what he could bring to the team, and we knew he had the ability to score. I don't think everyone knew he could be effective at both perimeter scoring and going to the basket and creating for other people. Right now, he's kind of our instant offense off the bench.
calm lost playing starters thrown
We lost focus. When you have two starters thrown out in a three-minute span, I wouldn't say you're playing calm at that time.
energy passion picked played seemed terrible
We had terrible energy and terrible passion in the first half. We just seemed very much disinterested, and then we really picked it up and played with more energy.
follow four guys played talk touch unique
We try to talk a little bit, keep in touch every now and then, follow each other's career. It's a unique situation. You have two guys who played with each other, went four years together.
start
We got pretty much what we wanted offensively. Defensively, we were like vultures to start games.
gave guys heat main played quarter third trap turned worked
We got out of it what we wanted. Our main guys played really well, especially in the third quarter when they turned the heat up. We worked on some of our trap defenses that were really effective. Then we gave our young guys some fourth-quarter experience.
active ball bit hands needed tonight
We don't try to get the ball out of guys' hands too much. We did a little bit tonight because we needed to do some things to get active a little bit.
carry consistent high point stretch superstar team turn
We're going through this stretch where every team has a superstar that can carry a team. The consistent thing is that, at some point in the game, we turn it on at an unbelievably high level.