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
days expected gone needed second seven tough
They are always tough ones, when you've been gone for seven days and you come back and are expected to win. I thought we executed when we needed to - in the second half.
execute freedom half open second takes team
We executed pretty much, ... You have to be aggressive. If a team takes something away, you have to have enough freedom to go in and attack. And they didn't do that, but you can see in the second half they started to execute better and get some open looks.
control gain lost second
We had control. We lost that control and couldn't gain it back in the second half.
aggressive came extremely game second team
They came out extremely aggressive and we, for the second game in a row, didn't come out sharp. I've always said that whichever team is most aggressive usually has success.
cities common dead game games half happened last percentage rough second seventh shooting sign stretch three
This is our seventh game in seven different cities in 10 days. This has been a rough stretch and I think the common thing that has happened to us the last three games is that our shooting percentage in the second half is going down, which is usually a sign of dead legs.
ability beat great second talk team turn turning
I thought we made great adjustments in the second half. You can talk about turning it up, but I think the big thing is that our team has the ability to see how a team plays, then make the adjustments to get into their weaknesses. You can turn up your energy, but you still have to be able to beat the other team.
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.
aggressive defense five game gets gotten improved last pressure seconds shoot shots watching
He's gotten really aggressive and he's making big shots. Watching them play a lot, he gets a lot of shots in the last five seconds of games. He will put pressure on your defense because he can shoot the three, but he's also improved his game getting to the basket.
bit carried guys maybe second shots
He made some shots early. Maybe got carried away a little bit in the second half. You can see that he's getting into better shape. He's lively. And he's one of those guys when he's guarding somebody, they don't want him on them.
charles four game giving great guys halftime helped played playing run second talk thank
I have to thank Charles (Barkley) for giving a great halftime talk when he said the game was over. I thought we were playing too perfect, but in the second half we played exceptionally well. When our four guys (four All-Stars from Detroit) were in we started to run some plays, and I think that helped us.
came half kept locked lose second though three
After the second half started, we locked down and were a lot better defensively. Even though we got down, we didn't lose our aggressiveness. But we came down and ... scored three times on them. We just kept controlling it.
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.