Ben is our energy. I would be amazed if he wasn't the defensive player of the year again just from everything he does. He's our lock-down guy. When we have energy, we are tough to beat and tough to score on. When we don't, we can be pretty ordinary. And Ben is usually the catalyst for that energy. |
Ben played 56 minutes last night (in Memphis), and he played 41 tonight. Yet, he was able to do what he did. When we needed to lock down in the final two minutes, he pretty much did it. |
Ben senses what's coming in two weeks. You have to have an edge about you as an individual, but your game has to be right, too We're like a family. Sometimes there are things you don't agree upon and what you do is you air it out and deal with it. That's what we've done. |
Ben usually makes big free throws down the stretch and when he misses, it motivates him to play harder defensively. |
Ben was great. He showed tonight why I keep saying he's the best defensive player in our league. |
Ben was great. The energy he played with for 56 minutes was unreal. |
Ben was phenomenal defensively. It was good that we were able to get Ben some good extended rest. He's going to be bench-pressing a lot of weight on Wednesday. |
Ben was phenomenal. People talk about Bruce Bowen and others as the best defender. Bruce is a great individual defender. Ben is a great individual defender. But Ben Wallace might be one of the best that's played the game as a team defender. |
Ben works on it a lot, ... We do a lot of shooting as a team, 15-, 17-foot shooting, which is basically free throws. We shoot probably 100 of those a day. So he's getting a lot more free throws. |
Bottom line, we are a multi-dimensional team that can play different ways. We can play inside, we can play deep perimeter and we can play mid-range. We can do different things and that's what makes our offense so effective. |
But most of the things has to be, as far as staying aggressive in your initial offense, not searching out the three. |
Carlos had fresh legs, because he didn't play the other night and we had yesterday off, ... But he's improving. In the past, he's been overaggressive and turned easy plays into hard ones. Today, he was just taking the easy plays. |
Carlos had fresh legs, because he didn't play the other night and we had yesterday off. But he's improving. In the past, he's been overaggressive and turned easy plays into hard ones. Today, he was just taking the easy plays. |
Carlos works extremely hard on defense. He is big and extremely strong. Now he is starting to understand where the help is coming from. He is learning how to pressure his man into the help, and he isn't feeling like he's out there on an island so much. |
Cato was out of his boot (protecting his injured right ankle). He was shooting and jogging. He's still at least a couple of weeks away (from being able to practice). |