Everyone has their own reasons why they do things. All I know is this is my team right now, and the guys have bought into what we're trying to do. The playoffs are what drive everybody in this league, and we're looking forward to what's going to happen. |
For a first night, I can't complain, |
For a playoff-type situation, that's maybe the most important in terms of having home court. |
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. |
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. |
From a coaching standpoint, it makes it kind of special to go and coach and know that you have four guys that are your own guys. They all deserve it, and I think it's great individually, great for the organization. |
From what I read and hear, as a team and with Shaq, they feel like they are going to be able to turn it on when they need to. Veteran players have that belief. We go through that here in some games But I expect them to come with a great deal of energy. |
Going into this game we needed the bench to give us both good minutes and good production, which they did. Chicago plays physical, they play hard. But to our credit, we can play that way. |
He brings five (championship) rings and a lot of credibility. |
He can get a jump shot whenever he wants, he can get to the basket almost whenever he wants, and he just does things so easy. |
He can put the ball on the floor and make a play, and make a play for somebody. There's no question he's going to have opportunities during this playoff run. |
He causes problems. He has improved his perimeter game so much. |
He did a nice job. He helped us defensively, scored some in there. I thought for the first time extended minutes, he did a lot of positive things for us. |
He doesn't admit a lot of things. |
He finally got tired at the end. I told him that, the way he was rolling, we were going to him until he couldn't move. |