I'll be checking minutes more than I've ever checked before, and making sure that people are getting enough playing time. Some nights, that'll be a real tough thing to do. |
I'm going to keep the ball they gave me. |
I'm not one to blow smoke at my players. They kicked our butts on the offensive boards. And it's not just because the ball came their way. |
I've already decided that there's no way that all the players are going to get the minutes they want. The second thing I determined is I don't care. |
If Karl calls us, I'll talk to him. But I'm not going to go recruiting. We're going to respect Karl's space and his time and let him make some decisions. If we're part of his decision, I'll be real happy with that. |
If one gets to that number of wins, everybody with half a brain knows why. It's because you've been blessed with a group of players who go out and win a lot of games. |
If Tony can take what he did tonight and continue to improve, we're obviously going to be a much better team than the way we've been playing. I thought he did a great job of getting to the lane and more importantly finishing. |
If you think about it and look back at the Detroit series, ... we played seven people, period. You have to be pretty fortunate to just play seven people in a series like that, so we can use more people, without a doubt. |
In Phil's case, I was personally thrilled he came back, because I think it's huge for the league. When you think about what he's done and how many championships he's won, there's always drama when he comes back in. |
In the first quarter we shot poorly. The energy wasn't good early. For the next three quarters, we guarded wonderfully. Our shots fell and we were able to grind it out. |
In the three games we've watched them play, they've gone from a 2 to a 5 to an 8 on a 10 scale. They've got a great coach, they've been in these situations before, and they know how to get ready for the final round. By the time that comes, they're going to be as good or better as they were last summer. |
Indiana was just as good as anybody but they blew it up. And there are three or four teams out West just like those in the East. |
It always has been that people didn't think we were for real, |
It has been patented. Larry loves the pure part of the game. The things most people think are selfish, he doesn't think in those terms, like somebody shoots too much. If I was supposed to be the weak side helping and I didn't come to help my teammates, I'm selfish. Those sorts of things, the purity of the game. His whole game is predicated on players playing for each other, feeling the responsibility for each other and performing. |
It just reinforces that playing defense gives us a chance to win any game, any night, even if the offense isn't there. This was another good example of that. |