Flip Saunders Came Quotations

I want to win. My thing was not what this team has done in the past, it's what we have an opportunity to do in the future. So, my decision came pretty easy.

Tony is a high-energy guy, and that's one of the reasons that when he became available, he was somebody we really wanted to look at. We thought he gave us a different dimension from what we had on the roster.

I was concerned because at shoot-around this morning I heard a couple of guys mention some stuff about Miami. I was concerned we might overlook Atlanta. But we came out and played like a well-oiled machine in the first half.

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.

Right now, they're not as predictable. With Jermaine a lot, they came down, they threw it in the post, they played off him a lot. Here, they go to different people, they have a lot more ball movement, player movement. It's an offense geared toward everybody. I think Rick (Carlisle) has done a really good job with that group since they made that move.

Mo (Evans) gave us a boost at both ends tonight. Guys have confidence in him. The guys on the bench want to play more, but they have to do what he did. He came with the right frame of mind.

He had a good look when he came off, and I saw Ricky (Davis) was trailing him. I knew he was going to get a good look, and earlier we were doing our shooting games and Rip said, 'I never miss from the corner.' So when he got it down there, I felt pretty good.

To our credit we came back and located him in the last few minutes, and didn't give him any good looks.

I still think he's very skilled. He could play 12 or 13 years in our league. He's a serviceable player. But it came down to we're gonna have to make a financial decision for the future.

We came out kind of flat. We brought in Carlos, and he got us back in the game, took over the game, and everybody else finished.

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.

When I came here, a lot of the players told me it'd be like that. We float under the radar a lot. So I think that's fine with us.

The biggest thing is going to be now he's on a team that's a championship-type team. It's just that mind-set. But I think that's the reason he came here, because that's what he wanted to get into.

Dog days. Especially after the holidays. After the holidays, you've had some big games last week. So what happens is you come in and it takes time to get your energy going a little bit. I thought we came out and traded baskets too much.

We got up 18, 20, lost a little bit of our concentration. They came at us aggressively.

I think everyone thought he had the opportunity to be a good player. I thought he was a good player when I came here, but I never understood how good he was until I saw him day in and day out. His commitment to the game, his commitment to the team, and just how versatile he is.

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.

They came out and were very aggressive. As I told the guys before the game, in an emotional game like this, they're going to play extremely well and play aggressive. You have to match their intensity and make shots. The two things you need to do to start the game, we didn't do.

It's a credit to the way these guys came into camp and came in focused. They've made some big plays. I thought we could get off to a good start but you can't expect to go 20-3.

They don't quit. They keep on coming at you. There were times we had them down, they could have (given up), but they came right back. That's why they've been able to beat some good teams lately.