Flip Saunders Goes Quotations

I looked back at that. What always seems to happen is, the guys will play well, and they'll have one stinker game that week. They'll have one game where Chauncey might have 11 points, six assists. Or Ben might get nine rebounds instead of 18. Rip might have 13 points instead of 23. And in this league so much, it goes down to statistics.

There's no question that Ben has been as dominating as a center in what he does as anybody in the league. I told him he's kind of like a middle linebacker in football. He patrols that middle and goes from an aggressive standpoint.

He was incredible. We had a hand in his face all night, and he goes 5-for-5 on threes in the first half. Some of those shots were unbelievable.

They had guys who looked like they were the Bud Light Daredevils going off the trampoline. One time it looked like a volleyball (match) where one guy fakes it and the next guy goes up and spikes it. They were all over the rim.

My take is that these guys need challenges. Sometimes maybe they can get a little bored out there. But when they're locked in, it's like a curtain goes up and you can see it in their faces. They go from fifth gear into a sixth gear.

The first time I talked about that, we went out and turned it over the first four times we touched the ball. That mark I credit to players who are extremely disciplined and players who know their roles. They don't play out of character and that goes back to what I've talked about all year -- this team has a very high basketball intelligence.

Players in that league are trying to get here. So a guy that is up here and goes down, they want a chance to see how hungry he really is.