Scott Skiles Men Quotations

It wasn't like we had a total letdown or anything; we just softened up enough to let him get going. And once he got going, it was very difficult to get any momentum back. Early in the third, we went under a couple of times on screens. He made one, and that really opened his eyes. He put one right in the middle. That's a lesson that needs to be learned -- playing against great players like that, just one possession can get them going. Obviously, if you look at the whole year, the four games we played them, he's averaged well over 30 points against us. We didn't get it done against him this year.

Ben is one of the most unique players I've seen. It is uncanny how one moment he is out there and not having a good game, then all of a sudden he just starts throwing in shots.

I thought we were active on both ends. Our defense is coming around. We are going on a good month now with solid defense. A lot of times in critical moments we have not been able to get stops. That activity carried over to the offensive end. We did a good job of trying to penetrate, get in the paint, and make plays for each other.

We had way too many breakdowns. Mental breakdowns and physical breakdowns.

Our ball movement came to a screeching halt. Ben got hot for us early, and after that our ball movement just kind of stopped.

We had some great moments and we had some shaky moments. I'm certainly happy to have the win, and we had some guys that played well. Then when it got tight, we had enough big plays to hold them off.

We have made it a point of emphasis all year. Our guys have to use better judgment about when to shoot (the ball) and when to drive and draw contact. There were some games when we were in the penalty (situation) for four or five minutes and still had not shot a free throw.

I didn't think either team was especially sharp tonight, to put it mildly. It was anybody's game for the taking. They turned it up a little bit and we weren't able to make any big plays to stay with them, we could have at any moment exerted ourselves we could have come back, we just couldn't do it.

I do believe the officials are doing their best. They also happen to be one part of the league that is beyond comment ? above and beyond comment.

We did not play well enough to win. We had way too many breakdowns, mentally and physically. We had a lot of trouble tonight from beginning to end maintaining our focus, and we paid for it.

We did not play well enough to win. We had way to many breakdowns, mentally and physically.

We need every win. The problem is we started the second half like five blind men. We were not executing, not talking to each other. Maybe one half is good enough for us right now. We have to get that rectified.

Our movement around the floor was not as sharp as it has been. We did a lot of stumbling around out there tonight.

These guys can go home with a good game under their belts. I think that is important, that we gain a little momentum coming out of the break.

We were able to pick up a full game on the team right in front of us. I think it is important that the guys go home with a good game under their belt. Maybe we will have a little momentum coming out of the break.

The opportunities we had to see him play big minutes -- when Brad Miller went down, he was forced into the starting lineup with Sacramento -- he played well in that role. He knows and we know that's not a role he's necessarily comfortable in. But he's shown the ability to shoot the ball well. We weren't really sure what kind of a defender he was going to be. We've been pleasantly surprised with the way he's come in and picked up our concepts and things we're trying to execute.

At one point we had 11 field goals and eight of them were assisted. I thought our ball movement was good again, we played very unselfishly in general and we did what we had to do. We talked about trying to put them down early at least. It doesn't always work out the way you talk about it, but at least you get a nice lead and see how they react.

He was on. When he's on like that, he can shoot over people. His threes were dialed in. It was a phenomenal display.

Occasionally, I may say something to see if I can get a response. Certainly, they responded, not that I want to take any credit for a comment like that. Each time they could have faded away, they found a way to come back and get after it again.