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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS v PISTONS

May 27, 2007

Flip Saunders

CLEVELAND, OHIO: Game Three

Q. This is the third straight game that Chauncey has had some struggles in the backcourt, was really struggling today, can you talk about what they're doing.
COACH SAUNDERS: I thought tonight he had some good looks, missed some early shots. He may be pressing a little bit at this point right now. You know, both Rip and him just were not very effective. We'll have to look at the film and see some things that we have to do. But I thought that our other guys actually, I thought Sheed and Chris were very good.
We got off to a rough start. We were very good early to get us back into the game, put us back into position. They just -- I guess we'll have to look at the film and see what we have to do.
I mean, they're trapping him hard, but I thought outside of that he got off the ball and he had some looks, just was missing open shots.

Q. All three games have gone down with a minute left. It's been undecided. Is this what you're expecting from the rest of this series?
COACH SAUNDERS: Well, I mean, we thought -- when you get this far you're going to have tough series. I thought the difference was they made big shots down the stretch. LeBron hit a couple unbelievable shots. I thought Gibson was great. He got his hands on a lot of balls, hit some big threes early, made some free throws late, got a big offensive rebound. That's the way the team has played because we're a more defensive-oriented team and low-possession games you're going to have low-scoring games, and it doesn't surprise me now.

Q. Other than Hamilton in the first game, can you talk about the play of your guards in this series?
COACH SAUNDERS: Well, they haven't played -- not what you'd expect, two all-star type players. They've struggled a little bit. Cleveland has been somewhat aggressive at times, but Rip had some open looks tonight and just missed some open shots. Just got to get them going. We'll have to look at the film and see, but -- and I thought that defensively Rip was -- it's like he was letting the offense -- because his inefficiency offensively was letting it affect him defensively a little bit; he had some missed assignments. We'll have to look at the film. When you're struggling a little bit, you try to get back to basics.
But I thought it's one of those things, we need to get some easy buckets, get some transition buckets, get your confidence going a little bit.

Q. You always say the same thing about your team, but over the last three minutes of the game Chauncey gets in and it seems like the urgency steps up. Did you feel like your team had that earlier?
COACH SAUNDERS: Yeah, I mean, I think that they were -- they got off to a great start, played with a lot of energy. We fell behind, fought our way back. Took the lead but never got in a situation where we could extend it. There's always -- when you're facing the opportunity of maybe getting beat, your urgency is always going to be a little bit more. I thought overall Sheed played good and I thought Webber was good early, I thought McDyess was good, and I thought that Tay overall was good offensively, missed some shots, got stripped a little bit.
But for us, like I said, because we're geared so much to our two guards being our leaders a lot and going at them a little bit, we've got to get those guys going. Because what happens is when your guards aren't scoring sometimes it sucks their energy out a little bit. Chauncey got going a little bit late, he hit a three, he got going a little bit, so I think it's back to where you've got to be a little bit better offensively to create defensively.
We've got to score more points. I think if in this series we were going to get into a rhythm to score more points, we're going to have the ability to win game.

End of FastScripts

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