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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CAVALIERS v PISTONSMay 31, 2007Flip SaundersDETROIT, MICHIGAN: Game Five Q. Busy day throughout the league today with news in Orlando about Billy Donovan and Indiana, just your thoughts, particularly on Jim O'Brien, a guy I know you're familiar with. COACH SAUNDERS: Right, it's nice to see him get an opportunity to get back, and Jim has done a great job as far as in our league, and he's a student of the game and very much a basketball purist and he'll do a good job as far as Indiana and anytime you have coaches that have been in here and have paid their dues, as Jim did, it's nice to see him get another opportunity. Q. The last games Maxiell hasn't made the impact that he has in the previous games, is it a function of match-up? COACH SAUNDERS: Kind of match-up, I think you'll see him play tonight, but we were in a situation where McDyess was playing well tonight, and he's probably somebody is going to be hot in there tonight, and you're going to have to use more than two people. That's the energy that's going to be involved in the game tonight and all the emotion, so we'll use him more tonight. Q. With the grueling schedule you have now and how tough these games are, how important are Arnie and Mike to keep everybody going and keep everybody as healthy as possible through these series? COACH SAUNDERS: Well, they're important but more importantly it's the individual players, taking care of themselves and at this point knowing what they need to do to get their proper rest, and if they have anything that's bothering them at all, to make sure they see Arnie and see Mike. But those guys have done a great job as far as all year, and they'll continue. But as I always said, when it comes to injuries, the responsibility lays with the players to make sure they take responsibility of that. Q. Do you think Dyess really needed that Game 4 that he had just to come in and change things for you guys? COACH SAUNDERS: When he hasn't played well offensively, it hasn't been because he hasn't worked hard, and he's been able to impact with his rebounding and blocked shots. But he had more of a, I'd say, more of an all-around game as far as Game 4, and we're hoping that he can build on that and that's going to help him as far as the rest of the series. Q. Flip, the conventional wisdom is the Pistons are better in a more deliberate game because they're such a good executing team, but at the same time it seems like in this series you had a lot of difficult getting easy points, easy baskets, harder to score sometimes, is that something you need to change -- COACH SAUNDERS: Well, we missed some shots and I think what you're saying is right, we need to get out of the mud a little bit and get some easy shots, get some open shots and the best way to do that is out of your defense and hopefully what your defense can do is create some open-floor opportunities or steals or turnovers and force them into low shot-clock shots, which are maybe bad shots and run on that. But we are going to need to get easier buckets and not being in a total grind because right now we haven't shot the ball very well in that kind of situation. Q. You usually seem to say that you don't like to say a lot if the guy isn't shooting well, has that been the case in the last day, just to the team in general -- COACH SAUNDERS: Maybe more shooting drills, but we really don't -- I think it's one of those things that shooting is so much confidence and really what happens a lot is how you start out. Sometimes guys, when you start a game you can be shooting the heck out of the ball, and in practice, or in previous games, and if you start out the game and you miss a few shots, all of the sudden in this type of environment you get more intense and the shots aren't quite as easy. So we need to knock some shots down early to get into a rhythm as far as our shooters do. Q. Can you talk about Carlos Delfino and what's been happening with him as far as his minutes being so low. COACH SAUNDERS: Part of it is we tried to match Tay up on LeBron. We might have to change that a little bit to try to get him in there, but we need to make sure that those guys come in and we stay aggressive, stay aggressive offensively. Our offense has even been running slower at times so even though we go to our guys off the bench, I want those guys to be aggressive and look to shoot and look to create, and Carlos is a guy that can do that a little bit. So hopefully he'll get an opportunity tonight and he'll be able to respond. Q. Rasheed was visibly upset after the game, it was obvious, and I know a lot of you guys were, but can you talk about where he's at, if you can gauge where he is emotionally going into the game tonight. COACH SAUNDERS: He's upset because, like we all did, he wanted to win and I think he felt we put ourselves in a position, as far as down the stretch, with some things and we didn't come through in a couple loose-ball-type situations and that. So his mindset is a good mindset. Anytime you have Rasheed where he's extremely motivated and he gives a very concentrated effort, to lock down the defensive end and also at the offensive end, that's always a positive. Q. Do you think you've made LeBron work as much on the defensive end as you need to? COACH SAUNDERS: You can always make him work a little bit more. We tried earlier, Tay struggled a little bit the first two games, last game he was on Chauncey a little bit in the second half. We probably didn't make him -- when we tried to go with mismatches a little bit more, didn't make him go through enough screens with pick-and-roll type situations. So you do have to make him work a little bit and not totally rest. Q. Just to piggy-back on that, he had a lot more fouls called on him in the New Jersey series, I think he's had four in this series, is that because he's playing free safety a little more? COACH SAUNDERS: I think Jefferson was extremely aggressive. He was guarding Jefferson in New Jersey, and we haven't been extremely aggressive as far as to the rim nearly as much. Q. There's obviously experience in the playoffs, much talked about the Spurs and the Western series, but the Pistons now have been in the third round five times, and some outside observers may suggest maybe they look a little tired in their legs, is there a cumulative effect when games come every other day, like they have been? COACH SAUNDERS: I don't know. On the contrary you hope that what happens is -- especially if you're playing well, you like games to come like that, you get into a rhythm, so you hope that kind of rhythm is better than when you play one game and then sit, two, three days and then play another game. We've also struggled in that kind of a scenario. We've always played better playing every other day, so I guess we'll find out over the next week or so. End of FastScripts |
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