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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PISTONS v CELTICSMay 24, 2008Flip SaundersDETROIT, MICHIGAN: Game Three Q. At shootaround today how did Chauncey respond? COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: He was good. He had no ill effects or anything. Q. A question about Jarvis: How has he handled his whole situation, not playing after playing so much during the regular season from a mental standpoint? COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: That's the question you ask? You've got to be kidding me (laughing). He's handling it okay. Q. Doc has sort of been back and forth a little bit. Do you expect Sam Cassell to be able to play tonight? COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: I would expect him maybe to play just from -- yeah, that, and I think a little bit what's happened is our group that we put in, our energy group, has given a great amount of pressure, and what they've done with that pressure is rather than letting House handle the ball, they've had Paul handle it, and had to bring him out a lot. I think they are going to try to maybe not have Paul exert so much energy, having to initiate offense, bringing it up the floor. He's one of their better post players, and almost do everything for him. So I wouldn't be surprised to see Sam as far as play a little bit. Q. Given the time that you guys spent together in Minnesota, you kind of know what kind of mindset he has. I would think that he kind of -- he's a big game guy, right? COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: Yeah, Sam, he would relish the opportunity to play, relish to get out. He loves to play in big games, loves to take big shots. You know, for him the situation, I think it's tough when he went into a situation where they were so successful, it's just tough to break into that lineup and tough to break in as far as get into the rotation. I thought in the Cleveland series the first two games he played well, didn't play well in Cleveland. House came in, so Doc has been doing what you have to do, kind of going with who the hot guy is at that point and giving those guys opportunities to make some plays if they can. Like I said, it wouldn't surprise me, just the dynamics of where they're at right now and where we're at. Q. In Game 1 they ran all the high screen and rolls with Kevin. Seemed like in Game 2 a lot more isos. Obviously you're prepared to stop both, but is that what you'd rather see, the isos before the pick-and-rolls? COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: Depends how hot the guy is that's running the iso. If he's hot, don't want to see that. The thing about the pick-and-roll is they can put two great players, whether Pierce and Garnett, which they run a lot. It could be Ray Allen and Garnett. Rondo can put pressure on because of his quickness. So you have to defend two people. Defending one person you can maybe give a little bit of help a little bit quicker. We have to go in with the idea of going either way with that. They have a lot of options. Now that Ray is going a little bit, they can run Ray off some screens on the baseline, and try to get him going a little bit and take some pressure off as far as the other guys, and not try and let us load up so much defensively. Q. You know the old stats about after a split, then the winner of Game 3 goes on to win 75 percent of the time in a seven-game series. This does feel like it has the potential to be a very pivotal, pivotal game for the winner. Do you need to give your team that kind of sense, or is it just they're all important? COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: Well, I think they have that sense of knowing that whoever wins, especially if you win two games in a row, you gain a lot of confidence. You can take a hold of the series. If Boston wins they come out of here tonight knowing they've regained home-court advantage. They've got the monkey off their back from the standpoint of being able to win on the road, and so they have a lot of confidence in that. You know, our being able to win tonight puts the situation that we have home court. We've kept our home court. We've been able to keep Boston at bay from the standpoint of not going home in seven as far as on the road. There's no question that the winner tonight will have a lot of emotion, positive emotion, to carry forward. And I think that our players understand that. I know our players understand that. Q. The Palace is following a trend around the league with the fans wearing the tee shirts and everything. How do you feel about those? COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: We waited awhile, not like everybody else (laughter). We waited a few games. I think you come in, it brings something else to the arena. I mean, there's no question, when you walk in, it's bright, the arena -- it doesn't look like the same arena, seems smaller almost. You can feel the buzz, you can feel the energy coming to the game, just around the arena. You can feel the energy around the whole town, not only from us but the Red Wings and also us. I think this can be a very good day as far as in Detroit sports, when you have two of your main teams that are playing in pivotal games. Q. This is kind of off the wall, but during the game, the last game, Van Gundy was saying on ESPN that when he would come here as a coach, they would always make fun of his suit, he would get really self-conscious because of the fans behind the bench talking to him. When you were here as a visitor coach from Minnesota what kind of stuff did you hear? COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: Our record coming here was pretty good from Minnesota, so we didn't hear much. You'd hear things, but I always told Jeff I dress a little bit better than he does, so he didn't have to worry about that. He gets the hand-me-down ties. He gets all the ties that Stan doesn't wear anymore, all the turtlenecks. He's got Stan's old ties. This can be a crowd that can get on you, no question. It's kind of like that as far as anywhere. End of FastScripts |
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