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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PISTONS v CELTICS

May 28, 2008

Flip Saunders

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Five

Q. Is there anything in this series that in your judgment and experience you haven't seen before in terms of teams playing well, then playing inexplicably bad, things going the way you planned, things not going the way you planned? In other words, is it a typical playoff series in your mind?
COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: I think it's pretty typical. Probably the biggest difference is I think neither team probably expected to have back-to-back -- both home teams lose in back-to-back situations, basically Games 2 and 3. That we would win here on the road and they would come right back and win at our place, I don't think either team probably envisioned that.
But you have teams, and I said this from the beginning, when you have teams that are very similar, what I mean by that is some of the main parts of each team, they have the same strengths with like I said, Hamilton, Allen, both storing-type guards. The Garnett matchup as far as with Rasheed Wallace, you have one of the better defensive forwards in Tayshaun Prince versus one of the better offensive players in their leader as far as in Paul Pierce.
We thought what would be big for us would be Chauncey at that position. Of course Chauncey has been hindered a little bit, but I thought last game he came out and ran the show for us and did a nice job. That's why I think the series has been as competitive as it's been.

Q. During the season you were in the Top 5 in rebounding percentage. Second half of Game 4 was one of the rare times you outrebounded this team. Why have you struggled so much to rebound against the Celtics?
COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: Defensively we've done some things as far as extending our defense and tilting our defense a little bit early filling, so we were leaving some people on the weak side of rebounds, a little bit more alert and a little bit more open. So that opened up some rebound opportunities for Boston. So we made a little bit of adjustment from that line.

Q. Both of these teams are known for their defense. Can you talk a little bit about that fine line between being a physical defensive team as opposed to taking it too far?
COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: Well, I don't think you can take it too far. I mean, I think defense basically is hard work, exerting your will, and good defensive teams. What they do is they're basically taking away your first initial option offensively. That's what Boston does a great job of when they're playing good defense, that's what we do well. Offensively, if you don't have the ability to turn over to your second and third option, that's when you get a little bit out of whack and you look frustrated.

Q. Tayshaun was talking this morning about wanting to get more touches in the paint, and we had talked about maybe that wasn't a good idea because Pierce is pretty tough to post-up. Have you totally abandoned that as part of your offense?
COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: No, I haven't abandoned it. I think, one, what's happened is we've had guys -- McDyess has been phenomenal, and Rip, and what we've done is we've been able to go with those guys. The way Boston plays defense a lot with their bigs is they're pretty much -- left Dyess pretty much alone a lot and used that big to try to help out defensively. Every time Tay gets it, one of the bigs is coming to Tay almost in kind of a soft-trap situation. So haven't given him a lot of openings down there.
From our standpoint, as I've said, the way our team was built, we're not built on one guy, just giving him the ball. I think that we'll still give him touches because I've got confidence we'll take the right decision if he gets trapped to pass the ball.

Q. To what extent are you surprised at the way they had approached Antonio McDyess, and by making these shots that you knew he could make, is it triggering other things for him? Is he picking up his entire game and kind of playing off that?
COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: I think the second part is I think there's no question that when you score some offensively, it energizes you. I've always said this to our media people. You go back to seventh grade basketball camp and you see a kid score on offense, he runs back and he slaps the floor and he's ready to play defense. These guys are the same way. When you score, your defense kind of improves a little bit.
I'm not surprised because you've got to understand that most teams in our league, they don't have their two big people, guys that can't knock down 18, 19-foot shots. Usually they're going to have a post-up guy or a guy that does a lot of dirty work or a guy that can shoot the basketball, but usually they don't have two of them. So it's a little bit different. When we're playing well, as I said to our guys, if you want to get him with a big guy, at some point you're going to leave some of those guys open. If Dyess isn't making that shot, the defense looks great and they're playing the right way. A lot has to do with what they're trying to take away, and they've had great success because what they're trying to do is, they're trying to take away the first option, which they've done a good job of. To our credit, our guys have looked to the second option and third, which has been Dyess, and he's made shots, which has made it look good both as a team and as a coach.

Q. Rip Hamilton, I think it was the last game, became the career Pistons leader in playoff games, earlier became a career leader in points scored. There's just sort of a lack of buzz about him. In coaching him what have you noticed or discovered about him, that he could do these things and not kind of get the acclaim that he could otherwise get?
COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: Well, he does it in a way, it's not spectacular. Most of the guys that are your great shooters or mid-range-type shooters, they're kind of like that. People always notice the guys that are three-point shooters because they're getting three points for their shots. They notice the guys that take it to the rim because they're making dunks or making plays for those shots, but the lost art are the guys coming of screens and knocking down 15, 16, 17, 18, 19-foot shots and that's kind of boring.
So what happens is, people kind of forget about them but yet you look at them after the game, and all of a sudden they have 25, 27 points, and they put so much pressure as far as on the defense. That's kind of how Rip is.
One thing I wasn't aware of when I came to Detroit was the phenomenal shape he was in. I knew he moved well without the ball, but I didn't know he could do it for the length of time that he does it. And as consistent as a mid-range shooter as he was. To Rip's credit he's worked on things. He's become a better three-point shooter. The one year I was there, he decides he's going to get to the free-throw line more, and he got to the free-throw line more. He's very underrated as a defensive player. He's one of our better on-the-ball defenders actually.

Q. In terms of the three-point shot, some of these games look as if they could be played in 1978 in terms of people aren't even getting them off let alone making them.
COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: Dave Cowens likes it that way.

Q. Is this, in fact, what's happening, that both teams are guarding it so well that it's not being sought out as much as normally?
COACH FLIP SAUNDERS: I think that, one, both teams are in the top three in three-point percentage over the course of the year, and I think one of the main things both teams are trying to do is take that away. And I think people are staying at home more on the three-point type shooters.
From our standpoint, Rasheed shoots a lot of them. Garnett guarding him, Garnett is great back at chasing back and chasing people off those threes. So neither team is getting a lot of really good looks as far as getting threes. That is a credit to what the players are doing and following as far as what coaches are trying to get them to do.

End of FastScripts

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