Chucky Atkins

But great individual talent isn't what wins games in the NBA. The guys have to all be on the same page to win. I'm not sure they had that last season.

We thought they were tailor-made for us.

Teams (like Minnesota) that aren't playing for anything are always dangerous because they play loose. You always want to jump on teams like that and not give them a chance. We knew we had to put the heat on them quick.

Any time you can hold a team like that on defense, it makes the game easier for everybody. We count on the defense to make plays. That's what's going to win us games in the playoffs. We just have to keep playing hard and finish games and we'll have a chance.

The second quarter was the difference. Our second unit gave us great energy to open the second quarter. When this team gets in sync quick and we're locking down on defense, it creates a lot more opportunities on the other end for us.

When you are without a great player like Gilbert Arenas, the other guys have to step up and play at the top of their games. Tonight was a total team effort. We got a lot of energy, we played great defense, we moved the ball and we made sure that everybody got shots in. When we do that, it makes the game a lot of fun.

We've been doing a better job these last few games of keeping our defense up the whole game. That's the key for us.

You gotta be a guy that really wants it. You gotta be a guy that's willing to take constructive criticism. You gotta be a guy that's resilient. A lot of things aren't going to go the way you want them to go in this league, so you gotta take that hit and be even stronger the next time.

We feed off our defense. Anytime we can play that type of defense and get out in the open court, we can win.

I ain't saying I should be starting, but I think I deserve some minutes. That's all I'm saying. It's not a situation where I'm saying I demand to be traded. I'm in a peculiar situation myself. I'm in a contract season. They made a trade for me, and I want to play, I want to compete, that's all.

We've got great young talent. I can't wait to get to training camp. The city and the fans are going to be excited by the product we put on the court this year.

This team has a lot of good basketball in it. We're what, 20 games into the season We still have time to get things going in the right direction.

It got close. They kept fighting. That's the kind of test we need going into the playoffs. When we're (in a playoff game) and a team comes back and gets hot, we need to know who has the fortitude to step up and answer.