What they said after the Hawks’ 127-106 win over the 76ers Wednesday:
"It was good to see a lot of guys individually play well. Collectively, I thought the group's energy and effort was pretty good. We had a couple of stretches where we can be better. But overall it was a step in the right direction." – Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer's opening statement
“Offensively, we played harder. We cut harder. We screened harder. We moved. The ball, the pace. There are some reasons sometimes why when you get those goods shots it goes in.” – Budenholzer on better offense
"Especially, the last four minutes of the half. I thought (Isaiah) Canaan had a wide-open 3 in transition. Canaan had an easy 3 of a pick-and-roll coverage. Both of those I thought were not enough attention, not enough focus, all of a sudden it goes from a 20-point lead to an 11-point lead. I didn't like at all the way the second quarter ended." – Budenholzer on allowing 55 first-half points
"I thought we had a better mentality going into the game. We were aggressive. Aggressive not just to make the assist pass but to make the passes within our offense that eventually leads to a better shot. I think that is a huge key for us. Everybody has to be engaged when you do that. It can't just be the guy who has the ball playing hard and trying to make that pass for somebody. Everybody is in motion. Everybody is moving. Everybody is engaged. That felt like that when we were playing good basketball last year. It felt like that a little bit. It's one game but it's something to build on." – Kyle Korver on offense
"We competed better. We had better rebounding. We had better flow in our game. We were passing the ball, sharing the ball. We had some good looks. We scored them. Everything was different when you have the confidence from playing better from the defense to the offense." – Tiago Splitter on win
"Being more aggressive. Not settling. Trying to make something happen instead of waiting for it to happen. I think we all had a conscious effort of playing hard, making the right play and playing with purpose." – Jeff Teague on win
"I think I have to bring my intensity every time on defense first. The last couple games I slipped a little bit out of it. I've got to keep focusing on defense and everything else is going to come. That's what I did last year. I realize that." – Dennis Schroder on recent play
"I think it's finally breaking through a bad stretch of games. They were falling for us tonight. That was big." – Al Horford on offense
"That's the challenge for us. This year we have been up and down so much as a team. This is a great opportunity for us to start being more consistent and really build those good habits that we had last year." – Horford on moving forward
Millsap
"I feel like there was a different mentality. Tonight was a good start toward where we want to go, mentality-wise. I think that we want to set a tone. A game like this was definitely needed. Hopefully, it carries over." – Paul Millsap on win
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