What they said after the Hawks’ 105-97 win over the Celtics Wednesday night:
“It was a good team win. You look at the boxscore and you see that we had contributions and effort all up and down the boxscore. We had a resilient group out there. To bounce back from a tough loss last night and bounce back from Boston making a run at us and going up nine, it just speaks to the character of our group and the resiliency of our group. We did it together and that’s what we want to do. That’s what we are going to do going forward so I’m happy for our guys.”
- Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer’s opening statement
“We had some open looks and we knocked them down. When we turned the ball over with the five-second count, it was like ‘you’ve got to be kidding me right now.’ We could have very easily hung our heads there. We kept on fighting. We got some good looks and knocked them down. The momentum switched our way. We could just feel it. The game turned really quickly.”
- Kyle Korver on fourth-quarter comeback
“We needed to hit some shots. We needed to get some stops and some rebounds. It was just a good five-minute stretch there.”
- Korver on what fueled comeback
“We need to get wins. We need to focus on playing really good basketball. Let’s go make the playoffs. We are going to do this. Let’s go into the playoffs playing good basketball and playing confident basketball. Closing out a game like that hopefully helps build confidence.”
- Korver on getting a needed victory
“Just a good bounce back after yesterday. Yesterday was so frustrating. It was a big game too. We just couldn’t make a shot and it affected us. That was a game we wanted. To come back on the second of a back-to-back and shoot the ball really well … that was a game we needed to win.”
- Korver on coach Mike Budenholzer postgame message
“Just wanted to win. Wanted to get to the playoffs. These guys have been resilient team and the guys stepped up and made some big shots and weren’t afraid of the moment.”
- Elton Brand on fourth-quarter comeback
“Great team win but we still have work to do. We are not satisfied. We still have to win some games.”
- Brand on Budenholzer’s postgame message
“We turned our defense up. It started with defense, being aggressive. We just wanted to compete.”
- DeMarre Carroll on fourth-quarter comeback
“It was good, not like yesterday. We were on a back-to-back and they had us down and we showed our true character to come out and fight and do the little things to pick up the win. We can’t stop here.”
- Carroll on mood in locker room following victory
“Just continue to fight. We felt like with our lead going down, there were a lot of things that we were doing, the mistakes that we were making. It wasn’t necessarily anything they were doing. We just continued to fight.”
- Lou Williams on mood of team trailing by nine points in the fourth quarter
“My hamstring was actually hurting so I had to sit for those two games.”
- Williams on return after missing two games
“We came out with a different mindset, I think, even though they came back. They made a nice little run. The mindset was there. The focus was there.”
- Paul Millsap on win
“It just felt like this time, as opposed to last night, we knew we were going to win the game. It was just us settling down and controlling what we could control and we pulled it out.”
- Millsap on 19-3 fourth-quarter run
“Just a confidence. We felt like we were the better team. When you have that mindset, things are going to go your way. It’s just a mindset we have.”
- Millsap on knowing Hawks would win
“Great win. We didn’t get down on ourselves like yesterday. We were the better team and we proved it.”
- Millsap on Budenholzer’s postgame message
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