What they said after the Hawks’ 98-85 victory over the Pacers in Game 3 Thursday night:
The defensive effort and the defensive activity is the message we’ve been talking about coming down the stretch and in the playoffs. For our group to be that committed on the defensive end and win a game that was very physical is a credit to our group. I was good for our group to be at home. The energy and the fans, it makes a big difference. That helped feed us. We are just going to keep talking and keep working to try to improve defensively and just keep competing.
- Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer’s opening statement
“The 3’s at halftime when we were 2 of 16, I don’t know if we were getting as good of looks as we want to get. There were more opportunities maybe to drive it, penetrate and kick and get an even better look. In the second half, we played with a little better pace. We got some open looks in transition. Our group is confident when it comes to shooting. Even the 2 of 16 at halftime, they believe in it and they know it’s how we want to play. It starts with us attacking, collapsing the defense, moving the defense, moving the ball and we want to shoot good 3’s. We don’t want to just shoot 3’s.”
- Budenholzer on Hawks’ 3-point shooting
“Jeff had a lot of loose ball situations where he got them and got out in the open court and was able to get some offense off of his defense and off of our defense. Anytime Jeff is active and playing that way defensively, then it fuels him up on the other end. He is somebody who can attack and get to the paint and make shots and find his teammates. We need him to continue to do that.”
- Budenholzer on Jeff Teague
“Actually, the officials did not come down and give me any explanation or clarification at that point. They explained it to the Indiana staff and coach Vogel. Then we shot the free throws.”
- Budenholzer on officials review of Jeff Teague 3-pointer
“Any time you can hit a tough shot like that and maintain a lead. those are big plays. Things like that obviously help you keep a cushion. We feel fortunate that he was able to make that play.”
- Budenholzer on Jeff Teague 3-pointer as momentum swing
“I couldn’t believe it went in. I thought it was going to be an air ball. It didn’t feel good at all. I didn’t think that was going in honestly.”
- Jeff Teague on 3-pointer
“Lucky me. It was luck. I swear it was luck.”
- Teague on reaction to 3-pointer
“It’s a big win but the guys around here are so young it doesn’t even matter. The history of it all. We just want to go out there and big hungry and get another victory at home. We are not looking to be complacent.”
- Elton Brand on Game 3 winner clinching 76 percent of series tied 1-1
“Those plays happen. In the playoffs there is a lot of energy and sometimes plays do turn out the way they were drawn up and you improvise and sometimes you throw stuff up as the shot clock is going down and it goes in. I’m glad it happened for us and not for them.”
- Kyle Korver on Jeff Teague 3-pointer
“Sometimes that happens with shooting. Sometimes you just miss. You work on it every day and you try to get your mechanics perfect but sometimes you just miss. I thought we had good looks. We forced a few early. …We settled down. Our defense was good tonight which allowed us to keep a lead even though we were 2 for 16. We had some good things in the second half.”
- Korver on Hawks’ 3-point shooting
“Our crowd was amazing. That was the best Hawks crowd I’ve ever been a part of . It’s one thing to cheer when your team makes a good play. It’s another to cheer your team to make a good play. I thought a couple times when we were down, they really got us going. They were awesome tonight. We really felt the energy.”
- Korver on Hawks’ crowd
“This is a great position to be in. We’d like to be up 3-0 but we’ll take 2-1. We have some more home games coming, which is great. Every game in the playoffs is its own monster and there are going to be adjustments made. We might go 2-for-16 (from 3-point range) in a half again. You don’t know what is going to happen. Obviously, we like where we are at. We have to stay hungry. We have to go out there and take two more games. They are not going to lay down and give us two more games because we have two more home games. We have to go out there and take them.”
- Korver on being in control of series
“I’ve been doing it all year. Coach told me before the season that he wanted me to guard the best player every night. That’s what I wanted to do. I’m trying to be one of these elite defenders. Without my teammates, because it’s not only me, my teammates are making the right reads. And on Paul George, we just tried to be aggressive and get him out of the game. He didn’t make too many shots.”
- DeMarre Carroll on guarding Paul George
“I saw Jeff got switched onto Paul George. I didn’t want to leave him on an island because Paul George is my assignment. Somebody else was going to have to make a play beside Paul George. I kind of figured he was going to shoot it to George Hill and I shot the passing lane. I stripped the ball and Jeff dunked it. It was just a good play. We were just active tonight. We were the more aggressive team tonight. We let our defense lead to easy offense tonight. That is what we have to do for the rest of the series.”
- Carroll on stripping George Hill to start fast break in fourth quarter
“Because he is our anchor. We won 56 games with him as our starter. That is the simplest answer.”
- Pacers coach Frank Vogel of keeping Roy Hibbert in starting lineup
“I don’t know. We’ve all tried to talk to him and keep him confident. But it’s hurting him. He wants to help us and play well. He is hard on himself. We’ve got to figure out a way to get him involved. He’s got to figure out a way to get himself involved. It’s a long playoff series and we are not going to panic. We came down here to get one game and that is what we are intending to do. As long as he continues to be solid on D. Obviously, he is struggling offensively but we have enough weapons we should be able to score the basketball. The biggest thing for us is to keep him confident, let him know that we still trust him. We have to do a better job of finding him when he his open and creating some easy looks for him at the rim.”
- Pacers’ David West on Roy Hibbert
“We had a play against somebody right before the season ended and they took a 3 away from us. C.J. (Watson) stepped out. What they said was if you step out of bounds and step back in bounds. They are looking at the last step. Even though Teague was out of bounds with his first step, his second step was back inbounds. It’s a messed up rule.”
- West on review of Jeff Teague 3-pointer
“If they take that away it’s a four-point game. He made an unbelievable play. I thought he made some tough shots. He got (DeMarre) Carroll some looks and (Kyle) Korver some looks. It was tough play.”
- West on momentum swing of Teague 3-pointer
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