What they said after the Hawks’ 107-97 victory over the Pacers in Game 5 Monday night:
“A good team win. Obviously having guys come in off the bench, Mike Scott and Shelvin Mack, in the first half were very good. If we keep playing together, keep trusting each other defensively and let that carry over to the offensive end of the court, that is what we’re working on. That is what we are looking to stay together defensively, looking to stay together offensively. A good team win.”
- Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer’s opening statement
“I can’t. If you could explain it you would bottle it up. All coaches wonder. Obviously, it helps when you see the ball go into the basket on your first shot and develop a little bit of confidence. He is someone we have a lot of trust in, a lot of confidence in. He’s put a lot of work in. He obviously had a big impact on the game.”
- Budenholzer on Mike Scott
“A lot of us who have been in this league a long time have been on both sides of quarters like that. I think our defensive activity and our defensive commitment was good. That is what got us started. Then the ball started going in the basket. I think we really believe that the defensive activity and the defensive energy can help us going the other way. And when the ball is moving and we are playing with pace, guys are running the court, that is what we are working on every day and talking about every day.”
- Budenholzer on Hawks’ second quarter
“Shelvin obviously played well. I think having multiple ball handlers out there helped us. Obviously, as well as he played, he deserved to be on the court and help us take it home.”
- Budenholzer on playing Shelvin Mack in the fourth quarter
“I think they made a lot of 3’s in the second half. Guarding the 3-point line, for both teams, is a priority. For any team. We’ll have to look at it. There are always areas where we can improve. We’ll look at that going forward.”
- Budenholzer on Pacers’ fourth-quarter run
“When you have more than one shooter on the floor at one time (the defense) can’t just focus on one person. You have to keep running everybody off the line. So we had a lot of shooting out there and a lot of guys making shots. Shelvin (Mack) was driving the basket. Jeff (Teague) was driving the basket. It creates a lot of scenarios for the defense.”
- Kyle Korver on Hawks’ second-quarter shooting
“Close-out games are the toughest ones. If you’ve been in a playoff series, the close-out games are always the toughest. … We are going to have to go out and play a really good game.”
- Korver on Game 6
“Coach Bud was great yesterday. He talked about how it’s the first time to four (wins). There is not a must-win until the other team has won three. We just saw so much stuff that we needed to clean up from the end of the last game. I thought guys came out and paid attention to detail and pushed the pace. Then we got a lot of guys hit shots. That always helps us. We’ve been shooting those 3’s all series, just for some reason tonight they decided to go in and gave us a huge start.”
- Korver on rebound from Game 4 loss
“Huge win for us. Mentally, to come here and get a win, go up 3-2 and go back to our home court. Each team has lost of their home court so we know it’s not going to be easy but we’d rather play on our home court with a chance to close.”
- Elton Brand on victory
“I said before that we felt real confident. Our last three games in here we’ve been playing great basketball. We felt confident coming in and we came out and showed that confidence.”
- DeMarre Carroll on victory
“I said before the series that a couple of our bench guys needed to have big series for us to win this thing. … They’ve been huge for us all season. They’ve been professionals the whole season. You couldn’t expect anything but the best and I’m happy for each of them.”
- Carroll on play of Mike Scott and Shelvin Mack
“It’s going to be tough. They are going to come out punching, come out fighting. We are going to be back home. We feel like the last game at home we had it and we just gave it to them. Put a ribbon on it. Our crowd, they deserve for us to come out and give 110 percent effort and that is what we are going to do.”
- Carroll on Game 6
“It’s huge. We came out focused. Really what did it was defense. We were determined on the defensive end to get stops and get out and run. Kudos to our defense.”
- Paul Millsap on victory
“The first half was definitely our defense. We let up in the second half and the offense struggled. … I don’t know if it was something that they did or the crowd did. They got more aggressive. Through that time we have to be a little bit stronger, calm down a little bit and continue to attack.”
- Millsap on Pacers’ fourth-quarter rally
“It was big to get another win. Coach said just take it one game at a time. Guys played well tonight. Shelvin Mack and Mike Scott, I can’t stress it enough. They’ve been big all year for us and they were huge tonight.”
- Jeff Teague on play of Mike Scott and Shelvin Mack
“We are confident. We are a confident bunch. We have a never-say-die attitude. Look at us, we are under .500, the eighth seed, injuries, everything. We are going to keep fighting. That is what we did.”
- Teague on victory
“Throughout the game we were able to take advantage of our speed and get a lot of fast-break opportunities.”
- Shelvin Mack on Hawks’ victory
“We know we can play with this team. We know they’re a great team, especially at home with great players and a great coach. But we believe in ourselves. (Shelvin) Mack made some shots. Kyle (Korver) made some shots and I made some shots and we were able to play with great pace in that second quarter. It’s the same game plan we’ve been using all year. Spread them out and run the pick-and-roll game or the pick-and-pop game. And they were worried about Mack and I was able to get loose for some good looks. And then they were just heat checks shots.”
- Mike Scott on play of he and Shelvin Mack
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