What they said after the Hawks’ 96-86 loss to the Raptors Sunday afternoon.
“You have to give Toronto credit. They made a lot of plays in the fourth quarter on both ends of the court. Defensively, they turned up their pressure and held us to 15 (fourth-quarter) points. Offensively, they made a lot of plays. We weren’t able to make enough plays down the stretch. I think we had a (14-)point lead and our execution wasn’t good enough. They made more plays. It’s a credit to them.”
- Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer’s opening statement
“I wouldn’t say our activity changed. They made a lot of plays. They made some shots. At times, I thought we had some very good looks. We had some open looks that didn’t go down that would have helped us. We had some layup that didn’t go down, some free throws, some open 3’s. It was a cumulative effect. They played well offensively in the fourth quarter and their defense was good. At the same time, while their defense was good, we missed some of our opportunities to build a lead or keep a lead.”
- Budenholzer on what changed in fourth quarter
“Very troubling.”
- Budenholzer on not being able to hold 14-point lead
“I thought a significant number of the shots were good looks.”
- Budenholzer on missed shots down the stretch
“It’s very troubling. We lost. It’s tough. Discipline as to be better. Focus has to be better.”
- Paul Millsap on how troubling was loss
“We lost focus. They continued to make shots. We dropped our heads a little bit. We just have to be mentally tougher.”
- Millsap on what went wrong in fourth quarter
“We get a big lead and either we think we have the game won or we tried to end the game at that one particular time. It’s a long game. We have to understand it’s a long game. We have to continue to make plays, continue to stay disciplined and try to pull it out.”
- Millsap on if Hawks are pressing with a lead
“This is one of the worst losses of the season. We were up the whole game. We had the momentum and we just crumbled at the end. Man, we have 14 games left and we have to keep pushing.”
- DeMarre Carroll on loss
“We had wide-open shots. We just didn’t knock them down. Jeff had three. Paul had one wide open. We just didn’t hit them. We’ve just got to keep pushing and hopefully we can build on lead when we have a big lead.”
- Carroll on what went wrong
“Just tough loss. We’ve got a game tomorrow. We definitely have to take care of home (court). We’ve just got to get better at executing at the end.”
- Carroll on Budenholzer’s post-game message
“They made some shots and we didn’t. It was more what we did. We had the game the whole game and just didn’t play well in the fourth.”
- Jeff Teague on loss
“It happens. They were playing at home. We knew they would make a run. We just couldn’t sustain it tonight.”
- Teague on failure to hold lead
“We’re just resilient to be honest. We understand how important the game is coming down to the fourth quarter. Everything matters. Our attention to detail on both ends definitely stepped up. We understand we have to pull out a win, somehow, some way.”
- Raptors guard DeMar DeRozen on fourth-quarter comeback
