What they said after the Hawks’ 111-97 loss to the Warriors Friday night:
“I think it’s good for our group to have all 12 guys healthy and back. Tonight, obviously, it’s tough when you don’t get the results you want. To have Paul (Millsap) back, to have Pero (Antic) back, these are our 12 guys we have going forward. To have them healthy and able to help us is important. I think defensively we responded in the third quarter and gave ourselves a chance to get back in it. There were a lot of things. The attention that Steph Curry draws, he deserves it. I think our guys did a good job of following through and making it difficult on him because he is a great player. They had other guys step up and make shots. I think defensively there were some stretches where there were some positives. We lost our focus, we lost our mental toughness, at the end of the second quarter and they were able to get out on us to a 14-point lead going into halftime. That stretch really hurt us. We fought back with a good defensive third quarter. Ultimately, we weren’t good enough but it’s great to have everybody back healthy.”
- Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer’s opening statement
“The mental effort is something we have to be aware of and conscious of. We slipped up mentally. And that is the challenge in any sport is can you stay mentally focused, mentally tough, for 48 minutes in the NBA. Our physical effort, the fight in the guys, we’ve got a great group. They are giving us everything they’ve got. The challenge is to be mentally tougher.”
- Budenholzer on whether lapses were because of effort
“We’ll have to look at the film. I think a few of them were good looks. They just didn’t go down. That is a big part of offenses, sometimes the orange ball has to go through the round hole. They played some good defense. They are a good defensive team. I don’t think they get enough credit for what they do defensively. We turned it over a few times. That stretch was the other stretch that hurt us.”
- Budenholzer on Hawks missing first eight shots of fourth quarter
“He has been playing really well. He’s gone to the fountain of youth. He’s been really scoring at an efficient rate, one-on-one in the post against a lot of teams recently. Tonight, he continued to that. It’s a credit to Jermaine and how hard he has worked. Obviously, he has taken care of himself. They have so much shooting around the perimeter, it’s hard to give a lot of help. He took advantage of it.”
- Budenholzer on 17-point effort by Jermaine O’Neal of the bench
“All year we’ve been working on different groups that can help us. Lou has done a ton of good things and he has helped us through the year. Tonight, we gave some other guys some minutes and some opportunities. Playing a little bit bigger is important to us. But Lou has been very good for us all year. It’s one of the hardest parts about coaching. You can’t play everybody.”
- Budenholzer on not playing Lou Williams
“We had some turnovers, a couple of turnovers in the backcourt. That is one of those teams that can score a lot of points in a hurry. They have a lot of shooters. You can’t give them that rhythm on the floor because once they get in it they are really tough to guard. We made some mental mistakes and it cost us.”
- Kyle Korver on Warriors’ 12-1 run to end second quarter
“I thought we had a good third quarter. On both sides of the ball we played pretty well. You have to play 48 minutes if you want to win on the road. We haven’t done that that well to this point.”
- Korver on Hawks’ third quarter
“It’s a combination of a lot of things. We didn’t execute very well. We settled for some shots that weren’t the ones we wanted. They are a good team, too. You have to give them credit as well. Just not a lot of things went well in the fourth quarter.”
- Korver on Hawks’ fourth quarter
“I love to compete. That is first and foremost. I love to compete. But at the same time, I’m a team guy. Whatever is needed, if we are just trying to find a way to win a basketball game, whether that is me playing or me not playing, I’m for whatever that coach decides.”
- Lou Williams on not playing in the game
“It’s great to have our guys back. It’s great to be back. With that, it’s going to take some time for us to get our rhythm back, getting accustomed to each other and getting our chemistry going.”
- Paul Millsap on return to lineup
“I felt great. A little bit down the stretch my legs got a little heavy. I expected that the first game back. It’s going to take a little time. “
- Millsap on how he felt in return
“Just losing focus. Not being disciplined. We just have to stay disciplined in what we do, whether that is defensively, offensively, whether it’s setting a screen to get somebody open, running the floor like we are supposed to. We just have to stay disciplined.”
- Millsap on Hawks’ mental lapses
“It’s very frustrating but we are a mentally strong team. We have to be a mentally strong team right now. We have our backs against the wall. We have to figure out a way to win games. It’s as simple as that.”
- Millsap on frustrations of losing streak
“I don’t know man. We just can’t score right now. When we need to we go on big droughts. It’s been a problem. I thought we played hard. We fought back in the third quarter.”
- Jeff Teague on what went wrong
“It’s definitely frustrating. I’ve never lost like this in my life. Ever since I’ve been in Atlanta I’ve never been on a streak or a drought like this. It’s tough.”
- Teague on the frustrations of losing streak
“I thought it was a great performance across the board. I thought we did a good of sending a message early. They scored more than we would like in the first quarter, but I thought that was an adjustment period for us. We battled, competed, were aggressive, attacked the painted area and we were very unselfish. Again our bench did an outstanding job. 51 points and 22 rebound from our bench says a lot. Looking ahead to three games in four nights it’s going to be important to take care of business and get a chance to relax with your key players.”
- Warriors coach Mark Jackson on game
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