What they said after the Hawks’ 101-97 loss to the Wizards Saturday night:
“I think the energy that we played with defensively and offensively back and forth allowed us to compete against a very good team. I think there are things that we can take from tonight - our activity on both ends and the last couple of nights we’ve been talking about offensively playing with more variety and more pace. I think we are seeing a little bit better execution, a little bit better efficiency. They are very good team. We gave ourselves some chances to win. We weren’t able to get it done. It’s a credit to them. They are well-coached. They’ve got some very good players. They play well together. Tonight, I think if we can build on the energy and the activity going down the stretch here it will be a good thing.”
- Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer’s opening statement
“It’s more in the moment, that one possession. It starts with a defensive stop and hoping you can get a bucket. It’s amazing how long an NBA game is and what can happen in the last two minutes. I think all year our group has built a little bit of confidence that we can make a timely shot, that we can attack and get to the paint and get to the free-throw line. Tonight we were able to close the game and we had a chance to tie it late and it didn’t happen.”
- Budenholzer on late fourth-quarter rally
“It was a good shot. I would like to look at it on film. I think our execution was good. I’m curious to look at a couple things having not looked at the film yet but Jeff attacking and Jeff getting to the rim is one of our best opportunities to score and we’ll take that every night.”
- Budenholzer on Jeff Teague’s late layup attempt
“He hit some big shots. He hit a 3 there deep at the end of the third quarter as the shot clock was winding down and gave them a five-point lead. He made a few shots during the meat of the third quarter. He is just so fast and so athletic that you have to pick your poison with him. For a while (the defense) was working relatively decent and eventually he got going and they got that separation.”
- Budenholzer on Wizards’ John Wall
“We are really just focused on building our habits and improving, getting better each day. If we do those things the results will be where we want them to be. I think if you worry about those things it doesn’t help you get better. It doesn’t help you play better. It doesn’t help you improve. That is where our focus is.”
- Budenholzer on the Hawks’ playoff position
“We were just trying to play with a lot of pace and get up and down the floor. Just trying to make it a game. We had opportunities.”
- Jeff Teague on fourth-quarter rally
“We ran the play for that. I just missed it. I just under shot it. I should have made it.”
- Teague on driving layup in final seconds
“We played hard. We fought. We didn’t give up. The guys kept the energy up. We stayed positive and we had a chance to win.”
- Teague on takeaway from game
“We’ve been doing that. I think we played pretty good basketball for three quarters. I think the third quarter hurt us and then we started playing catchup and weren’t able to get the looks.”
- Lou Williams on third-quarter scoring drought
“Just continue to play. It shows we can run off points in a heartbeat. We gave ourselves an opportunity to win that game or tie it. We live with the results.”
- Williams on fourth-quarter rally
“Are we still in the eighth spot? Walah.”
- Williams on Hawks playoff position
“We attacked. Jeff attacked the basket. They gave us some help. They missed some free throws.”
- Paul Millsap on fourth-quarter rally
“Just take the effort. Take some positive things out of it. We shared the basketball like we are used to doing. The past few games we haven’t been moving the basketball like we should.”
- Millsap on takeaway from game
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