The following is the transcript of Al Horford following Sunday’s 114-111 loss to the Cavaliers in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Horford was ejected in the second quarter for a Flagrant Foul 2 after getting tangled with Matthew Dellavedova.
Q. Do you think you should have been ejected?
A. No.
Q. What about your reaction?
A. It's something that I'll definitely learn from.
Q. Was there residual anger from way Kyle Korver went out?
A. You're always upset when you lose one of your teammates. It's the chippiness of it. He's a player that plays hard. There's got to be a line at some point. Again, I was in that position, I should've handled it better.
Q. Is he dirty?
A. He plays hard. He's a player that plays hard. He's a competitor. We are out there competing. But he's gotta learn. He's only been in this league a couple of years, or whatever, but in the end he's got to learn it's a big brotherhood here. Guys look out for each other. I don't think it was malicious but he has to learn.
Q. Did Dellavedova cross the line?
A. He is playing. He is competing. He is out there playing hard. I just think everybody learns. I'll definitely learn from this and make sure that I'm able to keep my composure and things like this don't happen. The game before I got hit in the knees and this played over again. It was such a good game out there I was disappointed I wasn't able to stay out there with my teammates.
Q. What's your reaction to the end of game?
A. I'm proud of this group. It's very easy to lay down being down 0-2 coming on the road. Our guys, we stuck together. We fought. We gave ourselves a chance there to win. It's disappointing but we're keeping our heads up.
Q. What did the referees say?
A. I think he said something but in the heat of the moment, I told him 'Listen, he went after my legs.' That's what I said to him. He went after my legs. If it was on purpose, we don't know. Maybe it wasn't on purpose. But with just his track record, I just felt like it was and, again, on my part very poor for doing that.
Q. Should refs take that into account he went for your legs before ejection?
A. Yes. There is no question about it. They reviewed it plenty. We're on the road. The crowd keeps looking at it over and over. They're hyping it up and it plays in the mind a little bit. At the end of the day, it's the ref's decision. He is the one who decides.
Q. Can this team win four straight?
A. We have to win one. Our focus is to come out on Tuesday now. We're going to play our hearts out and kind of go from there. Tuesday is our focus.
Q. If you don't say Dellavedova is dirty, is he at least careless?
A. He can be careless at times. He's a hard-nosed player. But like I told the guys, I'm sure he'll learn from this because this is not the first time he's been involved in something like this.
Q. By track record you mean Taj Gibson and Korver?
A. Yes.
Q. What did you see from the Kyle Korver situation?
A. Again, it's a hustle play. He's going after a loose ball. But it's just unfortunate that that happened.
Q. Did you say anything to your teammates after the game?
A. Just for everyone to keep their heads up. After a hard-fought game like that, you want to give guys some space. We'll regroup and we'll have a good practice.
Q. How did you spend the time in the locker room?
A. Watching it with a couple of the trainers here and trying to send my good vibes to the team. It's hard. You want to be out there. I couldn't do anything.
