What they said after the Hawks’ 79-76 loss to the Grizzlies Saturday night:
“That was a grind-it-out game that defensively there are a lot of positives to point to. I think we really competed on the defensive end of the court. I think defensive rebounding is always an emphasis against this team. You can look at 11 and say that is a lot. I think with the shooting percentages and where they were and the way we competed on that end. They had one free throw tonight so I think we were doing our work early. We were beating people to spots. We were showing our hands. Holding a team to 79 points is a good thing in this league. Offensively, I think we’ve got to get to our pace and the way we want to play. It’s a credit to Memphis. They want to play a slow-down game. Against teams like Memphis and Indiana you have to value possessions. Every night we value possessions and 21 turnovers becomes difficult to overcome when the game becomes even slower and you lose out on possessions. They are always important but in a game that is played at a slow pace, turnovers become even more important. I think we step up and make a couple of free throws and that changes the complexity of the game a little bit. I think our guys competed and that is what we’ve been talking about since the beginning of the season.”
- Coach Mike Budenholzer’s opening statement
“I wanted an early probe. I wanted a push. I wanted to see if we could get an early look, including attacking the basket and getting a two. There is a lot of clock. There were 15 or 16 seconds when we got the defensive rebound. We probed. We had a couple looks. I went to half court and I think I was as loud as humanly possible. The refs chose to ignore me and I didn’t get the timeout with four seconds left on the clock. It’s frustrating. I guess it was loud in there. That is what unfolded on the court. I wanted an early probe. I wanted a late timeout. I wasn’t granted the timeout.”
- Budenholzer on not calling immediate timeout on final possession
“I don’t think they changed anything defensively. Knowing coach Joerger and the way they are drilled and are disciplined, the play a very good brand of defensive basketball. They are a good team. We had a couple of passes that we didn’t connect and didn’t hold on to. We got into the paint a couple of times and got caught in some tough spots. I don’t think they necessarily changed anything. They are good from the beginning of the game.”
- Budenholzer on Hawks’ 21 turnovers, 10 in the third quarter
“That’s the million dollar question. We’ll go back and look at the film and try to see. I think there were a couple of timely offensive rebounds and putbacks they got in that little stretch that got them from down 14 to down eight. We missed a couple shots too. The game just changed a little bit. They were making more plays than us and that kept us out of transition.”
- Budenholzer on what happened to Hawks’ early pace
“As a coach you sometimes try a different combination. Lou hasn’t had a lot of chances to play those minutes as the point guard. I think he competed. He had five rebounds, four defensive, and that was a big emphasis coming into this game. Lou is a competitor and getting him out there and giving him that chance was something we wanted to try.”
- Budenholzer on playing Lou Williams extended minutes at point guard
“It’s tough. We are a better offensive team than that. On a positive, our defense was great. We just didn’t execute well down the stretch.”
- Paul Millsap on loss
“Their defense stepped up but a lot of it was unforced errors, including myself. We have to be a lot sharper, especially coming out of halftime.”
- Millsap on Hawks’ turnovers
“We can’t have droughts where we don’t score at all or quarters where we score 11 points.”
- Millsap on Hawks’ offense
“He was screaming for a timeout. Maybe he should have got it. It was more of a scramble down the end. They switched everything so it was a little tough to get shots off or get a good look.”
- Millsap on Hawks’ final possession
“We had a lot of unforced turnovers. I feel like we are a better offensive team than them we just can’t keep shooting ourselves in the foot.”
- DeMarre Carroll on loss
“We did it to ourselves. We lost that game. We shoot 50 percent from the (free-throw) line and have that many unforced turnovers you aren’t going to win many games in the NBA.”
- Carroll on turnovers and free throws
“Coach was like ‘Go’ because it was such a scramble and it was a good time for people to lose their man, lose Kyle. Me personally, I was just trying to go get Kyle and I knew they were going to switch. Lou threw me a pass and I thought about it for a split second. I should have shot it as soon as I caught it. He threw me a good pass. I should have just shot it.”
- Carroll on Hawks’ final possession
“Down three, you just come down and stay disciplined. We have plays for that situation. We ran a play and got a shot off.”
- Lou Williams on final possession
“Once they started making shots, I think our turnovers were contributed to us trying to make plays and get back in the game. They hadn’t made a 3-point shot since that third quarter. Once they opened up the lead we started playing at a faster pace and as a result of that they were able to turn us over a few times.”
- Williams on Hawks’ turnovers
“I think they made adjustments. Again, they were playing inside and pounding the ball to the inside. They hit three 3-pointers in a row and our game plan goes out the window because now we have to guard the 3-pointer too. That was one of the things that changed the game. Once that happened, we probably got out of character a little bit.”
- Williams on Hawks inability to keep early pace
“Never. Wow.”
- Memphis coach Dave Joerger on only one free-throw attempt
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