Here is what they said after the Hawks’ 124-107 win over the Kings Wednesday night:
“I like the way our group started tonight and I like the way our group finished tonight. I think in the middle there are a lot of things for us to work on, a lot of things for us to improve – particularly defensively. That’s always the goal. We are trying to get to 48 minutes of good defense, good offense and those cycles where we are doing both. The ball movement and the shooting were both to be commended. The shooters can’t make shots unless the ball gets to them on time, on target. And then shooters have to make shots. Tonight was one of those nights when we were fortunate. We had a lot of guys who made shots tonight. We’ll look at both the good and the areas where we need to improve.”
- Coach Mike Budenholzer’s opening statement
“Kyle gets 3’s a lot of different ways. It’s been great to be around him a couple months and 20-some-odd games. He gets them on ball movement. He gets them on screens. He gets them on offensive rebounds. He knows how to move and find the open spot. The players are looking for him. For him to get his shot … the ball has to find him on time, on target. I think that has been an area of emphasis for us.”
- Budenholzer on Kyle Korver
“Having Mike make a couple shots (in the fourth) and Paul (Millsap) early. You’ve got Paul in the first quarter really spread them out and made some corner 3’s. Then in the fourth quarter it happened to be Mike. Our guards were being aggressive. Our guards were attacking and penetrating. Mike was in the right spot at the right time and was able to make some shots.”
- Budenholzer on Mike Scott’s fourth-quarter 3-pointers
“Jeff had a great mindset. There is a lot of respect from us, and the whole league, with Isaiah Thomas as a good young point guard who is emerging. Jeff took the challenge and really put the offense in his hands. He made a lot of good decisions and a lot of good plays. Defensively we wanted to make it difficult on Thomas. There were times when Jeff was good defensively also.”
- Budenholzer on Jeff Teague
“The message was we were going to have to get some stops. They had 33 points in third quarter and I think we had 32. … The basic message was we are not going to win if we give them 30-plus points. We are not going to just trade baskets. We are going to have to have a defensive quarter. We are going to have to hold them to 20 or 22 if we want to win this game. It was really about our defense coming out of the third quarter.”
- Budenholzer on message going into fourth quarter
“He was a picture of what our group did. Him rebounding the ball and pushing the break in the first half and him hitting Kyle and some of our shooters for open 3’s really got us off to a fast start. It started with Al getting defensive rebounds, pushing it, making great decisions and, obviously, down the stretch he was excellent.”
- Budenholzer on Al Horford
“We got some stops. It was a back-and-forth game. Everybody was scoring. We couldn’t stop each other. Luckily, we got some stops in the fourth.”
- Teague on Hawks’ fourth-quarter
“We (got some stops) and then we started running the high pick-and-roll. Al (Horford) was making his shots. Mike (Scott) was knocking down corner 3’s. Kyle was making 3’s all over the place. When we are making shots like that we are tough to beat.”
- Teague on Hawks’ offense
“Getting the ball to the guys who needed the ball. Al, pick-and-pop is his shot. Kyle for 3’s. DeMarre (Carroll) slashing.”
- Teague on 15 assists
“I wanted to get two rebounds. I wasn’t thinking about it. Somebody told me at the end (of the game). I really wanted the two rebounds. We (with Budenholzer) were talking about it before the game that I needed to get eight or 10 rebounds. I said ‘I’ll get ‘em.’ I was just joking. I should have gotten them.”
- Teague on near triple-double
“The guards penetrated, the defense collapsed and I just hit the open shot. They just got me the ball and I just finished it.”
- Mike Scott on fourth-quarter 3-pointers
“When the guards are penetrating so much in the paint, the defense has to collapse or they will give up an easy layup. Actually, a few times they didn’t help and Jeff had a layup. When they are doing that it’s our job to finish the plays and get the assists.”
- Scott on floor spacing
“It was about as good as it gets. It was pretty good. More importantly, we got the win and we needed this win to start to get some momentum.”
- Horford on his performance
“I want to do whatever it takes to help us win. I don’t know if every night I can put up these great numbers. But definitely I want to keep getting better and why not shoot for that. I just know that I have to keep working.”
- Horford on keeping up recent play
“I got a lot of really good looks tonight. Usually, you don’t get that many. That was a product of our spacing and everybody knocking down shots. I feel like I’ve gotten a lot of good looks that last few games and I haven’t shot the ball as well as I would have liked. It was nice to have a better night.
“Both them one’s I missed I should have made. They were wide open.”
- Korver on eight 3-pointers
“Paul hit three in the first half. Mike hits two in the second half. When you have a 4-man who is able to stretch the floor like that it creates so much more space for Jeff to operate, for Al to operate. If that (defender) can’t be in there to help, it creates a lot of space. It’s good basketball. Obviously, we are not all going to shoot the ball as well as we did tonight but it plants a seed to the other team that we are capable of doing that.”
- Korver on team 3-pointers
“I think we picked up our energy at that end. We were just trading baskets for about two and half quarters. I thought we had a good first quarter and a good fourth quarter. We just got into a game of trading baskets. Those are dangerous games. We kinds of said when the fourth quarter started that we have to pick it up right now.”
- Korver on defensive difference in fourth quarter
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