Here is what they said after the Hawks’ 95-91 loss the Knicks Wednesday night:
“I want to start off by giving New York and their defense credit. They were the more aggressive team defensively for a lot of the night. Our ball movement wasn’t what it has been and what we needed it to be. I think a lot of credit goes to New York and their effort defensively. I think when you look at the turnovers, 15 to 6, and points off the turnovers that explains the loss tonight.”
- Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer’s opening statement
“He’s a heck of a player. I think he banked one of them in of the six (points). That’s what great players do. They make tough shots. … I feel like a lot of the night we made Carmelo work for his shots but because he is a great player he was able to make some of those tough shots. Obviously, at that big moment they needed him to step up and he did.”
- Budenholzer on Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony
“I think that was a big part of it. In the first half, and even after the first quarter, I feel like that was what we talked about. I think J.R. Smith had three 3-pointers in the first quarter and Carmelo had two. A couple of them were mental mistakes. We just had some breakdowns. And one or two of them were tough shots. Over the course of the game, obviously at the 3-point line they were better than we were. It’s a big part of the game. That and the turnovers were what got them the separation.”
- Budenholzer on Knicks’ 3-point shooting
“I think a lot of them I feel like were good. Over the course of any game a couple of them, when you go back and look at the film, maybe weren’t. Generally speaking the 3-pointers that we took weren’t bad. I think we took some tough 2s and the ball didn’t move in some different situations.”
- Budenholzer on Hawks’ 5-of-24 3-point shooting
“There were a couple offensive rebounds. I think we got disjointed offensively. I think they picked up their pressure and we didn’t respond the way we need to respond.”
- Budenholzer on Hawks’ errors down the stretch
“We had slippage, the same things that have been happening to us a lot early this year. We are having leads late in the fourth and they are disappearing. It’s unacceptable. We cost ourselves two or three games just from doing that. We need to be better at it.”
- Al Horford on Hawks’ blown fourth-quarter lead
“We talked at halftime and we said they needed to feel us more on the defensive end. We made an effort to defend a lot better. That allowed us to get out in transition and get easy points. Transition, I feel like that is when we are at our best when we are making good decisions. Early in the fourth, they scored a couple quick baskets and kind of took some life out of us then. For whatever reason, we just kept making mistakes. You have to give them credit, they were good defensively.”
- Horford on Hawks’ third quarter
“We’ll see them in a couple days and we’ll definitely make some adjustments.”
- Horford on Hawks’ meeting Knicks again Saturday
“I felt like we should have got this one. I think everybody is a little upset at the outcome.”
- Jeff Teague on loss
“We just came out and fought. Elton Brand said it at halftime. It’s our quarter. Come out and play. We came out and played. We just laid an egg in the fourth.”
- Teague on Hawks’ third-quarter run
“They were switching their pick-and-roll (defense) one through five. It was kind of hard to get in your plays when they are switching like that.”
- DeMarre Carroll on Knicks’ defense
“That is fair to say. We didn’t execute well and they hit some tough shots down the stretch. Bad execution mixed with tough offense on the other end, you are going to lose to that.”
- Paul Millsap on Hawks’ poor execution down the stretch
“It’s hard to stop a player like that from scoring. For the most part we made it tough on him. He went 9 for 25. It’s not a great night but he hit some tough shots down the stretch and led this team.”
- Millsap on Anthony
“It’s unusual, the defense that they have. It’s unorthodox. We were aware of it. They switched everything. A lot of our offense is predicated on cutting and setting screens for each other. With them switching it just takes you out of (your offense). We have to look at some things to execute well.”
- Millsap on Knicks’ defense
“Teams make runs and the Hawks made a run. I thought we held our poise down the stretch. The third quarter was a disaster. A lot of it was because we didn’t move the ball offensively. Defensively we weren’t too bad. I thought we picked it up in the fourth quarter.”
- Knicks coach Mike Woodson’s opening statement
“Jeff has gotten so much better since the time I had him as a rookie. It’s kind of nice to see how his game has grown. He’s a big part of wht (the Hawks) do here. I like how he plays. He made plays early one. He was a nuisance on the pick and roll.”
- Woodson on Teague
“Not at all. He said what he said and we come out here to play. We had to win for ourselves.”
- Anthony on Knicks owner guarantee of a win
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