What they said after the Hawks’ 107-98 victory over the Knicks Saturday night:
“It was a great team effort by our group. A lot of guys did a lot of different things well. I think the crowd helped us tonight. Great feeling in the arena. Great feeling in the locker room right now. There are so many things that you can point out. We are trying to build some habits. Lou Williams getting nine defensive rebounds. People will think about the 3’s he hit and the big plays that he made. But him getting nine boards and DeMarre Carroll stepping up and taking a challenge. Carmelo (Anthony) still had 35 (points). DeMarre and our group made Carmelo work for as many of his points as we could. The rebounding, the overall competitiveness. Elton Brand played his fourth game in five nights and played 42 minutes. Then, lastly Jeff Teague in attack mode, was really important to us. We got stagnant in the second quarter. We kind of stood. We had a lot of bad possessions, a lot of dry possessions. The second half we were much more aggressive and Jeff was a big part of that, attacking the basket and getting in the paint. I think Mike Scott was pretty good too.”
- Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer’s opening statement
“I think we have a competitive group so any time, any team has lost a few games in a row I think it’s just a good feeling. The exact words ‘sense of relief’ doesn’t register or resonate with me. Our group has been competing. Our group has been focused. There have been a lot of good things even in that stretch. For them to be rewarded for how hard they are working, for their character and their competitiveness it’s nice to get that.”
- Budenholzer on whether there is sense of relief with victory
“I was a little upset at one time out but it wasn’t particularly at Jeff. In general, we were just standing and not attacking. That is not how we play. There are times in a game where either defensively they do something to create a stall out or we do it to ourselves. We had a five, six minute stretch in the second quarter. I think we only had 15 points. We just were not very good. The whole group deserves credit for flipping it and changing it and being aggressive.”
- Budenholzer on Jeff Teague being aggressive
“They told me I couldn’t sub any more. Once that group got going, we pretty much stuck with them. DeMarre was the hard one. It’s a credit to him. He basically hasn’t played for 12 days. He played 23 minutes last night. He played almost the whole second half. There was a point where he wanted to come out. Luckily there was a timeout and he could keep going. We stuck with him. Now we’ve got a couple days without a game and we rode that group. Obviously, they were very good.”
- Budenholzer on rotations
“Our group needed this win. I think it would be naïve to say that it’s not important for us to get this.”
- Budenholzer on victory
“When you are playing small ball, you have a lot of open lanes. Our team was really fast and we were getting the ball out and having Mike (Scott) out there really stretched the floor and made it a lot easier to get in the lanes and make plays.”
- Jeff Teague on being aggressive
“I was in the zone. Every player knows how it feels to be in the zone. I just kept being aggressive and let the game come to me.”
- Mike Scott on 30-point performance
“In the first half, they were giving me a little room. In the second half I started hitting more. I was just shooting and letting it go. It was good defensive but I was just making shots.”
- Scott on whether Knicks were respecting his shot
“Very important. Down Paul. Down so many bodies it was great for everyone to come out and play hard and finally get a win.”
- Scott on victory
“That’s what everyone was thinking, here we go again. But that third quarter, we just got together and brought it to within 10 (points). Once you get it to 10 points you know the game can go either way. It went in our favor.”
- Scott on mindset after falling behind by 17 points
“I was just trying to help my team out by scoring.”
- DeMarre Carroll on his 24-point performance
“I think the biggest thing was a lot of people get caught up in me and Melo trash talking. I think it was bigger than Carmelo tonight. You have to learn how to get your guys motivated. If I have to trash talk to a guy just to get Jeff Teague to score 10 points in a row, Mike or Lou knocking down shots, that’s what I’ve got to do.”
- Carroll on trash-talking with Carmelo Anthony
“It got everybody going. It got the home crowd into it. It got my teammates into it. I’m trying to develop into a leader. I think that is what we are missing. Eight in a row, that was too much.”
- Carroll on technical fouls
“It was real quiet (in the locker room before the game). I knew right then I had to do something to get these guys going. Last night, we should have won that game.”
- Carroll on finally getting a win
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