Here is what they said after the Hawks’ 97-87 victory over the Pacers Wednesday night:
“That was a great, just competitive (game) from the beginning to the end. That’s what we’ve been talking to the group about and that was what was going to keep us on track and keep us getting better, improving. I think the competitive spirit from the very beginning was excellent. It showed on the defensive end. It was one of our best defensive games, particularly the first half. The activity and the effort and the energy were very high. DeMarre Carroll, on the individual basis, really set the tone for us with his defense and activity. I think the offense, at times, the ball was moving and people were cutting and spacing. Obviously it helps if we make some shots. We got off to a good start with that. I’m just happy for our guys. We’ve got a competitive group. If you keep doing that you are able to compete with some of the best teams in the league like Indiana. I’m just proud of our guys.”
- Mike Budenholzer’s opening statement
“I think the defense fueled the offense. The defense fueled the energy that we played offense with. There was just a commitment on the defensive end that spilled over to the offensive end where people were moving and the ball was moving and we were just sharper and crisper. That is sometimes how it works. There is just an energy that you get from playing good defense.”
- Budenholzer on key to Hawks’ fast start
“Really, we just kept in short and simple. Let’s just go compete again for another half. Let’s compete just like we did for the first half. If we compete just like we did in the first half we feel like we’ll be in a good position at the end of the game. We didn’t want to get tricky or overcomplicated.”
- Budenholzer on halftime message
“We acknowledge that the made a run, that they made some shots and Paul George picked it up and now we had to answer. We had to answer that challenge. Our message, probably always, is we don’t want to slow down. I think sometimes you can get into that deliberate game when teams make a run at you or you get late in the fourth quarter. As much as possible, from the start of the game to the end of the game, we want to play with pace and push it back at people.”
- Budenholzer on Pacers’ 15-4 run
“We are all growing and we are all improving and we are all learning. The league is interesting how in fourth quarters teams go on runs. How you respond to that. Hopefully we are going to get more confident and more comfortable with how we want to respond. That we don’t want to slow down. That we want to continue to play with pace from the start of the game to the end of the game.”
- Budenholzer on Hawks learning to respond
“We played hard tonight. We felt like we let a couple of games slip these past couple.”
- Jeff Teague on victory
“It does a lot. We are trying to re-figure things without Al. It’s going to take a little bit of time. I think tonight was really a great game for our team. We had balanced scoring. Jeff really ran the show well. We knew where we were supposed to be. We had a great film session yesterday. Coach really pointed out a lot of things. We’ve been playing hard the last few games but we haven’t always been organized. We want to keep playing freely but we want to have a little bit of organization. I thought our spacing was good tonight. We played with pace. We knew we were playing a really good team and it was a really good win for us.”
- Kyle Korver on victory
“It gave us a lot of confidence. We needed a start like that. We’ve lost a bunch of games lately and they’ve all been close. All our games all year have been close it feels like. But we’ve lost a bunch lately so to have a good start against a good team at home was really big for us.”
- Korver on fast start
“We needed this game badly so we started this game with a lot of energy on defense first of all. We know who we played, Indiana with the best record, and we wanted to prove that we can win.”
- Pero Antic on victory
“Plus we saw Al today in the locker room. It gave us a little boost. This win is for him also.”
- Antic on Al Horford visit
“The main thing was to continue to do what we’ve been doing – which is competing. The next thing was staying disciplined throughout our sets, throughout our defensive principles. We felt like we did that. We were (getting away from our discipline). The past few games we got away from what made us who we are. We had to get back to that.”
- Paul Millsap on team film session Tuesday
“I tried to be more physical coming into this game. I felt like I was physical against Brooklyn (Monday). But when they got more physical our team got less physical and that’s why we lost that game. I just wanted to set the tone for everybody and let them know that we are a physical team. We are not backing down.”
- DeMarre Carroll on early start
“Once we get this thing rolling, we are going to be really good. We are playing without Al and we are still in every game. Every game is coming down to the last minute or the last second and we are playing top teams. We have to keep punching it and we are going to be really good.”
- Carroll on victory
“It was unrecoverable. It pretty much decided the game and determineed how we had to play the rest of the game.”
- Pacers coach Frank Vogel on Hawks’ fast start
“When you fall behind 12-14 points to start the game off, you give a team like this all the confidence in the world. Plus, they’re playing at home. I felt that’s where we lost the game.”
- Paul George on Hawks’ fast start
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