Here is what they said after the Hawks’ 83-80 victory over the Rockets Friday night:
“I think the group is really starting to trust each other defensively. The competitiveness that they are putting out there it starts on the defensive end of the court. There are some examples tonight of guys making rotations, making v-backs, difficult hard situations. Guys making rotations. It’s just good to see that trust being built up. … There are stretches where we can play off our defense, getting into a little bit of a rhythm and we get some good looks and good opportunities. Then there are times when everything kind of slowed down and it was a slugfest for both teams. I’m just really happy with the defensive effort. They are a heck of an offensive team, a heck of a scoring team. I think we probably caught them on a little bit of an off night. I think there was some good stuff for us defensively.”
- Coach Mike Budenholzer’s opening statement
“Mike Scott. The bench tonight was really excellent. We started out, I don’t know is there a better word than slow. Then Mike came into the game. It was fortuitous maybe that Paul picks up a couple fouls and Mike comes in. He was really committed to running the court tonight. I think we beat them in transition a couple times and got a couple easy baskets. We got a little bit of confidence going off Mike’s running. Elton Brand comes in with 11 rebounds. Lou Williams comes in with eight assists and no turnovers. The guys off the bench. Shelvin is rock steady. I thought the bench allowed us to weather that early difficult time.”
- Budenholzer on how Hawks overcame 11-point deficit
“We practice and work and talk a lot about making catches tough. Just like (Rockets coach Kevin McHale) wants it to go there, we don’t want it to go there. It was a battle of wills. I think our guys have done a nice job in working to not let people catch it where they want. Just making the angles difficult, making the passes difficult. Because once he gets it he is so hard to guard. He is so physical, so strong. I thought the activity once he did catch it, with our digs, was excellent.”
- Budenholzer on stopping Rockets from getting ball down low to Dwight Howard
“I’m sure the assistants are already talking about the next game. It’s been a good response the last couple of games. The spirit of the group is good. To be honest with you, it was good when we lost two or three in a row. We have good character, quality guys that have a high, high basketball I.Q. and they understand what it takes to win.”
- Budenholzer on back-to-back wins over Pacers and Rockets
“We are still figuring things out. We came out of the gates and are spacing was not good again. Mike Scott came in and gave us a huge lift because we couldn’t get anything going. We have to go back and watch the film again. There wasn’t any space for anyone to get a good shot. We are still a work in progress without Al (Horford). We kept fighting and different guys stepped up and we got a good win.”
- Kyle Korver on victory
“We’ve got a whole bunch more games coming up so we can’t feel too good about ourselves right now.”
- Korver on wins over Pacers and Rockets
“They are bigger guys, Dwight Howard, Terrance Jones, bigger defenders. I just used my quickness to try to out run them.”
- Mike Scott on his early success
“I’m seeing the floor a lot more and picking out open guys. … It’s all coming to be better.”
- Scott on becoming more comfortable with offense
“We’ve really worked on our defense. On offense, we feel like if we get good shots, we attack, they are going to fall. Our defense didn’t start well. Once we got our defense under us, got some stops, then we could run. Guys like Mike Scott got in the lane and finished. Paul Millsap got in the lane and got some buckets. It opened it up for Kyle to knock down some open looks that we helped set some picks for.”
- Elton Brand on overcoming slow start
“Just keep him away from a deep position. Make him make some moves a little bit. He’s such a load down there. He’s big and athletic and it takes a team effort to kind of stop him. With Dwight, you try not to give him angles. Not try to foul him too much, even though he’s not a great free-throw shooter, but that gets them in the bonus and then James Harden and those guys can attack the cup.”
- Brand on trying to limit Dwight Howard
“A little bit better. Just a little bit. The difference was shots went down. I had some good looks and my teammates got me in position to really score the ball. I got some good passes and I was able to finish.”
- Paul Millsap on 20 points after scoring four against Pacers
“I wasn’t really expecting it but when I saw it I figured I was going to have to make shots. He’s going to clog up the paint. He’s so big down there. Me driving the paint really wasn’t going to working at first.”
- Millsap on Rockets using Dwight Howard to guard him
“It’s a good confidence booster but it’s one more game on the stat sheet. But it’s a real good win for us. It really shows who we are. We played some good teams. We played some good defense. It started with the defense and if we continue to keep that up, we’ll be fine.”
- Millsap on wins over Pacers and Rockets
“They out ran us in transition. (Mike) Scott got out and got a lot of early stuff. We didn’t get matched up well in transition adn that hurt us a few times. We couldn’t make shots and couldn’t get the ball where we wanted it on the offensive end. They would deny something and we didn’t make an adjustment with the dribble and improve our angle. It was just one of those games where we were just stuck in the mud offensively. It started off with a good flow but then after that we couldn’t get anything going.”
- Rockets coach Kevin McHale’s opening statement
“(That’s) just something we have to work on in practice and get better at it. It’s not an issue. Guys just have to work on it in practice. It’s not an issue. We’ll get better.”
- Dwight Howard on miscommunication between he and Aaron Brooks that led to late turnover
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