Quotes, Notes, and Links: Atlanta Hawks 112 Memphis Grizzlies 109

Recap

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Highlights

Jamal Crawford:

"Joe is our franchise player, and we can't wait to have him back. But for now, everybody else has to step up."

Al Horford:

"We knew we had to do it collectively. Obviously we'll miss Joe. At the same time it's going to make us stronger as a team."

Larry Drew:

"Tonight it was Mike Bibby who knocked the big shot down. I'm going to get more play calls to him."

Mike Bibby's three three-pointers in the final 4:22 came about as follows:

• Al Horford hand-off to Bibby followed by a massive Horford screen on Xavier Henry.
• Terrible pass from Bibby to Horford on a screen-and-roll that Horford controls at his ankles and quickly returns to Bibby.
• Following a Horford offensive rebound (of a Bibby miss) and a Josh Smith offensive rebound (of a Horford miss), Horford shows a ball-screen for Jamal Crawford but slips the screen. Crawford finds Horford in the lane. The entire Memphis defense collapses on Horford, who hits the cutting Crawford, who finds Bibby alone in the corner.

The Hawks don't need more plays run for Mike Bibby, they just need him to continue to knock down the open shots he gets as a result of the team featuring Al Horford in the offense.

Larry Drew on Horford:

"Al’s been playing well for us. We are counting on Al and he has stepped up big for us."

Josh Powell:

"I just did the same thing I’ve been doing every game. I can score but that part I don’t really worry about. I just wanted to come out and show what I could do on both ends of the floor."

The final both-ends-of-the-floor tally on Josh Powell's performance: 62 points on 44 possessions for the Hawks (offensive efficiency: 140.9) and 56 points on 45 possessions for the Grizzlies (defensive efficiency: 124.4). Powell's on-court time was a net positive but it takes a lot of made 18-foot jumpers to overcome bad defense before and after (1 defensive rebound in 23:11 for Powell) the other team puts up a shot.

Lionel Hollins:

"They played just as if Joe Johnson was there, they just didn't feature anybody as much as Joe Johnson when he's there."

Jamal Crawford:

"I think that's tough for other teams to key in on when you've got six or seven guys scoring like that."

Peachtree Hoops has ample pre- and post-game audio.