Quotes, Notes, and Links: Atlanta Hawks 103 Golden State Warriors 93

Recap

Gameflow

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Highlights

Al Horford:

"The game plan was just to play inside out. I think when we do that we usually have a lot of success. Josh is unselfish and I’m unselfish. When there’s a double team, we usually kick it out to the guards. That’s how we got going as a team, then later that opened up everything else.

We had some careless turnovers on the break, [including] myself. I try not to do that. I want to look back and see where I can improve in that area. We could have had a lot more opportunities on the fast break."

Larry Drew:

"At times we revert back to isolations, but that’s fine because we have some good isolation players. For the most part we are doing what we want to do."

Josh Smith:

"They had a couple ‘bigs' out, and the game plan from the get-go was to get the ball to me and Al and create for others. We got away from it for a little bit, and then we went back to it."

Drew on his team's successful defensive performance:

"Our focus in this game was really to defend the 3-point line. I thought we did that for the most part."

It may not make a huge difference in the results over the course of an entire season, but a focus on defending the three-point line will be the greatest cause of any improvement this team displays at that end this season.

Michael Cunningham reports that Marvin Williams suffered a lower back bruise when he fell over Lou Amundson in the third quarter. Williams:

"I got up quick but when I tried to walk back to the bench it locked up on me."

Joe Johnson's not completely healthy himself:

"When you shoot the ball you’ve got to pop your elbow and I can’t quite do that. When I’m on the court, I don’t really think about it. As long as we win, that’s all that matters."

Keith Smart on Monta Ellis falling off his 33.5 points per game pace to 12 points on 13 shots: "Some nights he’s just not going to have it. Guarding bigger guys will take some of his energy on nights like this."

Smart on the Hawks' big men:

"They play at a high level. Battle tested big guys who have gone through wars in the East, gone through wars in the playoffs. Our size, not having enough of it tonight, really hurt us."

Jason Walker addresses Vladimir Radmanovic's impact on the game:

I believe for every one of Radmanovic's 22 minutes, the Hawks tossed the ball into whoever he was guarding. On an early play, Horford showed the ball and Vlad froze as if watching a beautiful snowflake on a silent winter morning, and then Al blew by him and knocked down a layup while being fouled. From that point on, he looked to be mostly on Josh, who by no coincidence got the ball a lot in the post.