DETROIT PISTONS HEAD COACH STAN VAN GUNDY: (On the game tonight): “I’ve been here two years, I don’t know if you’ve heard this out of me yet. If you have, it’s only been one or two times. I’m not saying I’m happy with the way that we’ve played, obviously we didn’t play well. But to me, tonight was about them. Honestly. I thought that was a very good team that is really hitting their stride. They played terrific at both ends tonight. I’m not letting our guys off the hook. There are certainly things we will show them on Monday, things we could have done a lot better. The main thing is, we’re learning and tonight was hopefully a big lesson. That’s the most intense and energetic anybody has played against us all year, and well. Quite honestly, we weren’t ready to rise to that level. It wasn’t that our guys didn’t try, we’re just not at that level yet. We need to rise to that level. I thought, look, we had A.T. (Anthony Tolliver) open twice where a guy came from in the lane on help and blocked his shot on the perimeter. We had two or three times where we came off pick and rolls and had pull up jumpers and their guy kept pursuing from behind and blocked the shot; the kind of stuff that we all want our teams to do. Our guys got a feel for that tonight. If we are all honest with ourselves, me included, they played at a level that we couldn’t match. I thought it was more about them. I didn’t come away from that game, like I come from a lot, thinking we weren’t ready to play or we didn’t try. I think we kept trying to hang in there and hang in there. We would get it like to eight, nine and we couldn’t get over the hump because they were playing so well. I’m not angry at our guys I thought we gave it effort. I just thought they were at a level. They played at a level tonight that we haven’t been able to get to yet, or had to get to yet, quite honestly. So hopefully it’s a learning experience for us. I don’t say this too often. I’ll usually come in here and give you everything our team did wrong and everything else, and certainly we didn’t play real well. But Atlanta was terrific tonight.”
(On playoff push): “As much as we are scoreboard watching and stuff I really think and look, we’ve said this and I’ve been honest about it from the get go, being in this race right now and playing games like tonight are critical to the development of our team. Yeah, we want to get in to the playoffs, it’s a huge goal. Every guy in that locker room wants in, I want in badly, Tom (Gores) wants in, we all want in. But, we have to stay focused. The way to get in is to play better. So you have to stay focused on what you need to do to get there and we got a big lesson in that tonight in terms of the things you have to do to play at this level to get in there. I want our guys to learn and grow and develop. That’s what I want to have happen. I hope they get some learning out of tonight. It’s not going to get easier. From what I’ve heard Oklahoma City is pretty good. I heard they have a couple good players. And then we’re going to have Dallas who are fighting for their playoff lives and Chicago who obviously with us, is a battle to the death and then you’ve got Miami who is fighting for a home court. And then we still have Washington to play, Miami again and then at Cleveland and who knows where they will be on the last day fighting for home court. It’s going to be more of this and I hope we will be ready for it.”
DETROIT PISTONS FORWARD MARCUS MORRIS: (On Atlanta’s level of play): “They played hard. Did they play yesterday? It sure didn’t seem like it. They played really hard; it was a good game for them. It is what it is.”
(On takeaways from tonight’s game): “We need to match that intensity. That’s a playoff team, that’s a team that’s trying to fight for something. To come off of a back-to-back and to have that much energy really opened my eyes. They were really playing like they haven’t played in a couple days and it showed.”
(On Atlanta’s defense): “They do a great job, they have their defensive principles and they stick to them. I felt like every time I was in the post I had two or three guys on me. They’re a playoff team, a veteran team and it showed.”
ATLANTA HAWKS HEAD COACH MIKE BUDENHOLZER: (On the game): “It’s a good road back-to-back effort. I think the defense in the first quarter, kind of set the tone, the activity, then obviously we shot the ball well tonight. We talked before the game last night and we found a way to win without making shots and tonight, we made a lot of threes and we were able to get some separation. So, I thought the defense and I thought the pace of the offense and the ball movement was good so hopefully we just keep building on this.”
(On any update on Paul Millsap after his leaving the game early): “I basically know that he’s getting stitches now, I don’t know more than that. He had a monster game, blocked shots, steals, points, rebounds, everything. It was a big-time game from him, so fortunately we were able to have a little bit of a lead when it happened and we were able to close it out and hopefully he’ll be okay.”
(On if the coaching staff gets used to what was seen today from him): “He’s a heck of a player. We’re very fortunate to have him and we actually want more. We’re on him and I think he can do even more for us so when he plays with great energy and great force, his impact on the game is huge and he knows that, so it’s been great to see him play.”
ATLANTA HAWKS CENTER AL HORFORD: (On tonight’s game vs. Pistons): “I think for us it was more than the defense, it was the energy. I felt like we came out, all of us, with good energy and good focus. We understood that this was a really big game. The Pistons have been playing great, winning five straight. They’re a team that’s a problem so we just needed to jump ahead and we were able to do that.”
(On defense): “Honestly, we made shots. Mike Scott stepped up and hit a big three and that kind of started things for us and we just kept piling it on. We were solid on defense but we also hit some shots.”
ATLANTA HAWKS FORWARD MIKE SCOTT: (On tonight’s game vs. Pistons): “It’s very satisfying, especially on a back-to-back. Anytime you get a win on the road it’s great. Last time we were here we had to win but they started to come back a little bit. It’s great that we finished this whole game out.”
(On his fast break dunk in the fourth quarter): “It’s something I’ve always done- running the court. I’m just going to keep running the court and hopefully Dennis (Schroder) and Tim (Hardaway, Jr.) pass me the ball for the dunk.”
