ATLANTA HAWKS POST-GAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH MIKE WOODSON
“I thought our guys weathered the storm early. The guys were anxious to start the game but that is expected, we just cant have our starters playing the way they did tonight. We will watch tape and try to clean up our offense. They started to go to the mismatches and exploit us there. We need to regroup and bounce back on Wednesday.”

On poor shooting: “Four of our starters went 4 for 49, give the Celtics credit on that. But they haven’t shot that bad all season.”

On Al Horford: “He was unbelievable. He played like he has been playing playoffs all season. We have got to get all the guys playing a higher level for the upcoming games.”

On dealing with Rondo: “He puts pressure on you with his speed. We were trying to match a bigger guy on Rondo, but he made some shots, but we have to live with that. As long as Ray and Paul aren’t sticking the dagger in you, you have to deal with rondo making the shots.”

JOSH SMITH
"I was too amped up and I knew it was going to happen. That’s why we have four whole games, a whole series to play it out. I am going to come back on Wednesday; I got a game under my belt, so I’m going to come back on Wednesday morning in control. Me and Bibby was talking about it today, we only had 11 points combined, and we’re not going to win too many games without both of us being able to perform at our highest level.”

On picking up two quick fouls: “It kind of pressured me a little bit. I wanted to be out there guarding KG, but when I got those two fouls and I wanted to go back in the game the second quarter but he wanted to rest me a little bit longer. That’s okay but I just got to be more patient and pick and choose where I contest shots and just pushing the ball.”

On the Celtics defense: “I think they did a good job on Joe early. I remember just one time him getting triple teamed one play. They are making everyone else trying to make shots. We really got to be able to take that pressure off of Joe, where when he passes the ball we are able to knock down shots. Or we are able to push the ball and we are able to get him open looks on the break.”

JOE JOHNSON
“When we make runs to get back into the game we can’t let them make another run and go back up 10. We got to go back to the drawing board man. We got a lot more work to do.”

On Celtics defense: “I don’t think anything. We was settling for a lot of jump shots when we should have been driving. I mean, KG had three fouls and you know, I think we never put the pressure on them. We settled for a lot of jump shots and it hurt us.”

On focus for Game Two: “Well, yea I didn’t expect it to be like this though. I’m glad we got it out of the way man, these guys got the playoff experience and they know how it’s going to be. So I expect game two will be a different reaction.”

On positives that you can take out of this game: “Well like I said. I seen a bunch of bright spots. There was moments where we looked great. Good help defense, moving the ball on offense getting easy buckets. Then again there was spots where we decided to take it upon ourselves and make a play. Really the only way we going to win this series is win it as a team. Me and Mike got to be the ones to drum that in these guys head and make them believe it.”

On difficulty sustaining spurts throughout the game: “I don’t know. I think when we really got back into the game we cut the lead to like four, I think we tend to relax and they went on another run. That’s just not something we can let happen in the series.”