MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES POSTGAME QUOTES

Head Coach Randy Wittman: “I thought we came out real sluggish. In the first half, we kind of played it like it was an exhibition game, I thought. At halftime, I got after them pretty good. I challenged them, and the group did respond in the third quarter. We actually played alright, we played together. You have to play the game with emotion. That was our first back-to-back in preseason. We came out in the second half and played the way we have to play. So hopefully that’s a lesson for our guys.”

(On Al Jefferson): “He was one of the guys I challenged. I thought Pachulia was just doing whatever he wanted to do. Pachulia had 16 at half, and they were up by 16. He did come back out and played aggressive. He finished with 20 and 15 in 33 minutes.”

(On Marko Jaric): “Marko has to get the ball out of his hands, especially when he’s playing against smaller points that pick him up 94 feet. He makes the game too hard for himself. I thought Buck and Ricky did a great job of just advancing the ball up with the pass. I can’t seem to get Marko to do that right now. It’s just going to make the game easier for him.”

ATLANTA HAWKS POSTGAME QUOTES

Head coach Mike Woodson: “I’m a defensive coach, and yes, I like to score. I want to see guys have fun scoring the basketball. But you have to do the dirty work before you get to the offensive end. I thought tonight we did that.”

“Our bigs were huge tonight, something that they weren’t in the Portland game. Zaza (Pachulia) was as good as he’s been all camp. Al (Horford), Shelden (Williams), Solomon Jones stepped in. All our bigs were solid tonight, and we need them to play that way for us to play at a high level.”

Forward Al Horford: “I thought we played well defensively. We let them get back in it a little bit there in the third quarter, but we locked up in the fourth. We were shorthanded tonight with a few guys out, but we played good team defense and things worked out well.”

“Offensively we had good balance, we just kept feeding whoever was hot at the time. AJ (Anthony Johnson) and Joe (Johnson) did a great job of getting guys the ball in good spots to score, and Zaza was huge, knocking down shots and getting to the line.”

Forward Marvin Williams: “A good team effort all the way around tonight. We had a few guys out and everyone stepped up. Al (Horford), Shelden (Williams), Mario (West) and Solo (Solomon Jones), were unbelievable off the bench. Not only on the offensive end but defensively those guys played tough as well.”

“The offense flowed really well in the first half and we turned it up a notch defensively in the fourth quarter and were able to pull away. Hopefully we can go into Charlotte on Thursday with a lot of momentum.”