Hawks-Magic postgame quotes

“Al is trying to lead our defensive group. We have a long way to go but Al is setting the tone with his activity and his effort defensively to lead us in a better direction. We have a long way to go but hopefully tonight was a small step in that direction.”

- Budehnolzer on Al Horford

“It’s a little bit of everything. You have to give the other team credit often. In our league there are a lot of great players. Sometimes they are making plays. But when we look at ourselves, and we focus on ourselves, sometimes we are doing it to ourselves as far as making mistakes and creating those opportunities. Sometimes it’s poor offense putting us in a difficult position on defense. When you go back and look at the films, when we lost leads it’s a little bit of everything. What we need to focus on is what we are doing to ourselves, those mistakes we’re making. Tonight, we did unto ourselves in the second half when we got up big.”

- Budenholzer on Hawks’ difficulty holding leads

“It’s difficult to juggle that because obviously Paul is off to a great start this year. Paul has been really playing well. He is someone we look to defensively, offensively and especially late in games in fourth quarters. But Mike was excellent in each of his stints and gave us those bursts and gave us important buckets. It wasn’t easy. Mike was great and Paul is Paul. We tried to squeeze in a few extra minutes for Mike but it’s hard when you have Paul Millsap on your bench.”

- Budenholzer on juggling power forward spot with Paul Millsap and Mike Scott

“Al was making his catches difficult. We want to make them work early on the post before they get it in to the post. Al is a smart defender. He used his length at time, blocked a shot one time. The thing we are emphasizing is making them work early and doing it before they catch it a little farther off the post. The team defense around the post. We wanted guys to show a crowd and make it difficult for all their post-up players. They like to post up a lot.”

- Budenholzer on Horford’s defensive effort on Nikola Vucevic

“We got some defensive stops and made shots. Al made some big shots tonight, everyone, and we got some big stops.”

- Jeff Teague on Hawks’ late run

“I’m not going to win that battle picking-and-rolling, dumping down to the post, trying to play one-on-one against him. He’s much stronger. It was just using my jump-shot ability, my quickness, to try to score on him and defend him defensively.”

- Mike Scott on matching up with Jason Maxiell

“I made up my mind at halftime that they are not going to get another offensive rebound. My being the 3 man, it’s big for me to go in there and get rebounds because Al and Paul had those to big jokers so I had to go down there and help.”

- DeMarre Carroll on second-half rebounding

“I don’t think it’s mental. We are making a lot of careless mistakes. We can’t be comfortable out there. This is only our sixth game of the year. We have to go back and look at film and find ways when we are in that position we can bring it to another level and be better. It’s a part of learning.”

- Horford on Hawks’ inability to hold leads

“We were able to get a few stops, a few steals, and get out and run. I remember a deflection, Al getting it, kicking it up to Kyle for a 3-point shot. Things like that. Energy plays to get us going.”

- Paul Millsap on Hawks’ late run

“The games are just a little bit more physical with them. I’m not sure of the history, but we’ll be looking forward to trying and compete and play better against them next game.”

- Arron Afflalo about the Hawks’ winning streak over the Magic

“We fought our way back into the game. That unit that was on the floor gave us a lot of energy on the second night of a back-to-back.”

Magic coach Jacque Vaughn on the third-quarter comeback