Atlanta Hawks: Season’s over

Boston–The Hawks’ streak of second-round playoff appearances ended at three. After a 40-26 regular season, the Hawks lost in six games to the Celtics in the first round. There will be time to dissect things later but, for now, here’s what the participants had to say. . . .

• Larry Drew on the season: “Given everything that we went through in the season with all the injuries and not having Al and so many guys missing games, I am very proud of our guys. We could have folded the tent. We responded very well, very professionally. Given 40 wins I’m very happy about that, given all we’ve been through. Tonight was disappointing [because] we didn’t advance. I thought we played a very gutsy series other than the one game. Overall I’m very proud of this bunch for what they accomplished.”
• Al Horford on if there are any ‘what-ifs’ for the season: “There is. I’m proud of the guys the way they reacted and came out every night and competed. That’s tough having so many injuries and different guys having to fill in. I feel like each guy has had their moment this year. I just kind of came in at the end trying to help us out. Unfortunately for us the run ended.”
• Josh Smith: “We overcame adversity throughout the season. Obviously it’s disappointing that we couldn’t do something special this season. The road was paved as good as it’s ever going to get for us but we didn’t take advantage of it. That’s the frustrating part. But we can’t hang our heads. We have to look at all the positives this team did this season. Losing Al pretty much the whole season and people counting us out, and for us to be able to do what we did, it’s something special. It’s not all negative. We have got to look at the positives and take this into the offseason and work more harder to be able to better ourselves as a unit.”
• Joe Johnson: “I thought we did what we could with what we had. It was tough. We are just now getting our full squad back together, what is it here, Game 4 of the playoffs? We still had a chance to win and advance. All we wanted to do was give ourselves a chance to win in Boston and we did that. Unfortunately, we came up short.”
• Doc Rivers: “You’ve got to give Atlanta a lot of credit. You really do. Especially tonight. I mean, Atlanta is criticized so much about who they are and all that stuff. And they had 10 times tonight where they could’ve went away and said, ‘You know what? We gave it great effort.’ And they just kept putting the pressure on us. And I though that was what this series was more about: I thought they kept putting the pressure on us and we had to answer. Game 2 still was the biggest game. Not having [Rajon] Rondo and winning that game was huge for us. And then down the stretch we won games with execution at times.”
• Drew on Atlanta’s penultimate possession that ended with Josh’s missed jumper: That wasn’t [the play]. We were in our wrong spots. We did not execute what we had drawn up in the huddle. We can’t have that type of mental breakdown at the end of a game. You just can’t have it. That play is not designed to be at the elbow shooting a jump shot. We did not execute it.”
• Josh on the fourth-quarter offense: “We were getting the shots we wanted. We got some looks. A couple of in-and-out. We tried to drive the paint and get to the free-throw line but we wasn’t getting the calls. If I had to do it all over again, I’d do the same thing in the fourth quarter. We was getting the shots. This team helps so much on the strong side, they kind of make you live with the weak-side perimeter jump shots. Especially when they know what satisfies them the most is it’s not the star players doing it.”
• Horford on the foul by Marquis Daniels as Atlanta was attempting to inbound the ball: “I know that I was trying to get through and he was grabbing me and I couldn’t really move. I don’t know if the ball was inbounded or not. I was just trying to cut through. Obviously the ref saw [the play] and didn’t call it.”
• Horford on not intentionally missing the second free-throw attempt down a point and no timeouts: “I didn’t really think about it. That’s something I probably should have given some thought. The first one felt good. I was surprised I missed it. Looking back I should have missed the second one, not realizing we didn’t have any timeouts. I did [realize it] before but there was a lot of stuff going on through the game.”
• Josh on what “one or two” things could have made a difference for the Hawks: “Maybe we could have shot a little bit more free throws. It was 24-10. We was being aggressive; we just wasn’t getting the calls. I don’t know what we had to do. We played our hearts out tonight. We fell short. A couple controversial calls. Things like that happen when you are on the road. You have to try your hardest to try not to make it a close game. When you play in an environment like the Garden in Boston, they have some of the best fans in the whole entire league. Like I said before, I was a little jealous because the fans here are so supportive of their team. You go out, look in the stands there is nothing but Celtics jerseys. I don’t see a trace of red in there. Understanding that the fans are that passionate, it adds an extra advantage for them. A bad shot can be as good a turnover when you are playing against a team like Boston, especially with the fanbase they have.”
• Drew on what went wrong when Hawks blew eight-point lead in second quarter: “Bad shots. We had some bad shots. We had some turnovers and those made it into transition baskets. I told the guys at halftime, looking back at how we defended their sets we did a good job but turned it over and took some bad shots. In this building a bad shot is just as good as a turnover and if you don’t have proper floor balance, they can run you right out the gym. That’s what led to that spurt. We didn’t get into our offense very crisp. They pressured us, they took us out of our sweet spots and it just kind of made it tough for us and we didn’t respond to that.”
• Joe: “We just got a little stagnant. We turned the ball over a few times, they scored. That’s not where we lost the game. In the fourth quarter, we had a three-point lead with a minute and something on the clock. That’s what hurts the most.”
• Drew on Kevin Garnett: “‘KG,’ he was an All-Star tonight. He made some big shots tonight. He put them into a great position early. He was really fighting for the low block. We were trying to disrupt his rhythm as much as we could. We tried to double team him at times we didn’t get down there fast enough. He made some big shots for them.”
• Josh on Garnett: “He asserted himself early in the game. We were supposed to trap him a little bit but the traps were a little passive, not aggressive. He took advantage of it. He got himself started early and made some shots down the stretch for them. He’s definitely their emotional leader. He still has a lot in the tank.”
• Garnett on Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr.’s comments: “First off, I want to say ‘Thank you’ to their owner for giving me some extra gas tonight. My only advice to him is next time he opens his mouth, actually know what he’s talking about, Xs and Os versus checkbooks and bottom lines. . . . We’re not dirty. We’re firm, we’re aggressive. We’re not dirty. You have to understand the word ‘dirty’ in this game is very defined. Going under guys, trying to hurt guys, ill intent–is not they way we play basketball. . . . We play with a lot of passion, play with force. It’s the playoffs but I’m not trying to hurt anybody, nor has my teammates. I just found that comment to be a little rude and a little out of hand and I wanted to address it. Just because you got a bunch of money don’t mean you can open your mouth.”
• Josh on feeling like the Hawks didn’t get to show what they could do with a full squad: “Al came back. I got injured in Game 2. I think that was a winnable game. Things happen, man. The margin there is so small in the playoffs. Anything can beat you at any given moment. We had opportunities where we could have won games and we couldn’t get it done. We can definitely learn from that basketball team in that other locker room. The way they play collectively on the defensive end together, they really make you think, really make you work for every point. I think we definitely can take their philosophies and apply it to this basketball team because we are long and athletic. Their philosophies can help us be one of the top defensive teams in the entire league next year.”
• Horford on returning for the playoffs: “I don’t regret any of that. I feel like I went out and played and gave everything I had.”
• Horford on playing 46 minutes: “I was dragging, to be honest, most of the game. Then in the fourth [quarter] I had to dig down deep and I was like, ‘Let’s make one more big run at this. Let’s try to win this game.’ That’s kind of what fueled me throughout that fourth quarter. I was fatigued but I knew my team needed me.”
• Joe on “what-ifs”: “Yeah, it hurts. The last three years we advanced and made it to the second round. After last year, we looked at if like we was ready to make that jump. Give them credit. They are a great veteran team that has been around the block, knows what it takes. They came into our house and stole one. That’s all they needed.”
• Drew on “what-ifs”: “Man, I’ve been saying that from Day One. If we would have had a full squad, if we would have had Zaza [Pachulia], all the games that Kirk [Hinrich] missed, all the games [Jason Collins] missed, the games Marvin [Williams] missed. I’m proud of these guys for responding the way they did given all the injuries. Everyone counted us out. The other day I saw when we lost Al, they projected us to win 25 games. I think that says a lot about [the players] and about my coaching staff with all the adversity we faced this season and yet we were able to overcome.”
• Josh on moving forward: “Go into the offseason and try to get better every season. Working out, keep having the same work ethic I’ve been having my whole career. Use this as fuel. That’s a great basketball team over there. They’ve done some special things. When they acquired the Big Three, since then they’ve been doing some special things in the postseason. We can definitely learn a lot from that ballclub. It definitely hurts not being able to get out of the first round. . . . I felt like we had the best opportunity to be able make it to the Eastern Conference final, this year more so than other years. That’s always disappointing but we’ve got to take this into the offseason, be able to work hard and try to get better next season.”

Michael Cunningham, Hawks beat