NEW ORLEANS PELICANS Vs. ATLANTA HAWKS Sunday, October 13, 2013 – Mississippi Coast Convention Center, Biloxi, MS

NEW ORLEANS PELICANS vs. ATLANTA HAWKS Sunday, October 13, 2013 – Mississippi Coast Convention Center, Biloxi, MS

On today’s win: “I told the guys that this is all white noise. We have got to get better. We turned the ball over twenty-two times, had a number of defensive lapses, we have a lot to work on. I just told our guys don’t listen to the white noise. We have a lot to work on. We have a new squad, and we still have guys trying to figure things out…Yes, we’re happy about the win, but we have a lot to work on.

On New Orleans’ shooting: “I don’t take that for granted. We have guys that can shoot the ball. But we don’t want to get into this mode where we’re playing offense for offense. We want to shoot the ball on stops. We did that in the second half. They only scored twenty-eight points, but we turned the ball over twenty-two times. We like the win and we want to pile them up as much as we can, create that mind-set. But we have a lot to work on.”

Power Forward Anthony Davis

On what to take away from today’s game: “We’re trying to get better. It’s good that we won, but we’re trying to get better. We want to get better as a team, as a unit, and figure out the things that we need to work on to become an even better team.

On the team moving forward into the regular season: “Our effort was there, we played great defensively and made shots. But we can’t let this game be our high. We can’t get too high off of this win. We still have to get better as a team. We haven’t done anything as a team yet. We have to keep that in mind.”

ATLANTA HAWKS

Head Coach Mike Budenholzer

On the outcome of today’s contest: “Obviously a tough game today. In this league if you’re not ready to meet the challenge, if you’re not ready to play, it can be a struggle. So hopefully we learn from that individually and as a group. I give a lot of credit to New Orleans. They played really well offensively and defensively. They shot the ball well, executed well, so we can learn from them.”

On what the Hawks did well: “For a lot of the first half we attacked the basket well, but particularly when we cut the lead to 10 we were attacking and getting to the rim. We even talked at halftime about how many layups we missed. At halftime it was a 12-point lead by New Orleans. If we had just made a couple more of those layups, it would’ve been even closer. So I think if we can take that away, if we can continue to attack and get to the paint, we’ll be better.”

Forward Al Horford

On slow start in tonight’s game: “I think we missed some easy and open shots early. I think we got a little discouraged by that, and I think they came out on fire. They couldn’t miss early on. The gap at the beginning was too much to make up.”

On failing to capitalize on potential runs that could have closed the gap: “I thought we were moving the ball well and attacking the basket. I think early in the third quarter we had a chance to get back in the game, but we turned the ball over on the break a couple times. Those were momentum changers. They came down to the other end and made some shots (following the turnovers) and it took the air of us a little”

On what they had problems with defensively: “They did a lot of isolation, and we have to be better on the ball and with help side defense. I take some blame on that. It’s up to us to go back and look at the film and get better in practice.”