Hawks, Celtics players sound off on rematch
• Josh Smith: “It might be a little rivalry now. They know they can’t take us lightly. They play their hardest when they step out on the court with us. And we do the same. It’s like a respect level but also competitive nature that we’re going to win this game and they feel the same way.”
• Zaza Pachulia: “We feel like it’s a game we should win because we’re playing at home in front of our crowd. I know it’s easy to say we owe them and all that to get everybody pumped up. The bottom line is this game should be special, but in a good way.”
• Marvin Williams: “It might be impossible not to get too hyped up for this game. We played them as well as we ever played them in Boston earlier this year. Now we come back here. They’re playing well and we’re playing well at home. Something’s got to give.”
• Mike Woodson: “After the first couple of games I truly believe we were somewhat scared. A lot of guys that had never been in the playoffs were feeling the heat a little bit. Mike [Bibby] tried to take some of the heat off with the quotes he made in that series early trying to switch the heat onto himself because he had been in playoff situations.”
• Mike Bibby: “Everybody thought we were going to get walked over. But we had a chance to shock everybody. We never really played well in Boston but we played great here. Knowing that everybody was against us and to play like we did was satisfying. But we wanted to win. We have to take that next step.”
• Rajon Rondo: “They are a tough team. They just beat Cleveland at home so they’re pretty confident right now. They’re waiting on us. It’s a tough game. We have to try to go in there and focus and try to get a win in Atlanta. We didn’t do it at all last year instead of in the regular-season. But I’m sure this will be a playoff type of game, very physical. Probably go to the wire.”
• Ray Allen: “Atlanta is ready and waiting and they’ve been promoting this for a while. The building is going to be a playoff atmosphere so we need to go down there with a different mind set.”
• Paul Pierce: “This is going to be a whole different ball club that we saw last year during the regular season. It’s going to be more like the team we saw in the playoffs. We have to come with our A game or we won’t be walking out of there with a win. The way they’re playing at home, they’re playing at a high level.”
• Leon Powe: “I think it’s the crowd. I think they all feed off the crowd. When they got their crowd going, waving towels and doing all kinds of crazy stuff, and they start hitting all kinds of shots, even with our hands up, contested, I think it has a lot to do with the crowd.”
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