Quin Snyder opened his postgame remarks with a clear reflection on the emotional weight of Atlanta’s elimination, saying, “Yeah, you obviously hate to lose anything and to lose it the way we did.” He added, “Disappointed on a lot of levels, but that’s a big source of disappointment right now, I think, for our entire group.”
Snyder also pointed to the home atmosphere after the Hawks’ 140-89 loss to the New York Knicks, stating, “particularly given the enthusiasm and the support that we’ve had from the people in this building.” He acknowledged the opponent’s performance directly, saying, “Give credit to the Knicks. That’s obvious.”
The Atlanta coach emphasized how quickly the game shifted, noting, “We had life and energy at the beginning of the game and then some things happened on the court that turned the game very quickly.” He also added, “Their physicality, they made it hard for us and we obviously didn’t respond in a way that generated the results that we wanted.”
At halftime, with Atlanta trailing by 47 points, Snyder described his message to the team: “The challenge at that point is just to continue to compete and to stay together, to stay connected.” He said, “I thought our guys continued to compete in spite of that score or how we played.”
Addressing Dyson Daniels’ ejection, Snyder said, “I couldn’t see the details of the situation… I know Dyson’s a competitor,” while adding, “his getting ejected impacts things, but there were a lot of other things going on in the game.”
Reflecting on the season, Snyder stated, “It may sound trite, but you do find out more about yourself when things are really hard, and tonight was really hard.” He also said, “We have a group of men in there that are quality people and that compete.”
On the sudden end of the season, Snyder admitted, “It’s not something that I’m going to do right here tonight. It’s going to have to soak in.” He continued, “Everybody’s going to do that individually and then at some point we’ll have an opportunity where that becomes something you do collectively.”
Looking ahead, Snyder balanced disappointment with perspective, saying, “Sometimes the most difficult things to handle in life are the things that you can use to drive you.” He added, “We’re not running from what happened. Tremendous disappointment, but I also want our group to remember what also happened.”
He concluded by pointing to execution issues and New York’s physical edge: “You have to execute, and we weren’t able to do that,” while reiterating, “Their physicality was significant.”
