Hawks 130, Wizards 121
Q. How did you feel out there in terms of your rhythm and in terms of your familiarity with the guys?
LANDRY SHAMET: I mean, obviously last time I've played it was the Playoffs in May, so missing out on camp sucks, but it is what it is.
I think rhythm-wise, I'm more concerned on the defensive end. Just the little things, picking up on new concepts. I've had a different terminology for the last three years, and then here it was just different nuances and stuff. Getting used to them, doing it in the flow of real 5-on-5 action, and that's more what I'm concerned about, that and just my legs, conditioning. That comes with time.
Overall, I feel fine. I'd feel better if we had gotten a win. But we're building, getting there.
Q. Wes praised a lot of your movement on offense and what he saw tonight, but what do you feel like you can bring most to this group that is still kind of growing and still coming together once you are in a rhythm?
LANDRY SHAMET: I don't know, more of an intangible thing. I know what I'm capable of offensively, defensively. I don't really want to dive into all that. But just I want to grasp a leadership role here, and I feel like I've already started to have a lot of good conversations with the guys. I've been on a lot of winning teams, been around a lot of winning basketball, and I want to try to implement things here and help our young guys grow as much as we can.
I'm just looking forward to getting on the court and being able to be a contributing factor to us growing through this thing and getting better.
Q. What do you think the team needs to do to avoid some of these large runs --
LANDRY SHAMET: Well, you said it, it's just the larger runs and the swings, it's more of an influx, up and down, bigger up and downs. The better teams, typically those up and downs are few and further between, less violent.
We're figuring out ways where we can, okay, they went on an 8-0 run, settle back in real quick, we know what we're doing, communication goes up, we fix the little things we can control, and you weather the run. Just finding ways to do that a little bit better. I think that's a big piece, and I think that's how a lot of good teams win basketball games. I think if we can find ways to do that, we'll be in a better spot.
Q. Your conditioning looked pretty good given the amount of time you missed. When were you able to get back to doing things on your feet?
LANDRY SHAMET: Doing things on my feet, it was pretty quick after, honestly. It was weird. Recovery from this injury was very strange. I mean, I was like not able to walk all the way normal, but I was doing stuff on the court, so that seems kind of backwards. But our training staff did a great job, and I trust them. So I was able to do stuff kind of on the court, explore a little bit, but not really basketball. I wasn't able to play basketball.
Really in the last week was when I was able to get into some actual basketball stuff. I'm still -- I haven't had a training camp. This was my first time playing since like pickup this summer, and I'm getting there.
Q. What did you see from that group that closed the game, trimming down the Atlanta lead?
LANDRY SHAMET: I mean, they played the right way, played with energy. They were connected, junked up the game. You throw a full-court press, a weird zone trapping press at NBA teams, you don't see that a lot. Kind of disorganized them and spread them out, and our guys played the right way, finished out the right way, competed defensively, and just played hard and played physical, and that's what you want to see.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports