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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS VS. BUCKS

May 17, 2019

Nick Nurse

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Pregame 2

Q. When you went to Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol in the Philadelphia series, it was to match what they were doing. If you do it tonight, is it to get an advantage over what the Bucks present?
NICK NURSE: I think that in the Philadelphia series, the rebounding was becoming such an issue. I even said this last time, just aesthetically it looked bad at times. They just looked so much bigger than what we were putting on the floor. I just wanted to get him out there. I really needed him to impact the series, and it didn't seem like he was going to impact it against [Joel] Embiid. And he ended up impacting the series greatly.

The other thing is that at this time of year you've got to find a place for your best players. You need to play your top players. Sometimes that means playing them a little bit out of position or playing a couple guys out of position, so your best guys can be on the floor.

Q. Your half-court defense by the numbers was very, very good in Game 1. What can you do to be in your half-court defense more? In other words, what can you do to kind of stymie them in transition or limit them in transition?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, a couple things. I think the transition defense starts with your offense. It starts with taking care of the ball. So we've got to cut back our turnovers a little bit. And then we did make a few mistakes in transition when we were back. We were back, and we didn't get the walls built properly or in the right direction or whatever. There were about four or five of those. Those are ones when you are back and you've got your bodies back there, and you've got to then do exactly what you need to do to get them slowed down. So that's a couple things.

Then the last one is you've got to make more shots and make them take it out of bounds.

Anytime it comes off the rim, they're at a huge advantage because they're playing downhill on you.

Q. As a coach, is it easier or more difficult to prepare for a playoff game coming off a loss and why?
NICK NURSE: They're all difficult. They each present their problems. I think the wins present losing maybe a little bit of an edge or thinking everything is going to go as smoothly as it did in the last game. The losses should give you an edge and it should give you a determination thing, too. But in the playoffs, it doesn't bode very well if you lose two in a row. So it puts a little bit more heat on you to get the win done on the second game.

Q. When Giannis is coming down in transition downhill or when anybody is coming at you guys downhill, is Eric Bledsoe kind of the guy that you have leaned on to say, all right, let's get help side from there, let's free him up? Or is that just a natural progression we saw last game, not necessarily a strategy?
NICK NURSE: First of all, I lost every game I ever played in Green Bay. I just wanted you to know that [laughter]. Northern Iowa and Wisconsin-Green Bay were in the same conference back when I played. Dick Bennett was the coach and Tony Bennett was a player. 0-fer in Green Bay. Very nice place, though. Brown County Arena.

Q. They just tore it down.
NICK NURSE: Well, there weren't very many good memories for me. But anyway, you always take the approach a little bit of how much help you can provide based on a guy's percentage that he shoots from three, or it kind of fluctuates as the game is going. Sometimes you go into a game or you look at a season or you look at the way they're shooting in the playoffs and you think, OK, maybe you're providing a little help off certain guys and you're a little closer on certain guys. Like in the last series, [JJ] Redick is the guy that you probably don't help off of too much.

But these guys are all capable. There are so many of them in the mid-30s-and-up range [in three-point field goal percentage] that it's more that we're all in kind of standard help positions. The key is that you've got to do both. Our help has got to be great, and then when it fires out to your man, you've got to go. I think our level of shot-contesting is another real key in this thing. The 40 threes are going up tonight, and just that little eight inches or 12 or two feet closer you can get and jump a little higher and contest it a little harder makes a difference.

Q. I know it's a much different situation and obviously a much different opponent, but is there any sense of comfort knowing this group has already faced being down 0-1 once and handled it?
NICK NURSE: No, it's not very comforting [laughter]. But again, I think the main thing with our group is -- I think last game was a really good indicator. We had the highest of highs we were coming off of, and we got down to business as soon as that ball went up. I thought we played with effort. We played a pretty good game. There are tons of things to clean up, but it was dead even with two [minutes] to go. I think we were all wondering how we were going to come out after that game [Game 7 against Philadelphia].

Conversely, when we've kind of got punched in the gut a little bit, we've pulled up our shorts and got right back into the fight. I think we've handled things pretty evenly all season and all playoffs.

Let's see if we can bounce back with a great effort tonight. It's really all I'm concerned about: Are we going to bring an effort that we deserve to win and put ourselves in position to win? And then it's up to a lot of other things out there.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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