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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS VS. BUCKS

May 18, 2019

Nick Nurse

Toronto, Ontario - Practice Day, Canada

Q. As the game went on, can you see a balance between when Kawhi is kind of more naturally trusting the pass as he maybe was early in the game, and at what point in the game maybe that starts to fray a little bit for you guys and what maybe the effects of that are?
NICK NURSE: No, not really. I think Kawhi made the right play most of the night. I think he took some opportunities when he was in the one-on-one situations and got by people or came off a good screen and was open and took the shot. I thought he kind of drew some help when it was there and kicked it out at the right time. I just think he was making the right plays.

Q. Norman Powell, the speed that he gives you guys off the bench in a series like this against Milwaukee, how valuable can that be for you guys moving forward?
NICK NURSE: I thought Norm had a good game. His athleticism was noticeable. There are times out there when they have a lot of athletes out there, and it's nice to be able to match the speed. I thought defensively he was good and just playing hard. He was into people and up guarding and blocking people out with some physicality -- some of the things that we also need. So he should play a big role here going forward.

Q. Did you guys wind up in the mid-range maybe even a little more than you would have liked because of the way they were flying at you and forcing you to put the ball on the floor?
NICK NURSE: There's probably a few more mid-rangers than normal. I think Kawhi, you just take his out of the equation. So we shoot 16 non-paint twos; they shot 12. I think the bigger thing is you've got to be careful of some of the longer paint shots. In the shot spectrum, those don't go under non-paint twos; they go under paint twos. But you don't want those to be a high volume, either. I think we did just a few where it looked like a pretty decent shot, but they still got the big long guys coming at you and challenging, and it turns into a floater from 14 feet. That may be what's available, too, but I think on a lot of those there is somebody open to kick it out to and to probe a little longer.

Q. Is that defense, the way it's built, kind of to make you make that extra pass, because they load so much to the ball and just find the gaps between all those big bodies?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, they're loading a lot, and [Brook] Lopez never leaves the lane. I think I counted 15 illegal defenses on the film. Your big has to be able to make them pay from the perimeter. You need a spacing big that can hit or gets in the next action because [Lopez] is in the paint and you get a screen or a DHO [dribble hand-off] where it clears the room coming off that screen if you get it set because he is back too.

Q. Do you need to maybe look at flip-flopping Marc and Serge given Marc is struggling?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, I think there could be more than one lineup change coming at us. I don't think it's --

Q. You got a little small with Norm in the third quarter, right?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, I think your question here is this: Are you going to kind of dance with the one you brung to the ball? And it's not easy. You think certain series aren't for certain guys, et cetera, et cetera. But I also think that we've had bad biorhythms a couple times, maybe three or four times in the playoffs, and then the next game our biorhythms were back intact. I kind of trust these guys, who they are, and I believe in them and know they're better than they played last night and have shown that on bounce-back situations usually.

Q. If you were to put Serge back in, he was not only willing to take those shots but able to take a high-volume shot against that defense.
NICK NURSE: Yeah, as I've already said, I think both of our centers are going to have opportunities. If it's rhythm, if it's maybe not super quick in the shot clock -- I mean, you want to probe around a little bit, but I think those guys are going to have opportunities. We've never not wanted those guys to shoot all year. I think that's the game. The game is if you draw help and they're using a center to protect the rim, your bigs have to be able to make them pay for that or get you into a next action.

Q. You sort of joked about the biorhythms. Are you serious about that? What are you meaning by that?
NICK NURSE: I think we've had some outstanding performances in these playoffs, with effort and defense and connection and communication and stuff. And then we've had some nights where we've fallen well short of our capabilities, just in a lot of areas. Like last night, I could have probably summed up the postgame press conference by saying we were outworked, outhustled and outplayed. That's three outs; end of inning. We were out-physicaled, outhustled and outplayed, and we know we can play better than that.

We've just done that a few times -- Game 1 Orlando, Game 3 Philly. I don't really like to think about them, but I know they're there. I know we also have snapped out of it and have played really well in almost all the other games.

Q. When you look at the percentages of teams down 0-2 in a series like this, I think it's 94 percent of the time the team up 2-0 wins. How do you find the solace in that?
NICK NURSE: That can't be right. (Laughter) That can't be right. Check the figures -- no, I don't know. How do I find the solace? I find the solace when OKC got beat by 34 and 24 and went down 2-0 and then won four straight against a great, great, great, great San Antonio team. I don't know. I don't really give a crap about that. I just want our team to come play their ass off tomorrow night and get one game and it changes the series.

Q. What do you see in the bounce-back games that you've had? What do you see first that lets you know that --
NICK NURSE: Physicality, defense and great communication. Our coverages get executed. There's just no slippage. We're just on point. We're into bodies. We're moving our feet. It's a great team defense. That's what I see.

Q. One thing Danny Green was talking about yesterday and Marc a little bit, they are touching the ball less as the playoffs have gone on just because of the way Kawhi and Pascal have picked up and those are the guys that are catching the ball in the frontcourt less. You said last year and this year your identity is to guard and trust the pass. Are you seeing as much ball movement as you would like, whether it's going good or not, and how much relationship does that have to how you guys are playing?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, again, I'll have to check the actual numbers. I think sometimes it probably feels there are a couple sticky possessions, and then you go back and you look and you say, Oh, jeez, we had 320 passes that night anyway. I think the big thing is a hit the paint and spray game against this team. It is maybe hit the paint, spray, hit the paint, spray. You can't kind of get bored with it. You've got to keep doing it and relocating and re-spacing and all that stuff. There are a lot of really, really, really, really good possessions that end up in a wide, wide open shot. We've got to keep generating those.

Q. Sort of building on what you're talking about, is there a difference between just ball movement and number of passes, and like just flow, just find of flow within the offense? Is there anything tangible you're looking for?
NICK NURSE: I think there is some fluff sometimes to those passing numbers. There are some teams that will come down and run flip, flip, flip out top and that counts as three passes. But we don't really do that stuff much anymore. I think our pass numbers are pretty legit. I think we did a pretty good job of kicking it out. Not good enough; it needs to be more. It just needs to be better, I guess. We have some passes that are there, probably some extra passes that need to be made, a little bit more on target, a little bit more zip. I think that affects your shooting percentages, too, where guys are catching them in their shooting pocket or not or how much it's getting there in a hurry so that the contest is less.

Yeah, I'm looking for a little bit more passing, but I'm looking for a little bit more on target and a little bit more speed and a little bit more shot-ready stuff.

Q. Has Giannis presented challenges that you weren't expecting heading into this series?
NICK NURSE: I don't think so. He's pretty much doing what he does. He comes down the middle of the floor and gets on the runway and goes flying in there and puts his shoulder down.

Q. Is it a different kind of physicality that the guys hadn't seen perhaps in the last two rounds?
NICK NURSE: No, I don't think so. I mean, he's a little unique in the size, strength and speed that he's coming in there with. Again, we knew that. We talked about that right after the Philly series that this was a different style we were going to be seeing. It's somewhat like playing LeBron where he's just coming downhill on you and can you stand in there, are you big enough to take it or are your help guys getting there to close those gaps down. We just weren't good enough last night.

In Game 1, we had him pretty well under control, I think, until he started parading to the free throw line in the fourth quarter. We were better in our help. We were better in our pickup points. We were better in taking away his first initial move. We've got to be better, man. We've got to be more physical, we've got to hustle more and we've got to work harder.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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