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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS VS. BUCKS

May 19, 2019

Nick Nurse

Toronto, Ontario - Pregame 3, Canda

Q. Yesterday you talked about some potential lineup changes. Are you making any, and if so, what are they and why?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, I think there will be some lineup changes. That's for sure. I'm not going to share what those are at this moment. We're still trying to figure a few of them out, but definitely I think there are some other guys that emerged in the series. We're trying to figure out the best matchups here as we go. So you'll see some different lineups today.

Q. With what happened in Milwaukee, do you think the team is now focused, locked in and ready for the fight?
NICK NURSE: I think we've had I'd say probably four games in these playoffs now -- Game 1 against Orlando, obviously Game 2 in Milwaukee and then a couple in Philly -- where we just didn't fire on all cylinders very well. It seems to be a lot of things on those nights. All the other games, our intensity was good, our communication was good, our physicality was good and we're pretty hard to beat. We definitely need one of those tonight.

Q. I'm curious as to the thought process when it comes to a lineup change. You guys have played a certain way for months and then you see two games here.
NICK NURSE: Well, I think a little bit like with the Philly series, you'd certainly like to go out there and do what you've done. I think you do things a certain way for the regular season to kind of play a certain number of guys. You kind of have your rotations. And then you want to try to stick with that the best you can. But then when you find out that some of that isn't matching up very well with whoever they're starting, whoever they're bringing in early, et cetera -- again, go back to the Philly series. I went into that thing thinking [Marc[ Gasol and Serge [Ibaka] could kind of trade off on [Joel] Embiid. Well, we found out that that wasn't working very good after about Game 3.

We needed Serge to impact that series. We needed him on the floor. But it wasn't against Embiid.

So the same thing goes here. These guys start a super-big lineup. It's like 7-1, 6-11, 6-11, 6-8, and we're not that big. So do we go big to try to match them to where we can look them in the eyeballs a little bit? Or do we go fast and quick so we can maybe get around them a little bit? That's some of the decisions you think about.

Q. What are you hoping to get out of a lineup change?
NICK NURSE: I think a lot of it has to do with matchups. Can we get the right guys favorably defensively first of all is what you usually think about, and then maybe can we create some advantages offensively. Sometimes maybe you play small against a guy that wants to control the paint. Maybe you can get some drives or get them in transition if you're faster or smaller. Maybe you've got somebody on the perimeter that can make them pay for that.

I think there are a number of ways it could go. It could go really big for us, or it could go really small. So we'll see.

Q. You mentioned yesterday, you were talking about Brook Lopez's defense. You obviously saw him a lot when he was with the Nets. He's been kind of the anchor of what's a really good defense there. Before, he wasn't necessarily known as a defense guy. Beyond you saying he's stays in the paint a lot, what have you seen from him in the series that's made him so effective?
NICK NURSE: I think one of the things that he gets credit for, and he should, is that his teams that he plays on are great defensive rebounding teams. He's not grabbing 16 of them himself. But there's something that he does. He must be blocking out three guys at once or something like that. His teams automatically go from not very good to high level. I think this team was near the bottom last year, and now they're near the top.

I know they have a couple other additions as well. They've got some great size on the wing with [Ersan] Ilyasova, [Nikola] Mirotic. They've got some great physicality, even on their guys that aren't very big. So that's one thing, the defensive rebounding. They rarely give you many second opportunities, and that's huge in today's game.

And obviously he's a good rim protector. He'll block his share of shots. He'll change probably even more. Guys will turn the corner and see him there and stop going sometimes too or else kick out. So I think it's a threat of him just being there is what's caused a lot of people problems.

Q. Did you feel like from Game 1 to Game 2 you were able to be more successful moving Kawhi around the floor offensively?
NICK NURSE: We're doing the same that we do with a lot of good players. You try to put them in just about every scenario. You're going to have them handle. You're going to have them set. You're going to have them post. You're going to have them play pick-and-roll. You're going to have them come off pin-downs. You set some small-small screens. You set the big-small screens versus Lopez drops.

You end up using just about every combination you can. I think there are some scenarios, too, where you just try to clear a side of the floor or even the middle of the floor so they can't double-team as easy, and if they do, you've got to make them pay for that.

Yeah, it's a wide variety for guys like that.

Q. Giannis has been pretty good at defending you guys. Do you think we might see a situation where he might be grinding on the ball a little bit more?
NICK NURSE: Hopefully a little bit. I think, again, we've got to be more aggressive. I think we've limited our chances at him. Obviously, he's a great defender, shot blocker and he's long, but it's not like he's impossible to score on. Even with Lopez, we've got to take it in there with a little more physicality, courage -- did I say physicality yet? Some more physicality, put some bodies on those guys, try to take it through them and finish through the hits. We've got to play our style, aggressive.

Like Pascal [Siakam], he has made a couple nice moves where he's gone in at Lopez and stopped and hit him and scored -- and against Giannis as well. We just need him to do it more often. We need some of the other guys to do it as well.

Q. Has Norm Powell earned more of a shot?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, I think so. I think he's been very good. I think what we've seen would lead us to believe he's going to probably get more minutes tonight. He's just been good at both ends. I think it's just a type of game that it is and the type of player he is. He's fast, he's athletic, he's played aggressive. When the ball has swung around to him, he vaults up like he's going to make them. There's no hesitancy there, and he knocks them down. So yeah, I think you'll probably see a little bit more of him, and let's hope he can build on what he did in Game 2.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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