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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS VS. BUCKS

May 20, 2019

Pascal Siakam

Toronto, Ontario - Practice Day, Canada

Q. How did you feel rolling out of bed today?
PASCAL SIAKAM: Yeah, tired. I've played a lot of minutes before, but I just think it's a different intensity. But, yeah, tired.

Q. Do you kind of trick yourself into thinking you're going to be good to go in Game 4?
PASCAL SIAKAM: No, I'm going to be good to go in Game 4.

Q. Yeah?
PASCAL SIAKAM: Yeah, I'm going to be good to go.

Q. How are you going to do it?
PASCAL SIAKAM: Just got to rest. I think it's just staying hydrated, resting, staying off my feet as much as I can. The body does its work. We're athletes. We prepare ourselves to sometimes be in these type of conditions and to be tired. I know it's different, but there's not really much you can do to prepare yourself for that type of intensity. We'll be ready. I'm ready. My body needs a little time to recover, but when it's game time, I'm sure I'm going to be 100 percent.

Q. How's your calf and your hamstring?
PASCAL SIAKAM: I don't pay attention to it. It's good. I'm good. Every time I'm out there on the floor, I'm 100 percent ready to go. That's my mindset. I'm not thinking about anything. Obviously, if I wasn't able to play, I wouldn't be out there.

Q. The way you turned the page on the missed free throws last night and still impact the game, how is it different than you might have ended that a couple years ago in that situation?
PASCAL SIAKAM: I don't know. I don't know if I've been in that situation before. I couldn't tell you how I would have handled it before or now. But I think just at that moment, just being there, it hurts. It's tough, but you've got to try to make yourself understand that it's okay and that there's still a game to play and you've got to continue to play. I think that's what I tried to do with the help of my teammates too.

Q. How important do you think some of the experiences you're going through in this run are going to be good for your growth?
PASCAL SIAKAM: I think it's good. Last year, I played some significant minutes. And now this year, it's a whole different level being a part of the main guys. All the minutes that I played all year and the experience, I think it's only going to help me and get me better. That's what basketball is about. I know people always say that, but that's how the game goes. You miss some free throws, but then you have an opportunity to redeem yourself. If you spend the whole time crying about that, you don't have the energy to do what you did after.

Obviously, if I could have saved Kawhi from playing an hour of basketball, I would have. At least I tried, but it happened. You've got to move on from that.

Q. Through the regular season, Kawhi was a pretty reserved, quiet guy. He didn't show a lot of emotion. But I think as these playoffs are rolling on, he's showing a lot more of that emotion.
PASCAL SIAKAM: Really? (Laughter.)

Q. Talk about what it's been like on the bench.
PASCAL SIAKAM: I think he's been the same. That's something with Kawhi: He's always been the same. He's consistently the same person.

Q. I thought after hitting the shot yesterday, he kind of looked at the bench and screamed at the bench.
PASCAL SIAKAM: He did?

Q. I think Fred was saying yesterday that he's been more chatty on the bench. Have you not noticed that?
PASCAL SIAKAM: I don't know. For me, it's the same old Kawhi, man. He always does what he does. Maybe I'm kind of used to him just being him. I don't know. I didn't see that. Sorry.

Q. I know you still got switched on Giannis quite a few times last night, but not being his primary defender, what was the impact on you?
PASCAL SIAKAM: I don't know.

Q. Was there more energy offensively?
PASCAL SIAKAM: No, I don't think that affected anything, to be honest. I just felt like, as a team, we had more energy. I think Game 2 we didn't have quite as much. I don't think it was because I was guarding Giannis. It's hard to guard him, but it's not like he has the ball the whole game. I get to play off of him and be in the gap and help. So it's not like I'm picking him up full court or anything like that, where I'm using all my energy. I just feel like as a team collectively we had more energy in this game. That's how we want to play. That's who we are as a team.

But I think it's good that we give him different looks. At the end of the day, you're going to end up guarding him anyway because we're switching a lot. So it doesn't really matter. I think just to start, giving him different looks, when a guy plays like that, you've got to try whatever you can.

Q. Despite the win last night for you guys, do you think the Bucks have seen the best from the Raptors yet? Have you shown them your best punch?
PASCAL SIAKAM: I don't think so. I don't think we've played our best basketball. I think we've played with better energy, with better focus. Every time they threw a punch at us, we kind of responded better for a longer period of time. But I just don't think we played our best. It's part of playing basketball. We've got to find that and continue to grow, continue to learn every single day and go out there and bring the energy.

Every time we bring the energy and the focus -- I think we can make shots or miss shots, but when we bring that focus and intensity, we definitely are tough to beat.

Q. When you miss two free throws like that, do you think about why you missed them as far as mechanics?
PASCAL SIAKAM: You keep talking about the free throws?

Q. I'm curious. You made two at the end, right? So did you do anything different, or is it just the same thing, just put it all behind you?
PASCAL SIAKAM: It just went in, and the other ones didn't. I don't know what to tell you. (Laughter.)

Q. No, I was just curious, if you try to break it down in your head what went wrong on that?
PASCAL SIAKAM: No. I shot it like I wanted to shoot it. I thought they went in, both of them. They didn't. I mean, I don't know what to tell you. I can't tell you I was out there thinking, Oh, I'm going to do this different. I shoot it all the time. It happened to not go in, and the next two times it went in.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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