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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS VS. BUCKS

May 21, 2019

Nick Nurse

Toronto, Ontario - Pregame 4

Q. Yesterday you said Kawhi was rested and a little bit sore. Is there any update on his health? How do you think he'll adapt to playing 52 minutes and coming back and playing 44 hours later?
NICK NURSE: We're going to have to see, I think. I saw him pretty early yesterday, and he was pretty, I think, positive. He was still tired from the night before. But he said it's a long way to game time, and I got some rest, and I'll be ready to go. So looks good so far. We'll see. I listened to some of the stuff he said, too, and he's like, It's the playoffs, man. Everybody is a little sore. Nobody is 100 percent. Everybody is getting banged around a bit. This is part of the deal if you want to advance in the playoffs.

Q. You switched Kawhi's minutes from resting at the start of the second and fourth to the end of the first and third, it seemed like. Is that just the matchup with Antetokounmpo or something else?
NICK NURSE: It was just a little different. We wanted to give ourselves a little bit different rotation to start the second and the fourth. That was primarily it. It didn't work out very good the other night. We're trying to not make the stretches quite as long. I think I mentioned before the game we're trying to shoot for 10 minutes as a long stretch. I don't know what it turned into the other night. Ten straight there in overtime and probably 22 straight, something like that. It's a little over 10, but that was difficult circumstances.

Q. With how dangerous they are and have been in transition, do you tweak your offensive rebounding approach or rules if you have them at all?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, I think so. I think way back at the beginning of this series, I said that our offense was probably the key to our defense. Taking care of the ball, getting a rhythm, shot selection. And then our decision on who went [to the offensive boards] and how many went and all those things. I think we're kind of tweaking that each and every game as we see opportunities to go.

We still want to go. We think we have some guys that can offensive rebound -- Serge, Pascal, Kawhi especially. And we're big. We think we've got some chances to go. But it's got to be a quick decision. If you think you've got a legitimate shot at it, go for it. If you don't, you've got to start making an assertive move to get back.

Again, you know why. There isn't a whole lot of dividend. If you go in there and you don't get one, you're paying the price on either end. If you go chase one and don't get it and they get a transition three on you, you're going to have to get two more offensive rebounds to make up for that. So the payoff on it is really all you're thinking about. Is it paying off to go or not?

Q. It's not a one-man job on Kawhi for Giannis. But what do you like about Kawhi as that first defender for Giannis?
NICK NURSE: I think what Kawhi brings, regardless of who he is matched up on, is great size. He's got great strength. He's got a really good instinct to play defense as well, so he's showing you a lot by just presenting himself in front of you. He's got good feet. I don't want to say this fourth; it probably should be first. But he wants to stop you, and that goes a long way. Those are four pretty good things.

Q. You had opportunities in the fourth in overtime the other night to go to the two bigs together, which you did in the fourth quarter of a couple of your close games in the previous series. Is there a reason that decision comes out?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, I think so. You always go into the game with some idea of things you're going to work or things you're going to try that you're going to evaluate quickly.

I guess my only answer for that is I just wasn't feeling that as a good lineup at the particular time. I felt like the rest of it was pretty good.

I think we were getting really good play out of Norman. Pascal was playing great. Marc was playing great. Freddy, even though he didn't shoot it great, played great. He got put in a situation where he had to lead his team for 16 straight minutes as the point guard. I thought he got us into execution stuff really well, and he defended really well. I guess I just wasn't feeling the big lineup.

I thought we were going to have to get to it in the overtime because we had at least two more guys on five fouls. I was ready to go with it again. That's just to try to get your best players on the floor. But I just think that Fred, Norm, Pascal, Marc and Kawhi were impacting the game so great that you just weren't going to take those guys out.

Q. You called a play late in that game for Danny after I think he missed eight previous shots. Obviously, you do that because you think he'll get the next one, but is there any part of it, obviously, to reinforce to him that you don't want him to get caught up in his slump? Would that be for the secondary reason that you still want to call plays for a guy to give him some confidence?
NICK NURSE: I think it was kind of a long shot at that point. Like you said, it was 0 for 8. I mentioned after the game that when I put him in, he had to go in. I think Norman fouled out. I just told him, Dude, you've got to make one for us. You've got to hit one for us. I liked his kind of body language and the way he looked me back and kind of said, I'm going to.

Then the next chance I got, I drew one up for him. I think there are certain guys that handle draw-ups and certain guys that don't. There are certain guys that, when they're o-fer, you still believe in them because of their history and track record and their confidence. I think he still felt confidence. I think he hasn't shot the ball very well the entire playoffs, but I guarantee you, I just talked to him a little bit ago, and he seems really confident to me right now. So that's a good sign.

Q. Kyle has had occasional problems with fouls in the playoffs, the last game included. Is it worth saying anything to him, or does that just chip away at what makes him effective?
NICK NURSE: No. I think I take this approach. You can talk about it, try to keep out of foul trouble, whatever. But the one thing we do say is you've got to keep playing. You can't be out there running away from the play and just giving them baskets. That's two or three possessions in this game, and it isn't worth having you out there because it might be over.

I think I said the same thing to Norm. I put Norm back in with five and said, Man, you've got to keep playing. Do not back away from anything. Unfortunately, they both go out, and you've got to go to the next guys. Fortunately, it worked out in the end.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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