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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS VS. BUCKS

May 23, 2019

Nick Nurse

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Postgame 5, Canada

Raptors - 105, Bucks - 99

Q. All season you sort of talked about your team's ability to figure things out as games went on. Did you really see that come to the fore tonight with the way you handled the start and all of their runs?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, that was a test on the road, right, especially as much as you want to try to prepare them for the speed of the game at the start, sometimes it's just so much energy in the building that you're going to have to withstand some of that sometimes, and I thought we did a really good job of climbing back into that. And then we got our feet under us a little bit, and I think from the second quarter on, I don't know the numbers, but our defense felt a heck of a lot better. Let me look here real quick. Yeah, a little bit better, 32 in the first and 17 in the second. It's a pretty good improvement, right.

So yeah, and again, it's searching for the right guys and the matchups and some of the actions that were giving us problems, searching for some different coverages and things, and I don't know, I thought our guys hung in there and took a lot of punches tonight and just stayed on their feet and kept on playing.

Q. They obviously didn't start shooting the ball the way you wanted and there was a stretch there in the second quarter where that continued but you seemed to grind out stop after stop after stop. What does that say about your team's focus and composure?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, I mean, again, for the most part, one of the themes at halftime was we're really creating great shots for the most part. But we had to eliminate any possessions where they weren't great because we had the ability to create such good ones, there was no sense in going down and having empty possessions, because again, you come down and take a quick one covered, they're off to the races and you're flying, pedaling back, trying to stop them in transition. I thought we did a good job of creating shots and I thought the guys stayed positive even with kind of the cold shooting, a lot of talk on the bench during the timeouts of keep shooting, we're open, keep passing, keep kicking, and they were positive even though they weren't making them, and then obviously some started -- we made a bunch of big ones.

Q. Coach, Kawhi's nine assists were a career high. I think that speaks to what he was doing tonight but also maybe his career as a playmaker and sort of his development as a playmaker. What did you see tonight, and just sort of his development as a playmaker over the course of the season and how that has come about?
NICK NURSE: Well, I mean, first of all, again, almost -- most of the time, he makes the decision when he's got multiple guys on him, he makes the right decision. It's hit the open man, and that's -- we keep stressing that in this series and in the last series, too. When you've drawn two, you've done your job. You've got to find the guy who's open, our spacing and relocation and cutting have to be good when there's two on the ball, but we finally made some for him tonight, right. He's kicking them out to guys that were making some in the second half.

The other night I couldn't believe he only had one assist because it seemed like he was passing the whole game, so we stepped in and made some for him tonight, and when you make them, they usually -- well, that helps your assist numbers.

Q. Fred was 7 for 9 from three and a plus 28. What have you said to him over this stretch of the playoffs when he hasn't been shooting as well, and did you feel like this was always a possibility that it was going to happen?
NICK NURSE: Well, you know, you and I have talked a lot about hopefully we regress to the mean a little bit, right. He was kind of due for one of these nights because we know he's a good shooter.

I haven't said much to him. I think, again, he went 1-for-12 the other night in that double-overtime game, and I didn't even know it because I thought he played so great. He was in a must-play-good situation because Kyle fouled out, and we went to double overtime. He played at least 16 straight minutes, and he ran the team and played defense, and he oozes confidence. He oozes the confidence that spreads to the other guys. Again, he just stepped into the shots that were there tonight, and he was probably due to get hot in these Playoffs. It's been probably a long time coming. Great game by him, though. Great game.

Q. You said at shoot-around this morning that Kawhi was looking better, looking more spry. When you consider the circumstances, is this series the very best you've ever seen from Kawhi?
NICK NURSE: Well, for me it is, but again, I'm like -- I'm like -- you know, it's really different when you have a guy, when you're with him every day and you're witnessing it all. I certainly remember he's been unbelievable in the playoffs with the Spurs, as well, but you're not as close to it. Heck, you might not have even have seen all the games or whatever. But I can only state that he's been really good, and it seems like he's -- I don't know, it doesn't look like -- he gets stronger as the fourth wears on. He wants the ball, and he wants to make the plays, and he seems to be making the right play for the most part, and you're almost shocked when he pulls up at 15 feet and it doesn't go in. I mean, he vaults up there and he has a good release on it, you think, well, there's two more, and it doesn't go in, and you're like, man, what happened. But he's playing, and again, he's playing at both ends. He's rebounding. And again, it really gives the rest of the guys a lot of confidence when you've got a guy playing like that.

Q. All that Fred has had going on this week for him, do you know how much he's slept in the last four days?
NICK NURSE: I do not. You know, I don't check in with them or curfew or anything like that. But obviously he's had a lot going on, and you just -- again, I talked about it a little bit in the pregame. Even though Fred is a younger guy, you've got to trust these guys that they're doing everything they can with their bodies and their nutrition and their rest and all that stuff to get themselves ready to play, and somehow obviously he has been or he plays better on less sleep. I don't know, whatever he's doing, he did the last couple days, he needs to keep doing.

Q. That's three in a row now for you in this series. I don't want to presume you think you have everything figured out, but what are the common threads that exist in these three games that maybe weren't there in the first two?
NICK NURSE: Well, you know, I mentioned a lot of them. I don't think anything changes. Listen, this is a great team we're playing. They are really good and deep and athletic and long and all kinds of stuff. This was a super hard win tonight, super hard. And we have to play with a tremendous amount of effort. Again, I think our keys are this: We've got to play good offense, not turn it over and score the basketball, because if you don't, they're getting what they want, which is downhill basketball in a hurry.

If we can score it, if we can take care of it, we can get our defense set up, for the most part we get down and guard them and make the shots a lot tougher. We have to rebound the basketball. They're a great rebounding team. And then, you know, again, I think we've just got to keep -- I don't know, I've already said it, we've got to play every possession, like fight through every possession at both ends and just keep on playing for 48.

Q. First of all, Kawhi has held Giannis to 36 percent shooting in this series. When he scores that many points, sometimes those things go overlooked. How important was his presence at both ends tonight? And secondly, how much did that load management that you instituted all year, how much is that bearing fruit right here tonight?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, I mean, I know coaches are like this a little bit, but I -- as impressive as his offense is, and it's impressive -- I get more impressed when he's down there guarding and making plays and blocking shots and flying in for rebounds, and my favorite thing is when he just decides once or twice a game to just go take it from somebody and go the other way, those are huge momentum plays, and that's impressive to me.

Again, it's a great competitive spirit, and as far as the load management thing, I mean, listen, he's -- I don't know, he's just super competitive, man. He couldn't wait for the playoffs to get here, and I think he's played a lot of minutes and he's banged up and he says everybody is banged up but I want to play and I'm going to play and I'm ready to play. I, again, give him a lot of credit for that.

Q. Yesterday or last game particularly there was a lot of talk about the number of uncontested looks that Milwaukee had missed, and I'm just wondering, given what we've seen across this series so far, how much is it bad timing and bum luck, and how much are uncontested misses attributable to things your team is doing up until that point that shot is taken?
NICK NURSE: Well, we had some uncontested ones tonight. I'll bet you it's probably worse tonight. I thought there was a stretch of the game -- again, I remember in one timeout saying, guys, we're not getting close enough to them to make them miss, and there were some where we switched and sat back and just gave them -- guys like Brogdon and George Hill, we were guarding them but we were from me to you away, and that's not -- they're going to make those.

So I thought to start the fourth, I remember saying in the huddle, no more, get up, man, we've got to get up and make them bounce it and rely on your help if they go by you.

You know, again, I think your question leads to makes and misses, man. You come down and some guys make them and some guys miss them, and that determines a lot of the outcome. Shooting the ball in the basket is a major, major part of this game, as you know.

Q. Is it nerves or desperation or game situation?
NICK NURSE: I think it can be anything. I think it can be if your defense is flying around a little bit and you've got them hearing footsteps or you've played a lot of minutes. I don't know, maybe if it's a big tall guy coming out at you and you aren't that big -- there's a lot of things that affect the level of contest and those things going in or not.

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