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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS VS. BUCKS

May 23, 2019

Fred VanVleet

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Postgame 5, Canada

Raptors - 105, Bucks - 99.

Q. Fred, can you just kind of take us through not necessarily hour by hour but what your schedule has been like since this craziness started and how you've managed to stay standing up?
FRED VANVLEET: Yeah, as long as you promise it's the last time I've got to tell this story.

Q. Last time.
FRED VANVLEET: Yeah, so obviously my girl has been pregnant for a while, and the due date was May 31st. So we knew it would be close. We knew it would be around this time, and my first daughter came three weeks early. We were expecting it to be any day now. Monday morning I thought I had a nice day off at home in Toronto, I got the call that her water broke, and I started running around trying to find if I could get on a plane. So made it to Rockford at about 3:00 p.m. and spent the day at the hospital, and the baby boy came Monday night at 9:30. You know, going through all that whole process, stayed the night. If anybody has kids before, you know getting discharged is a whole 'nother adventure, trying to leave the hospital. So they were stuck up there for a while with the baby getting checked out, and I stayed Tuesday, stayed in the morning, flew back, got to Toronto at 2:00 or 3:00, tried to take a little nap and headed to the arena for Game 4. You know, for Game 4, flew back here yesterday, took a car down to Rockford yesterday night and they were still in the hospital, so I spent the night at the hospital last night, and we were fortunate enough to get discharged this morning, so I drove down to Milwaukee this afternoon, took another nap, if that's what you call it, and laced them up again here for Game 5. So it's been a frantic week, but that's what makes all this stuff worth it.

Q. Fred, so that's the formula? That's the key, zero sleep?
FRED VANVLEET: I guess, zero sleep, have a lot of babies, and go out there and let loose. No, but you know, in the middle of all that stuff, you guys know it's been a rough playoff stretch shooting the ball for me. Everything else has been fine in my opinion, but just shooting the ball has been a little rough. I still found time to get quick workouts in here and there. Whatever we left yesterday, I hadn't slept much and I still got a workout in before we got on the team plane. So keep, just trusting the work and trusting your craft and knowing that at some point they're going to drop. A lot of times, how it works, they all come at once and I think that's what you've seen, so just bottle it up and put some games together.

Q. What would you say about tonight's game in terms of it was almost like two different games, like the first three quarters Kawhi looked to really be -- there was a lot of balance there offensively, and then it's nice to have him to pick it up in the fourth when things get tight.
FRED VANVLEET: Yeah, I think they came out and punched hard and quick early, and we knew that's what they were going to do, but we just had to try to weather the storm and know that it's a game of runs. We've been battle tested, we've been in tough games. Philly really tested us, even Orlando made us work pretty hard for those wins. You understand how long a playoff game is and you can work yourself back in, so I thought we did a good job just distributing the ball, everybody was chipping in, and then fourth quarter you know whose time it is for that. Marc hit a crazy big three at the end after he was probably 0 for 5 at that point. A couple other guys made some big plays, but at the end of the day to have a guy like that to close them out is what you need, and he understands that, we understand that, and we kind of shift, and that's what you've seen this year. We can win a lot of different ways, and you have to. You have to have a lot in your toolbox.

Q. You're shooting 80 percent from three in Fred Jr.'s lifetime, so how do you keep that going hopefully into next week?
FRED VANVLEET: You know, just keep bottling it up. Like I said, obviously it's turned around for me a little bit these last two games. I've gotten more -- feels like I'm getting more better looks, more open looks, and as you make them, your teammates start to look for you more and more and the game kind of opens up all at once. Just staying confident, staying in there ready to knock them down when I get the opportunity, and just staying locked in. Still not giving him all the credit in the world, but he's probably helped me out a little bit.

Q. Fred, third year now on the team and in each year your role has grown a little bit more. Now you're one win away from the NBA Finals. Just hearing that, what are some of the thoughts that come to mind?
FRED VANVLEET: Just to take advantage of the opportunity. I think that being tied up 2-2, to have a great opportunity to come in here and try to steal one was on our minds. Obviously being one win away going home, you just want to take advantage of the opportunity. It would be a very, very long summer thinking about what could have been or what you could have done, and so we've just got to go out there and have no regrets, and I think we did a great job of that tonight laying it all on the line, staying locked in, weathering those runs and being able to bounce back. Like you said, one win away from the Finals sounds pretty good to me. I'll take those chances, and we've got to go out there and try to take advantage of the opportunity.

Q. Fred, Kawhi was a little bit of everything tonight. When you look at the tape, what kind of things will you look for and remember from his game in Game 5?
FRED VANVLEET: Yeah, I think -- I don't know his stats for the last four games, but I think tonight his three-ball opened up a little bit. It felt like he had a little more lift on his shot, and when he's shooting the three like that he's unguardable. There's no chance for anybody. And I think that kind of opened the floor up for him. He hit some big, big shots and he was getting to his spots and I think they doubled a little bit less. It just felt that way. Obviously, I haven't watched the film yet. I don't think they sent quite as much on the double. They were collapsing when he got in the paint, but he gave it to you in every which way, rebounding, he made big defensive plays, he's guarding Giannis at the end of the game, he's getting rebounds, getting steals and making free throws and he kicked a couple out that were big, too. So any time he chooses to get the rest of us involved it's going to bode well for our offense, and the rest of us just got to be ready to step up and knock them down.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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