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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: RAPTORS VS. BUCKS

May 25, 2019

Mike Budenholzer

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Postgame 5, Canada

Raptors - 100, Bucks - 94.

MIKE BUDENHOLZER: I'd just like to start by congratulating Nick Nurse and his staff and the Toronto Raptors and all their players, their organization. Congratulations to them. They did a heck of a job.

It's hard to put into words how you feel when a season like this ends. I'll save most of it for the team, but I'll say I couldn't be more proud of the way our guys compete, the way they play every night, the way they conduct themselves. This hurts, but what they did in this playoffs, tonight against a really good Toronto Raptor team, and to get to the Conference Finals, the regular season, special season for us. And we feel like we're just getting started. This is the beginning of our journey. And again, I couldn't be more proud of our team.

I would like to thank Jon Horst and the front office and the job that they did in this setting, in this environment, the roster and everything they did to put together a team that could compete at this level. I couldn't be more thankful and grateful and appreciative of what Jon Horst, the front office does, what the ownership does. So I just wanted to say that here in this setting.

Q. You guys were up 15 late in the third, they go on a 26-3 run. What did you sense from your guys during that stretch? Did you sense some tensing up? How would you diagnose the struggles in the half court, too?
MIKE BUDENHOLZER: I'm not sure I'll go back and watch this game, at least not for a while. A little bit of both. I felt like we got out in transition. I remember one big play, Giannis gets it on almost a lob and is at the rim and kicks it out and we miss a wide-open three. My guess is there are going to be some situations where we missed open shots. And there are going to be some dry possessions where we don't execute well enough; we don't maybe share and pass the ball and play in a crowd. A 26-3 run, it's usually a little bit of everything.

Q. I'm curious, taking a look at the start of that fourth quarter, Giannis is on the bench. When you look back, do you regret maybe not having Giannis out there and they go on that run that ties it up real quick?
MIKE BUDENHOLZER: No. I mean, it's been a big topic -- lots of questions. I don't think Giannis playing 44 minutes is the solution. If we can't win with Giannis at 40, 40-and-a-half, then Toronto deserves it. At some point he's got to take a break. I think he took a one-minute break in the third quarter and he took a minute-and-a-half or two minutes in -- credit to Toronto. And it's an area where we've got to be better. Giannis was out there for a lot of good things, and part of whatever it is that didn't go our way.

Q. With 29 seconds left it's a three-point game. There's a bit of a differential there with the shot clock. Was that an obvious decision for you to let them run the clock out and try and stop, or what is the thought process?
MIKE BUDENHOLZER: Gosh, it's right on that edge. We talked a lot about it as a coaching staff and went into the huddle with the players. I think it was 29.4 or 29.6, so you feel like there's a five-and-a-half, six-second differential. As good as we've been defensively all year, to try to get a stop -- you've got five seconds, six seconds to come and score a three-pointer and tie it up. The debate, do you have more possessions and play the free throw game, like I said, it's just right on the edge -- 29.6, 5.4 difference, 5.6 difference. We went with trying to get a stop.

Q. You just mentioned a sequence where Giannis has it underneath, kicks it out. Is there some push from you to try to be more aggressive, try to take it to the rack more, or I guess just kind of how would you view him in these final four games?
MIKE BUDENHOLZER: I thought he was fabulous. I think the one game, Game 3, when you look at the film and you have conversations with Giannis, that was maybe the only game where I think the aggressiveness and the force that he needs to play with, there were enough situations where we felt like he could have been more aggressive, more forceful. But five out of six games -- and even that one, he was very good. I'm just being critical of Giannis and trying to push him. He's doing very, very close to exactly what we need and what we want him to do.

Q. Late in that third quarter with what Kawhi was doing and then he continued for the rest of the game, how hard is it to try and slow him down and stop him and how much has that been a story this whole series for you guys?
MIKE BUDENHOLZER: Well, he finishes with 27, and I'm not sure how many of them were at the end on a couple of those free throw situations. He's a great player. He made some very, very special plays. Give him a ton of credit. But to your question, I mean, I thought the defense overall on him was to be commended.

Q. I think the obvious reaction to this will be this is a stepping-stone for Giannis, that this is -- as a great player, you have to go through some losses. But it feels like also this team you guys put together, you just had so many moves that came together. It might also be, who knows, your best chance. How do you kind of try to process this in the moment and also take Giannis through it?
MIKE BUDENHOLZER: Yeah, there's no doubt that what Jon Horst and the front office were able to do with bringing in George Hill and Niko Mirotic and obviously Brook in the summer, the roster that was put together for this season. As the season started going, you started feeling like it was special and could do special things, including advancing past tonight. But it didn't happen. And not for lack of effort from our players, not for lack of effort from the front office or ownership. Sometimes it just doesn't work. It doesn't happen. The other team makes more plays.

But I will say Giannis is going to get better. I like to think for us and to be excited about his future at 24 - I mean, it's just the easy narrative that this is part of Giannis's stepping. But I think the thing that makes Giannis unique and exciting is in our minds, we feel like he's going to get a lot better. At 24 some guys are -- I don't want to say they are who they are, and some of the great ones at 24 were the same at 30 and 32 and so on and so forth. Giannis we feel like has got a lot of room to grow. And I think our entire roster we feel excited about can grow.

Q. Just the rebounding numbers, they're all in your favor really when you look at them, but it felt like again they were able to get offensive rebounds in key points tonight, and it was Kawhi tonight, I guess. You spoke about it after Game 5, but did you think that was more him making big plays or what did you see from your guys on the glass?
MIKE BUDENHOLZER: Certainly credit to Kawhi. Certainly Ibaka, Gasol, Siakam sometimes. Again, it wasn't the number of rebounds, like you said; it was just the timeliness of them. The loose-ball foul between Giannis and Ibaka, I don't know, seems like that stuff happens every possession both teams, and it ends up in a VanVleet three. So I don't know if that goes down as a team offensive rebound or what. But there are a few plays where we're coming into the game and we said we had to be better. We just didn't get it done.

Q. Can you just talk about Khris in this series? I know he obviously has that 30-point game and then some in the teens. He has Kawhi for large parts of it. What did you think of his performance in this series?
MIKE BUDENHOLZER: The thing that stands out to me is defensively the way he took the challenge and embraced guarding Kawhi Leonard in this series. Like if anybody has any doubt of what kind of defender and how good he is on that end of the floor, hopefully they realize -- it doesn't mean that Kawhi didn't score a significant number of points, but I feel like he had to work and made everything very difficult. Malcolm the same.

And then offensively, like you said, there's a 30-point game, there's a 10-assist game, there's a 10-rebound game. At the end of the day, when I think about Khris in this series, he was just doing anything he could to help us win. Sometimes they put a lot of attention on him, and other guys have to kind of thrive and work if he's got that much attention.

So overall I couldn't be more proud and more pleased with the way Khris conducted himself, played, competed. He laid it all on the line.

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