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NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS

May 30, 2019

Nick Nurse

Toronto, Ontario - Postgame 1

Toronto 118 - Golden State 109

Q. I guess you really didn't have to worry about how your young guys, Pascal and Freddie, would handle the enormity of the moment. How do you think they played?
NICK NURSE: They were both really good. Especially obviously Pascal had a big offensive night. I thought he played with really good composure, right. He got to his spots and got on balance and was patient, and when he needed to go quick and get around him, he did as well. He had a couple of really tough ones go in for him as well.

But Freddie did a really good job. Freddie worked hard defensively played a lot of minutes on Curry. Curry had 34 but Freddie made him work for them.

Q. Centers like Marc Gasol aren't always able to stay on the court against a team like the Warriors. How was he able to be so effective tonight?
NICK NURSE: Well, he's a really good defender. And a lot of that comes from -- I always say a lot of it comes from desire to be a good defender and the want to stay on the court, right. But I think his IQ is really high, he knows how to get out there, and he's shown over the last few games, or maybe more than that, that he's pretty good when he gets a mismatch on a shooter. He went up in the last series and guarded Middleton really well, and when there would be a breakdown, he would end out way out on the floor on those guys. And I thought he did a decent job on some of those guys tonight. Just really good reactions.

Q. Golden State down 17, down 18 to Portland in the Western Conference Finals they were able to come back and win. They never really got ignited tonight. How were you able to make sure they didn't go on their trademark runs?
NICK NURSE: Well, I think the big thing is you got to continue to play defense all throughout the game. Even though you're trying really hard sometimes and they will come down and they will make you look silly sometimes. They will hit, cut, boom layup, and you're just like, man, how did that happen? That happened fast.

We just said that some of those breakdowns will happen. We need our weak side to be good. We were close a few and just didn't rotate on a few of those. But take it out and you go back down and you try to answer. You get a shot and you try to answer, and you try not to have any droughts on offense, because you know their ability to score quick.

I think again, as I kept saying in the Milwaukee series, offense is really important for us here, taking care of the ball and getting shots, and getting some to go through the net because if they take it from you, they're down the floor in a hurry, probably spraying for a three. And if they're playing off the rim all the time, they're coming downhill fast at you and either at the rim or spraying.

Q. We have been talking all post-season about Kyle gets criticized for not scoring, which is sort of silly by now, but he just finds ways, and tonight it was the leading the passes, taking charges against Boogie, things of that nature. Can you put into words how much his willing to sacrifice on literally any play at any time means in games like these?
NICK NURSE: Well, I think that one of the best things about this team is that you don't have to put a burden of 20 to 25 points on him, because he's going to defend, he's going to lead the team, he's going to make those tough plays. He just instinctually does that game after game after game.

And the scoring, it's great. I'm not going to say it's like icing on the cake, we need his scoring and we certainly need his spacing and some of his head-down drives where he makes contact and gets to the line. Those are really important, but again, I think that this team can a lot of times absorb some nights where he just plays really well and doesn't score. I mean, he plays really well and doesn't score much, there's nothing wrong with that.

Q. I know that a building can't win a basketball game, but what did you feel in the arena tonight and what do you think it did for your team?
NICK NURSE: Well, it gave us a couple nice bounces I think. We had a couple of shots go in that were kind of eye-openers, let's say. But the fans obviously were great, they were loud, they were excited. I think they were into it and that's the way it should be, man. That's what home court is, and our fans deserve a bunch of credit for being a big part of that.

Q. Knowing Pascal Siakam's story and how he was discovered in Cameroon, but not really known to be a basketball prospect. Even when Masai saw him seven years ago he didn't look like a NBA player. How is it possible for a kid with so little background to come up in this situation and do what he did tonight in this stage?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, it's pretty incredible, right, first of all. But I think it was two years ago when we got bounced out of the playoffs, he literally went in the gym the next day and he was kind of like, "Listen, I need to learn how to shoot. I see that in playoff basketball you better be able to shoot to be on the floor." So went to work that day on his shooting, and I think it changed some mechanics. But that's a very small thing, he took it and just absolutely ran with it, two, three times a day, every day, just trying to get that part of his game better, right. And that just shows again he was extremely hard-working like beyond -- I mean just super, super committed to finding a place in this league and improving his game.

But I've heard a lot of people or him say some things this year and they keep saying, are you surprised? And he keeps saying, no, this is what I've always envisioned for myself. So I think that's a powerful statement he makes as well. He believes in himself and he went to work at it.

Q. You guys took quite a few threes at the beginning of the game. Was that just taking what the defense was giving you or were you trying to really establish your guys in your presence outside?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, we're always going to take, try to take what's there and I agree with you, I said a couple times early in the game, I said, "Have we shot a two yet?" I kept asking that and Pascal had shot one, but I think we had taken eight of our first nine shots were threes but they were open. And I love it because the one thing that we must do in this series that we need to do is go for it, and that just showed our no hesitancy, confidence, and willing to just kind of go for it.

Q. Danny Green like really struggled in Milwaukee series with his three-point shooting, but it seems tonight he seemed to kind of get that monkey off his back. What did you see from him?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, I mean, I think one thing that's been interesting is as the series change and a new team comes in and all those things that certain guys it fits and certain guys it doesn't, and in the rotation or even in the starting lineup. And it just, you know, Milwaukee just wasn't his series and it was probably good to get that one over with in his view and kind of get a clean slate. That's what we said, it's a new series, new team, forget about what's happening.

And you got to do that game to game now too, right. You got to understand that some guys aren't going to shoot as well every night or as worse every night. So each night we try to find who is going and who is got a chance and try to keep those guys out there rolling.

MODERATOR: Thank you, Nick.

NICK NURSE: All right. Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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