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NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS

May 31, 2019

Nick Nurse

Toronto, Ontario - Practice Day

Q. When you got down to Orlando, I imagine that was probably quite a bit of a wake-up call. And you get down 2-0, obviously, in the last series and that's an even bigger enormous wake-up call. Do you talk to your guys now about just reminding them that a 1-0 lead, especially in this NBA -- where it seems like everybody can come back from them pretty easily, across the league you're seeing it now more than ever before -- do you isn't any reason to relax?
NICK NURSE: I think we have tried to do a conscious thought process of not really caring what the score of the series is. I think we know that the games are really hard. We know that after a win the team that gets beat gets really determined. They try to fix things. They mostly play a lot harder and more physical and all those kind of things. And for us, we just had a lengthy, lengthy film session. There was plenty on there that we need to do better if we want to win another game in this series.

So we have to fix those things and get ready to play a game. And treat it as a game, one game.

Q. To follow up on that, when you lose a game obviously it's very easy to have that mindset. How do replicate that when you come off the highest of highs just 12 hours ago?
NICK NURSE: I think it's really hard to do. But your stated goal would be to try to treat each game, no matter the outcome, the same from a learning standpoint and get serious and dig into the problems and try to come up with some solutions.

Q. Curious as to how much you talk with Kyle maybe in film sessions about helping off the strong side corner. His tendency to do that seems to lead to a lot of the drawn charges that he gets, but it can also lead to an open three. I'm curious, does he have sort of license to make that call by himself?
NICK NURSE: He's a very instinctual player. A lot of plays in the game out there, there are so many things going on that are more instinctual probably than they are some unbelievable design. So, yeah, we always say know your personnel and if there's a problem, try to go fix it. He's really good at that. A really good problem solver on the help defenses.

Q. Do you have rules against that otherwise for other guys on the team?
NICK NURSE: I don't know if they're rules. They're ideas. They're ideas, yeah.

Q. The passion for this team is just spreading right across the country. I know we talk about this being Canada's team, but now cities across the country are creating their own Jurassic Parks where thousands of people are gathering to stand outside and watch these games on the big screen. Is that something that's trickled into the locker room? Is there awareness of that at all?
NICK NURSE: Not that I hear. I think you would need to be probably asleep or something if you didn't realize that everybody is pretty excited. To the extent the excitement is reaching out and all that, I mean, it is the first time. I think any team that goes through this the first time and has abundance of energy about their team.

Once we get inside these doors, our offices and locker rooms, we get the film running, have our meetings and try to start talking about the basketball. You don't feel much of it.

But, listen, it's great. I think it's awesome. The city is obviously electric. I think it's great for everybody that's visiting to see. They're proud of their team, and we want to play hard and make them proud of us. That's it. We just want to give a great effort, and I think they can get behind that.

Q. The defensive intensity at the end of the Milwaukee series was really good for you guys. Do you feel like you had the same sort of defensive aggressiveness last night that you have talked about all playoffs long and needing to get?
NICK NURSE: We did at times. For the most part, I think we played with good energy and effort. There are always some breakdowns or things you would like to do a little harder, a little better. A little bit more ball pressure, a little bit more when there's a mistake somebody covering up that mistake as quick as possible, and then somebody covering up for that guy who just covered up for it. But again, it starts with your defense has to get set up, and this team plays really fast. Even when you score sometimes -- you probably remember we scored a bucket and they threw it ahead to Thompson and he went and did a reverse lay-up down there at the other end. So it's coming at you.

The challenge effort-wise first starts with transition. We have to try to make them play against our five-man defense because then we think we're pretty okay. We have a good chance to at least for a starting point be able to guard them the way we want to. That was the same way in Milwaukee. It was really like, come on, let's make them play against our set defense.

Q. There's been lots made about the step that Siakam has made in the last season, but when you look more big picture at a player or has been playing organized basketball for less than a decade, how remarkable is the performance you saw last night? Have you ever seen anything like it before, considering that he's only been playing for seven some odd years?
NICK NURSE: I've never seen anything like that before. That's a pretty big stage for a guy to put that kind of performance on. Almost with any background. I think you've alluded to his background; it's been a pretty short run for him. But I talked about this last night after the game when I was asked about it: He's been given a God-given ability of having a big engine with lots of energy that enables him to play with a certain speed, athleticism, and enables him to work very hard every single day. That motor he's been given, he's using that to the best of his ability. He soaks up things. He takes it to the court. He works, works, works. He takes care of himself. He's really got a burning desire to be a very, very good player in this league. I give him all the credit for that for using those abilities to the best that he can.

Q. Steve Kerr said that he sees a lot of similarities between how you guys play and the Warriors. He sees the Warriors in you. Do you see those similarities and do you think the Raptors have kind of used the Warriors in any way as a model? Obviously they have kind of changed the way the league has played in recent years.
NICK NURSE: Yeah, I think the biggest thing that they have changed, a couple things on each side of the ball. One is obviously the great three-point shooting attack from very deep, the great ball movement and cutting. I think when people watch them play, coaches watch them play, at any level they watch them and they say, man, we would love our team to play offense like that, spread the floor, cut like crazy, everybody touches it, make quick decisions and bomb in a lot of threes on top of that.

And then defensively I think they have been given credit here, I don't know how many years ago now, of becoming a team that switches a lot. I think even since I got in the league -- it's only been six years. Six years ago, nobody was playing that way, and now almost everybody seems to be switching one through four at least or having a coverage for your five or whatever. So they have definitely left a stamp on basketball in this league.

Q. Following up on Pascal, normally the summer is when players have the time to really put in the work and improve their game. Clearly Pascal did that. But throughout the year you talked about how he seems to be taking leaps during the season, taking things, adding, adjusting and now doing it again in the playoffs. How hard is that to do, to grow on the fly like that, and in your experience how rare is it for players to be able to do that?
NICK NURSE: I think let's talk about the summer, first of all. I think every time I would see him every couple weeks it just seemed like he had another bit of presence about him. Part of his game was growing, but even just the way he was attacking his workouts or watching him play a scrimmage game or something, he just looked better to me almost every time. That's him just believing in his work, that his work was going to pay off for him and he would take that to the floor.

During the season that's what it becomes. It becomes: Play a game. Some of our coaches, man, they get a lot of credit for this. They watch him play a game, they sit down and watch the film with him, they take it to the practice floor about some adjustments and then it shows up pretty quickly in a game coming up. That is some great learning by the player and that's some great teaching by Phil Handy and Adrian Griffin and Nate Bjorkgren and Sergio Scariolo. These guys are putting these guys in position to be successful.

So I think, again, give the kid the credit; he's worked his tail off. I think you and I have talked about this a bunch that he's kind of had this unbelievable start. You thought for a young guy the starting and scoring and this, that you would see some type of maybe, can he keep this up? And then we would say, geez, it looks like he's getting better and he would make another jump forward. And then the three-ball started going. Maybe 20 games in he started making the three pretty consistently. Then you're thinking, well, is he going to tail off after the All-Star Game? And he would make another step forward. You would say okay, the playoffs come, can he handle it? So he just keeps -- his work ethic and his mindset just keeps building for him.

Q. Steve was in here yesterday and was talking about the lack of control that comes with Finals. You lose any routine that you would have been in before you get taken out of just because of everything around this. How impressed were you with the way your young guys, in particular Pascal and Fred, guys like that who haven't been here, handled that yesterday?
NICK NURSE: I think it was certainly a question going in. I think there always is a little bit -- it seemed like going to Game 1 at Milwaukee we were really wondering how we were going to handle the emotional high from just two nights earlier, that buzzer beater to win the series. And I think you talk about how fortunate we are to have a bunch of guys that have played deep -- some guys that have won it all, some guys that have played really deep. Ibaka, Gasol, Green, Leonard. And then you're saying, well what are these other guys going to do that haven't been here before? They did a good job, right? They played. They went for it. They played fearlessly, right? They attacked. And that's what they needed to do.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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