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NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS

June 2, 2019

Nick Nurse

Toronto, Ontario - Pregame 2

Q. The only thing of interest would be, is OG going to be activated? And do you think you could get anything out of him if he is able to dress and play?
NICK NURSE: That's the only thing interesting going on tonight?

Q. This is the fourth time we have had to talk to you in three days. So you're probably as tired as we are.
NICK NURSE: Yeah, he is going to be activated tonight. I don't know if that changes things much. I think it's been a long time since he's played. He has been pretty active here in the last four, five days, though, as far as getting up and down the floor and things. He has lost quite a bit of weight as well. So there's that and there's the timing.

I don't probably see much of a chance to play him, but you never know. You never know what could happen. He is a big, strong, athletic guy, and you never know a situation might arise. But I would imagine it's down the road here a little bit in this series.

Q. If he does get into the game, will he be on some kind of minutes restriction?
NICK NURSE: Probably. Well, depends how it goes. I usually think when a guy is off for a long time, I would say to him it's probably going to be a three- or four-minute burst because I think that that's probably with the speed, the way the game's moving at this stage of the season, what they could handle.

But I think one time this year Fred VanVleet had come back after a long injury and we had to start him; I think Kyle was out. I told him I was going to play him short stints and right before the ball went up he said, "My conditioning is great so if you want to let me run, I'll be okay." And I think I played him 18 straight minutes or something like that.

So I mean, I guess it's all feel. You probably think three, four, five minutes is probably a high end for that kind of stint, but you never know.

Q. Kyle has found himself in foul trouble quite a bit recently. For you as a coach with him specifically, how tricky is it to gauge his minutes late in the game, knowing how physical he wants to play and there's a risk where you can lose him for good?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, in Game 1 he took a few that we need to do better. He was the first one down the floor and they ran a big down. Our bigs just weren't getting down there quick enough to kind of do the exchange back, and they threw it long. He's valuing every possession. So he grabbed them so they wouldn't just lay it in. We need to protect him a little bit better as well.

But it is tricky out there. We have been in some foul trouble in the playoffs a bit with certain guys. It's strange because it doesn't seem like you're ever in foul trouble in the regular season. When are you going to roll with him, how long are you going to keep him out, etc. I think we were fortunate the other night that we had a nice run when he got his fifth. And that double overtime game, I think we lost him with six minutes to go in regulation. Again, Fred has done such a good job of running the team that we were able to compensate for that.

Q. What's a guy like Alex McKechnie do for your franchise when we talk about all the health issues and talk about OG? Does he tell you what he's going on or is it a dialogue?
NICK NURSE: Yeah, a hundred percent. He's running the show, really. It's his area. He's our director of sports science, which means he oversees all the health fitness and training and injury prevention and injury-taking-care-of and stuff like that. So it's totally his call. He tells me who is ready to go and when. That's totally -- I turn that over to him. As you know, he's got a lot of experience, a lot of championships under his belt.

I think he may have invented the "load management" term.

THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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