NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HAWKS VS. BUCKS

June 23, 2021

Nate McMillan

Atlanta Hawks

Game 1: Pregame

Q. Do you have any update on Bogdan, how he's doing and what the game plan is?

NATE McMILLAN: He's warming up. He'll be a game-time decision, yeah.

Q. Same question about Cam.

NATE McMILLAN: Cam should be available tonight.

Q. And I know you're big on chemistry. How do you go about implementing someone who obviously has not played in four months into the rotation?

NATE McMILLAN: Well, we'll still come off with Tony and Solomon first. Give those guys first opportunity.

Q. You've spoken a few times about how Kevin Huerter has turned into a good two-way player for you guys. How do you want to see him build on that big Game 7?

NATE McMILLAN: Just continue be consistent with what he's doing. He's given us good play on both ends of the floor. We've had to insert him into the starting lineup. He's done a good job for us coming off the bench but we wanted to place him in that starting lineup to see if we could get more ball movement, give us another option, and he's done a good job of doing that, as well as defending some of the top guys.

Q. After winning Sunday and trying to get away from things for a minute before you get into the series, I would think, what is something that you did to try to decompress and what is something that maybe your guys did to try to get away before you had to dive into another series?

NATE McMILLAN: Really, pretty much the same approach we did going from the first round to the second round. The next day, we took that day off. We gave the coaches an opportunity to prepare for Milwaukee. Gave the players the day off. We didn't want them to do anything, get off their feet. You know, so the next day, which was yesterday, we started to prepare for Milwaukee. Everything is coming so fast, you don't have much time. We had to really get right to work that next day preparing for Milwaukee, and you know, here we go.

Q. Playoffs, as you know, you've been in a million of them, there's such high-stress situations, but you're a 5-seed and people outside your room didn't think you would come this far. Do you find this playoff run to be as stressful as some other ones?

NATE McMILLAN: Well, we've talked about the mental approach with our guys. We talked about that, really, at the start of the playoffs. You know, really not listening to the outside noise and paying attention to good or bad. You know, mentally, getting your rest. Because family is all of a sudden starting to attend games, both home and on the road. With all the pressure and all the things, the information and preparation that we're giving guys, it's a lot.

So that mental thing we've tried to get our guys to work on, as well. Get your rest. Get away from the game. Get your sleep at night. Don't stay up all night entertaining. You know, mentally get yourself prepared for the next day which would be practice or a game.

Q. When you were at Indy, you got to see Giannis four times a year. What do you feel like you learned seeing him that often?

NATE McMILLAN: He's an awesome player. Got a great deal of respect for his game, you know, seeing him four times a year. This is a guy that’s unlike a lot of players in the league in the sense that he plays every possession to win. He is playing to win every second that he is out on the floor. You know, a guy that I kind of compare him to is Kevin Garnett. On both ends of the floor, those guys are just giving all that they have to win that possession defensively as well as offensively.

So when you have a player with his skill, his ability, playing with that type of effort and energy, it keeps a lot of pressure on your team the entire time that he's on the floor. You know, so just great deal of respect for how he plays the game, and his team, they feed off of that.

Q. A lot of your main guys have never been in the playoffs before this year. What has allowed you to come in as a group and have road success which you know is obviously the hardest the thing to do?

NATE McMILLAN: What it comes down to is basketball. You're still playing basketball. We have talked about that. It's still basketball. You're deeper into the season where you probably have a little bit more fatigue. You've got some tweaks. Everybody has some tweaks and injuries.

So the main thing is to take care of yourself. You know, I was just talking about taking care of yourself mentally as well as physically. Those are things that we've tried to get this group to focus on. You know, not talk about the pressure. It's basketball. You've been doing this all season long, and what we need to do at this time is do what we've been doing and do it better. And they have been able to do that.

Q. I wanted to ask about guys like Clint, Gallo, Lou, just vets among young players who are on their first playoff run. What have you seen from the veterans that you like? Are they model behavior as far as handling the pressure of the playoffs and just how you get through this mentally and physically?

NATE McMILLAN: Well, we all are going through it really for the first time as a group and as a unit. Our veterans have really done a good job all season long maturing the younger guys and talking to them, pulling them aside, both in practice, in the locker room and during games.

So those veterans, Lou has been really good for us. Gallo has been good for us. You know, Kris hasn't played a lot of minutes for us, but his experience has been really good for our group. And Clint has just been solid for us.

It's a good group. Bogi, you know, he's had experience playing in big games before. So that type of pressure he's comfortable with, and he's been able to talk about that with his teammates.

So it's really been really good. These guys have, you know, come in. They have been locked into what we are trying to give them as far as game planning, and they have done a good job of going out on the floor and executing it.

Q. How big of a week has this been for you guys, even though you have been through this so many times, because you still have some COVID protocols and stuff like that, and I'm sure that changes the routine.

NATE McMILLAN: Well, we're not doing as much on the floor, certainly now, as we were during the season. But we were limited then, you know, so we are really used to this type of schedule. As far as the next day you're really taking it off and you're doing a lot more teaching through video, through film, and you're trying to take the guys off their feet as much as possible and do your work and your teaching through film. You know, really, we've been limited all season long with being able to go out on the floor and play, and with the tight schedule that we played this season.

So this is something that we've really adapted to during the season.

Q. Cam hasn't played since February 21. What was his reaction when you said "Lace 'em up, grab a jersey, let's go"?

NATE McMILLAN: We really talked about that in the last series. He felt he would be ready in the next round.

So basically, we're not going to put any pressure to put him out there. He hasn't played, as you just mentioned, in a few months. There are guys in front of him as far as rotation, and we will stick with those guys.

Q. Cam has had to be really patient over the last couple of months. What have you seen from him mentally that makes you think, okay, he's been ready and he's been patient?

NATE McMILLAN: Well, again, we haven't had the opportunity for him to get in any five-on-five. Since he's been off, the last week or two, he's been playing some two-on-two, three-on-three. So he hasn't played any five-on-five basketball because we haven't played any live or done anything as far as live scrimmaging in the last couple weeks, really, since playoffs have started.

So I mean, he's healthy. He feels good. He's ready to go. But of course, he hasn't been able to participate in anything five-on-five. So we'll be cautious how we use him when we do decide to put him in the game.

Q. How do you gage this team's emotion? You guys have been riding on this sort of high for the past couple of weeks and they are so young and so inexperienced. How do you keep them on edge now that they have gotten through two playoff rounds?

NATE McMILLAN: They have been good throughout this season. We try not to get too high when we have success and we try not to get too low when we drop a game or two. You know, our plan is always to take that approach. The next game we want to be better than we were in our last game, and we've taken that approach. They have been pretty calm with all the success we've had.

And when we've dropped some games, they have been able to learn from what we didn't do well in our losses, come back, correct those mistakes or things that we had some slippage in, and find ways to win games. They are young, but they have shown a lot of growth in responding when we've dropped games.

Q. How valuable has Clint Capela's experience been in this position playing Conference Finals more than two times, three times to be exact, and have you asked him to be more vocal around this time?

NATE McMILLAN: We have talked about that with our veterans from the start of the season. We wanted them to be more vocal. That was the reason that we added veterans to this roster at the beginning of the season, bringing in Clint who really didn't play much last season for us, but bringing in Bogi and bringing in at the beginning of the season we had Rondo. We felt that we needed to bring in veterans and guys with experience to get to this point, to take that next step to win ballgames.

Certainly we have asked those guys to talk and speak to the group and lead, and Clint has done that. He's done a solid job for us, really all season long. He's just been an anchor to our defense. You know, last series, and the first series, he did just an outstanding job of really help defense in that New York series. And then having to guard and, he took on that challenge of guarding a great post player and did a solid job. He really is the anchor and establishes our defense for us.

Q. The other day, John Collins was talking about the team concept, like you're going to be like a fist, not like a palm, so I like that. I'd like you to talk about it a little bit.

NATE McMILLAN: Yeah, we talked about -- we've been talking about that, really, all season long, being a fist, being connected. I just feel that the tighter that connection, the tighter the fist out on the floor, which are the five players, you can knock out your opponent.

You know, when you have that connection on both ends of the floor and you're executing out there and you're playing as a fist, a tightly connected group, you're going to be able to do some good things. And our guys have been able to do that. It doesn't matter which five is out on the floor. We've got to be connected. We've got to be clear about what we're doing out there, and we've got to execute. They have been able to do that, both groups.

Q. Trae shoots a lot from deep but has been inconsistent. Holiday can clearly detain those attempts. In what ways do you think Trae will get tested by Jrue in this series?

NATE McMILLAN: Well, Jrue is a really solid defender, and Trae is a really good offensive player. So Trae, we want him to be aggressive. He's very capable of knocking down the shots that he takes, and it really forces the defense to have to stretch their defense when guarding him.

So he is a guy that really establishes our tempo and our style of play, so we want him to be aggressive, and when he feels that he has a good look, we want our guys to shoot the ball. We don't want hesitation. We want all of our guys to be aggressive out on the floor.

Q. In what ways can you guys put pressure and capitalize on Giannis's inconsistency on his shot?

NATE McMILLAN: Well, we are going to try to keep him in front. I think that's the big key. He's a big guard that has the ability to get to the rim. He plays in the paint. He lives in the paint. That's really the first line of defense for us is to try to keep these guys out of the paint and force them to shoot the ball over the top. I think they have really good isolation players in Giannis and Middleton and Jrue. Those guys are very capable of putting up big numbers in one-on-one coverage. We are going to have to do a good job of getting pressure, but keeping them in front of us and forcing them to shoot the ball over the top.

Q. I hope that this question is considered appropriate. Not trying to dip too far into your plans on what you're putting in place against Milwaukee, but have you had any kind of conversations with the guys about maybe sending Giannis to the free throw line similar to the way that you did Ben Simmons, considering his inability to convert from that area?

NATE McMILLAN: I won't get into strategies as far as things that we want to do out on the floor. You know, of course our coaching staff, we've studied this team, and you know, we've tried to put a plan in place. But I won't get into our strategies as far as how we're going to play an opponent.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about just the road mentality as you go in and start a series out on the road and you're able to go in and try to get one or two, and the team is able to focus when they are on the road? Can you talk a little about that?

NATE McMILLAN: Yeah, well, I mean, that's always a game plan in the playoffs when you are on the road trying to get one, and certainly trying to get that first one, I think it really helps you in that series when you can get that first win, and basically right away you get home-court advantage by doing that.

Our guys have been able to play good basketball in that first game, and I'm looking forward to us doing the same thing tonight.

Q. Collins is playing at a high level, leading this team along with Trae and the other guys. Can you talk about Collins and what he's able to do?

NATE McMILLAN: Yeah, he's been consistent for us, really all season long, and during these playoffs. Really had one night where he just couldn't get anything going and that was in New York when he got in foul trouble. But he has been consistent with his play on both ends of the floor, defensively, defending guys, rebounding the basketball, offensively, providing scoring for us both inside and out.

So you know, all of our guys are playing good basketball. You just don't get to this point with one or two guys doing it for you. This group has been consistent in playing solid basketball for a while now.

Q. You gave new Celtics Coach Ime Udoka his first-ever start back in Portland. What was that moment like telling him that he would start?

NATE McMILLAN: He was a great player for me. Just a selfless player that always kept himself ready. Had experience. Could play multiple positions, and a guy that was coachable. You know, really good talent. Played the 1, 2 and 3. Really, just a joy to work with. Coaching him, you knew that he would one day be on the sidelines coaching. His basketball IQ is very high. Understands the game. Understands what is needed out on the floor and as a player, he was able to provide that for us.