NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HAWKS VS. BUCKS

June 27, 2021

Danilo Gallinari

Atlanta Hawks

Game 3: Postgame

Milwaukee Bucks 113, Atlanta Hawks 102

Q. I wanted to talk about just recognizing matchups and getting the most out of them and just how important has that been for you and the Hawks in this series?

DANILO GALLINARI: I think it's been very important. I thought we did a pretty good job tonight. It's definitely something that we need to get better at, but definitely out of the three games that we played, I thought that recognizing the matchups tonight was the best out of the three games.

Q. Khris Middleton obviously had it going there in the fourth quarter. When a player is just in that kind of rhythm, just from your experience, what's the key to try to slow that down and minimize that attack?

DANILO GALLINARI: You've got to be more physical in the one-on-one. Whoever plays defense on him, you've got to be more physical, and sometimes send two guys on him. You can't just let a guy dominate like that, the quarter. So when he started going, we needed to do a better job, and we didn't do it.

Q. Did you feel like Trae was himself after coming back after rolling his ankle?

DANILO GALLINARI: I don't know that -- the ankle was an ankle sprain, I think. I don't know how bad it is, but he was definitely limping. So I'm guessing he was not feeling very good.

Q. You come off the bench with 18 points. What do you contribute to this team, and how good does it feel when you get out there and you have an impact like you did tonight?

DANILO GALLINARI: It's just what I'm supposed to do. It's my job. But we didn't win the game, so it was not enough. We all need to be better next game and get a win at home.

Q. During the third quarter, I saw you get down for a minute, and you kind of hobbled up. How are you feeling physically?

DANILO GALLINARI: So-so, but I'll be fine for Game 4.

Q. What do you think you did best out there, and what do you think you need to improve?

DANILO GALLINARI: I think that we started the game really well. We played a pretty good first half, but against a team like this that has experience and so many weapons, we need to play physical for 48 minutes. We need to take care of the ball, and we need to control the boards. This is one of the best teams, especially getting on the offensive boards, so we need to do a better job with that.

Q. How difficult was it to play without Trae, and what should you do in case you don't have him at 100 percent for the next game?

DANILO GALLINARI: Of course he's our best player, so if you play without him, it's tough. But it's been a tough season in terms of injuries for everybody, especially in this team. We never played a game with a full squad, but everybody stepped up and we had a pretty good season. So we've been doing that, and in case somebody's down, somebody else stepped up and played a great game. We need to keep doing that.

Q. If there's one thing that this team does not lack, and we've seen it time and time again, is confidence. Moving forward, where do you guys draw confidence from to turn around this series?

DANILO GALLINARI: We always believe in ourselves. This is a loss, but we have another game in two days and we're going to be focused on that game. That's what we did already in the series against Philly. We've been in this position before, and we'll be ready for Game 4.

Q. What do you think a team can do offensively to be able to move the ball around more? It seems like at times there's a lot of dribbling and it gets stagnant. Also, how much is it going to help you going forward that this team has already been able to battle back from tough situations in the playoffs?

DANILO GALLINARI: Well, like you said, it was something that we need to get better at. That ball movement is something that sometimes we do it, sometimes we don't. We need to be more consistent throughout the 48-minute game, like you said. So that's something that we need to get better at.

Like I said before, we've been in this situation before. We're going to regroup, talk about the game tomorrow, rest, get our energy back and be ready for Game 4. We did it before. We've been in this situation before, and I'm sure that everybody's going to be ready to play Game 4.