NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HAWKS VS. BUCKS

June 28, 2021

Clint Capela

Atlanta Hawks

Practice Day

Q. Clint, how is the mood today, and how was Trae feeling when you saw him? How were his spirits?

CLINT CAPELA: His spirit is okay. Obviously it was a tough loss last night. I mean, we all know that it was a close game, that we were right there. The only thing they did is they took the home-court advantage, so tomorrow we've got another chance at home to tie the series. We're pretty good after all. Also, Trae is hopefully not too bad. I talked to him a little bit. He seemed to be able to walk, and hopefully he's going to be okay.

Q. You said he's okay, but he went back out there obviously after going back to the locker room. If he can go tomorrow best case, but he still can't be Trae, the Trae that he's been throughout this postseason, how does that change things for you guys? How does that affect things if he's not able to be as explosive as he's been?

CLINT CAPELA: Yeah, obviously we're going to have to adapt. I don't know how -- I mean, how many percent he's going to be or what kind of Trae he's going to be. Even the fact that he's out there with us, it means a lot already, in our minds and everything.

As long as hopefully he can be out there with us, I don't know if he will or not, but hopefully he is.

Q. I'm curious on your matchup with Giannis. What is the toughest part of guarding him and how do you think you're doing so far?

CLINT CAPELA: Yeah, obviously it's not easy to always guard players like him or another team, like their best player. I mean, I think some stuff we're going to have to tweak a little bit, see where we can do better.

I think we can do a better job on him, and we will see how we can adjust that.

Q. You were in the same spot in the series against the Sixers. You won Game 1 but lost Game 2 and Game 3. Do you see any similarities between the series between the Sixers and now against the Bucks?

CLINT CAPELA: Yeah, now we have the second game at home. We've got to take care of business tomorrow night. We still want to be that team that’s really hard to beat at home. I think that tomorrow night it's going to be really important that we come out with the right mindset for the whole game, as well.

Q. Coach told us that it's a get-what-you-need day; some guys get jump shots, some guys get massages. For Clint Capela, what's a get-what-you-need day?

CLINT CAPELA: Yeah, I get a little bit of everything -- massage, couple of shots, free throws, body stretches. That's the day for me.

Q. You spoke before about learning on the fly as a team being that you're a young team. At this position right now, what do you feel like you've learned from the first three games being in the Eastern Conference Finals?

CLINT CAPELA: Those teams can adjust quick. Those teams, from one game to the other, they really change. They make adjustments like that. Their connection is really off the chart. It's good for us to be able to already experience that in our first year together.