NBA FINALS: BUCKS VS. SUNS

July 8, 2021

Pat Connaughton

Milwaukee Bucks

Game 2: Postgame

Phoenix Suns 118, Milwaukee Bucks 108

Q. Can you just start, go through the last five, six minutes of the fourth? You cut it within six, and I guess you had the open look on the wing so what did you see there? What kind of flipped that they were able to go on a run?

PAT CONNAUGHTON: Yeah, just kind of felt like all night they were able to get to those 50/50 balls a little bit quicker than us. Sometimes it was a good bounce. Sometimes it was just they were a step ahead of us and I think that's where usually we excel. That's usually what our bread and butter is. We kind of make sure we get to those 50/50 balls and make sure that we're physical enough to where we're putting them on their heels a little bit.

But they capitalized on all those ones that they got and they shot the hell out of it.

Q. Is it a flashback a little bit to the Atlanta series when you guys went small, they pulled in a bunch of offensive rebounds at the end of the game to win? I know that happens and it's a risk to take when you go small, but is it frustrating that you're in that position again, in the Finals, and yet again, another team gets those 50/50 balls?

PAT CONNAUGHTON: You know, I'd have to watch the film a little bit but I don't know if it felt like Ayton got a ton of them down the stretch it. It felt kind of like it was the ones that were loose, it felt like it was the long-range ones, I think Mikal got a tip on a little bit. They just got their hands on it and I think it was more or less the ones by the free throw line.

Ayton obviously, definitely is a load in there on the offensive boards, but it was more the ones that were kind of loose that we just didn't come up with.

Q. You had two chances in transition in the fourth quarter. What's going through your head at that point?

PAT CONNAUGHTON: Try to make the shot. One of them, I saw Khris. Khris is Khris. He's an All-Star, when I see him open, I try to give him the ball. Definitely should have shot it. Ayton ran back in transition. He found the most dangerous guy if you want to call it, that's kind of how we do transition defense. And then I just missed one of them.

I think there were a few shots that I could have made that I missed but that's kind of the name of the game. You know, you want to make sure you put your best shot on it and you want to make sure you're trying to put your team in a position to win.

Q. What did you feel like going small did to CP and to Devin?

PAT CONNAUGHTON: I thought it put them in some tough positions. I think there were times we were able to pressure them and there were times we were able to make them take some tough shots.

There were a few times that we unfortunately bailed them out with some fouls. I can remember one or two that happened to me on rearview contest, but we want to be active. We want to make sure that they feel a little bit more uncomfortable and force them into some of those tough shots, but you’ve got to finish the possession.

They capitalized on a lot of those threes after they got the offensive rebounds, and at the end of the day, I think they hit like 19, 20 threes, something like that.

Q. The cameras in the third quarter had caught Giannis getting real emotional with you guys and trying to get everybody going. What was the message? And also, your time with him the last couple years, has he changed when it comes to the leadership component and those key moments and connecting in that way?

PAT CONNAUGHTON: Yeah, I think his message was just, it's not about any of us individually, it's about us collectively. Stay together. Stick together. Take it one possession at a time. That was his message in that time-out.

Yeah, he's definitely changed. He's grown as a leader. He's grown as a leader vocally. He always had that, you know, workman-type attitude and he always put as much time in the gym as anybody. But even when he got hurt, he was vocal. He was with us. He was present. He was in the locker room. He was on the bench during games. He was pulling people aside individually. He was pulling the team aside collectively and I think he's done a phenomenal job in his growth as a leader vocally.

Q. In the first half, they were hitting a lot of threes, as well. I think that was coming a little bit more in the halfcourt. When they are shooting like that, in your mind, are you like, they can't keep making every single one of these, or did you feel like, maybe we're not doing something we're supposed to be?

PAT CONNAUGHTON: You know, we're pros. They can keep making them. I've seen it happen. I think we definitely tried to make some adjustments at halftime. We were active in the first half being in the passing lanes and they made some shots, so we tried to be a little bit less active going into the second half as far as, you know, staying in. We wanted to show a body and then try to get out. And it felt like in the second half, we did a better job of it.

Again, I think they capitalized on the ones that got loose at the end and they definitely hit some transition threes and Book hit a few shots that were tough and contested and were setbacks and things of that nature. But it's the NBA Finals. Great players do great things and everyone around here can play, everyone around here can shoot. It's just about trying to make them feel a little bit more uncomfortable.

Q. This is familiar territory for you guys being down 0-2 in the series, only 30 teams in NBA postseason series have come back to win a series when being down 0-2. What makes you guys think you can be 31?

PAT CONNAUGHTON: We're competitors. We wouldn't be here if we didn't believe. We have a resilient group in that locker room. We have a group that has been through a lot. We have been through adversity this year, and the one thing that's remained consistent is we've fought through it together. We've had each other's backs. We've looked at each other in the locker room and fought for the guy sitting next to you and the guy sitting on the other side of you.

So, it's no different here. You have to take it one game at a time, one-half at a time, one quarter at a time, one possession at a time. And we're focused on learning from the things we need to learn from this past game and then making sure that we're looking towards Game 3.

Q. Were you at all surprised that Giannis could go for 40 minutes and put up the numbers that he did in nine days after he hyperextend his knee? And after he goes down with the cramp, what goes through your mind?

PAT CONNAUGHTON: Nothing Giannis does surprises me anymore. He has the nickname "Freak" for a reason. I will say it's incredible what he's been able to do and it has not happened without time he's put in to get himself ready and get his body better and continue to do the things that he does to be a two-time MVP.

And the cramp, fortunately I was kind of fortunate enough to kind of look back and see him stretch, so I didn't actually see him on the ground. So I didn't have a five, ten, 18 second window to really be worried. But he runs himself to exhaustion from time to time and he leaves it out there, and that's all you can ask. A franchise guy and that's the type of guy that I want to be playing next to.

I was fortunate to play next to a guy like that in Portland in Damian Lillard and I'm fortunate to play next to a guy like that in Giannis who continues to do it at a high level.