NBA FINALS: BUCKS VS. SUNS

July 11, 2021

Jae Crowder

Phoenix Suns

Game 3: Postgame

Milwaukee Bucks 120, Phoenix Suns 100

Q. Monty used the word "consistency" a lot when talking to us, and that's a word that you've used a lot as well. Is that one you come back to when you look at the little things of this game, like points off turnovers, second-chance points, things like that?

JAE CROWDER: No doubt about it. We feel like we lost the 50/50 battle, and I feel like on the road you almost have to win that or tie it. So I think that decided the game in a way for us, and we have to be better in that aspect.

Q. This was the first time that Deandre had five fouls in a game this postseason. How did his absence in the second half impact you guys on the boards and in the paint?

JAE CROWDER: It affected us obviously, but we have to weather the storm. You never know what can happen, and we have enough bodies to get that job done if someone gets in foul trouble. But tonight it definitely caught us off guard and we had to go throw a lot of different things at them, and it led to us scrambling and the offensive rebounds.

But, you know, it is what it is. This is the first game, like you said, of the postseason of him being in foul trouble, so we have to adjust. He'll be better and we'll be better as well.

Q. You guys, despite how the game was going, got it down to four and you're thinking, okay, they're about to flip this. What do you feel like didn't work after that?

JAE CROWDER: Second-chance points. It goes back to the 50/50 balls that we lost. I feel like on the road we got to win that battle. It's not about shot making. It's just about mano a mano, making sure your guy doesn't get it and coming up with the ball. Someway, somehow, you have to find a way. And I felt like once it got that close, those guys scrapped a little harder tonight than we did.

Q. I was going to ask about defending Giannis and the challenge of that when you don't have the size that you would normally have, say, if Saric was available?

JAE CROWDER: Like I said, we have enough bodies to get that job done. We just got to do it collectively and just be better individually. But we got enough bodies to get it done. We just didn't get it done tonight.

Q. You guys have obviously done such a great job responding after losses, not just in the regular season but throughout the playoffs. Just based on what you know about this team, what do you anticipate the next two days will be like and just the focus level required to come back?

JAE CROWDER: Yeah, we'll be fine. We're going to watch film, going to talk this out. Going to man up to it. Coach is going to do a good job of showing what went wrong. We got to man up and do what we've been doing all year: just respond to it, respond to a defeat, respond to things not going our way. Like you said, we have been doing it all year. So it's no change now.

Q. That's such an intangible quality for a team to have, that mental fortitude, stamina, whatever you want to call it. How do you feel like you guys were you able to develop that and how much has it paid off in these playoffs?

JAE CROWDER: That's a character thing in a sense, but I think you preach it all year. Your whole locker room starts to believe that and starts to apply it. We have been doing a good job of it since early in the season, before we had fans in the building, just building the stuff, building that team chemistry for things like that. If we have a bad possession, make the next one a good one. Or if we have a bad half, let's come out and have a good half. All the way down to we have a bad game, come back and respond to it next game.

So you have to build that, and that started early in the year. That just hasn't come about right now. So it's about the guys in the locker room, our coaching staff doing a good job of preaching that. We have been doing a good job of believing it and applying it.

Q. As the only one who has Finals experience, what kind of mindset do you want to send to your locker room? Like tell guys don't get too high or too low in the Finals.

JAE CROWDER: Yeah, we have been preaching it all postseason. Whenever we win, we don't get too high. You just move on to the next one. You have a loss, you do the same. You got to do it with more focus, obviously. But I've been preaching that. That's all. That's my message, is just respond to it in the right way and do it collectively and we'll be fine.