NBA FINALS: BUCKS VS. SUNS

July 16, 2021

P.J. Tucker

Milwaukee Bucks

Practice Day

Q. What has been the biggest difference for you guys from the first two games?

P.J. TUCKER: Just lock in from the beginning. Generally, we just -- well, real small things, a lot of small things throughout the game, whether it be shifts, whether it be our initial coverage on certain plays. Just being able to lock in and grow from the first two games from the mistakes we made.

Q. You've seen Jrue guard Chris Paul full court. I think Jrue joked after last game how tired he was. You've guarded Chris Paul before. How physically taxing is what Jrue is doing out there?

P.J. TUCKER: It's hard to play that hard for an entire game, anybody in this league at this level. Guarding every player in this game, everybody is on the floor, everybody's body is crashing, everybody is doing all they can, fighting tooth and nail for every advantage to try to win the game.

For Jrue it's just part of what he does. That's why he's so good.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the three-point shot. The Suns have kept you guys to below 30 percent shooting in Game 2 and Game 4 as a team. I wondered when you decide to back off and when you decide to keep firing anyway. I know you personally seem to wait for your open shot with extra passing, but as a team, what's the philosophy there?

P.J. TUCKER: You're open, let it fly. That's just the general rule of how we play. You try to give up good shots for great shots, swings, extra passes. That's how we play. If you're open, you let it fly no matter what.

Q. So there's no discussion about being conservative during timeouts or anything like that? You don't worry about numbers?

P.J. TUCKER: I don't know any team that does that. If you're open, you've got to let it fly. If there's open shots, you've got to take them.

Q. What will be the mindset for Game 5, and how important will it be to take care of the ball in order to win Game 5?

P.J. TUCKER: That's always a high priority, taking care of the ball. We want to move the ball. We want to attack.

But at the same time, you want to take care of it. We don't want to give up transition points and easy baskets, so that's definitely high up on the list of things that we prioritize in order to give ourselves a chance to win.

Q. Do you think one of the keys that allowed you to tie the series was playing more minutes with a small lineup?

P.J. TUCKER: I don't know. It works sometimes; sometimes it doesn't work as well. It's just on Coach to try to figure that out and at what points in the game he wants to do it. I think it's given us a chance to give a different look and to be able to do different things scheme-wise on defense. But it's something you've just got to keep trying to figure out throughout the game.

Q. Going through your career, do you feel like this series is the toughest series that you've ever faced?

P.J. TUCKER: I don't know. I mean, it's tough. Obviously, we're fighting. We just won Game 7 with Brooklyn down to the last second, so I don't know if it’s safe to say that. But it's a tough series.