EMIRATES NBA CUP

December 14, 2024

Trae Young

Atlanta Hawks

Semifinal Postgame

Milwaukee Bucks 110, Atlanta Hawks 102

Q. Trae, this was a valuable lesson for you guys as a young team about competing in moments like this. As a veteran who has been in a position like this before, how do you pick guys up like JJ and Zacch and Dyson so that they learn moving forward?

TRAE YOUNG: I mean, you just -- in the moment, you continue to uplift them and give them praise, even when they miss. We know the shots that certain guys got tonight we've been making, and we're going to continue to make going forward. Some shots didn't go tonight. That's what you have to do as a leader, to continue to uplift them no matter what the circumstances and how they go that night.

Q. Trae, I wanted to ask you about just the fan reaction. It sounded like a lot of Hawks fans were in the crowd. What was it like to kind of know that you have that support behind you and those Hawks people who traveled out here for you?

TRAE YOUNG: I kind of figured there would be a lot of Hawks fans out here with the Falcons playing Monday. It was good. You could definitely hear them in the crowd tonight. It was good to have them out here supporting us. Wish we could have won for them.

So yeah, that's all I have to say. They were supportive obviously. I wish we could have won.

Q. Just based on you guys treating this like a regular season game, but does it sting a little bit more because it was the NBA Cup?

TRAE YOUNG: Of course. Of course. But at the end of the day, we have got another one next week. We have got another game next week. It's not the Cup game. We're not going to win an extra little bit of money. But at the end of the day, this was a great experience for us, and we took full advantage of it. We're going to learn from it, and it's going to make us better.

Q. What do you take away, not just from today but this whole experience that might help the team down the road?

TRAE YOUNG: Just not to give up. I think what we have done in this Cup was really, really special, really good. I think we've really found the way we want to play and figured out the tempo we want to play at and things like that.

Now that we've got guys healthy and back, we are able to find a little rhythm with guys playing and knowing when they are going to come out and play. It's been good. I feel like this Cup was really good for us. For a young team to go as far as we did, we can really use this as hopefully momentum going into the rest of the season.

Q. For you in that third quarter, you had 14 points. Down the stretch, it seems like the offense slowed down a little bit more. What were the Bucks doing particularly in those last five minutes that made it hard for some of those shots to fall?

TRAE YOUNG: I don't know if they made it any tougher. I think guys just missed shots. Jalen had a wide-open three in the corner. I had an in-and-out sidestep. I had a good look. There were a couple shots that we had that just didn't go down. Dyson had a wide-open three at the top of the key. Those were all late-game shots and momentum shots. If we don't make that and they come down and hit a layup or Giannis goes to the free throw line, it's a back-breaker.

That's just part of it. We're going to learn from it. It's not the end of the world. We're going to learn from it and be better from it.

Q. I know you talk about missing shots, but defensively keeping yourselves in the game the whole not, it's been a theme the last couple weeks. I know individually you're buying in too, but what's your viewpoint on that and how it's been an uptick during this winning stretch for you guys?

TRAE YOUNG: Yeah, the defensive end is going to get us to where we really want to go, and especially where I want to go. I want to go far in the playoffs. So no matter like my offensive game has been -- I've gotten people involved, but shooting-wise have not been able to get it going.

But to be honest with you, I haven't really been worried about it. I've just been so focused on the defensive end and focus on that part because I know it's going to carry us to where we really need to go. I think if we continue to have this mindset, the offense is going to be what finds itself.

In past years, that's what's led us. So when that is secondary for our team and our identity, that's going to be really scary at the end of the day.