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NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS


May 29, 2019


Marc Gasol


Toronto, Ontario - Practice Day

Q. On the city of Toronto.
MARC GASOL: Every regular season game was a sellout and that tells you something. Great city, obviously, very international, you got to deal with the cold, that's pretty obvious, but other than that it's a city that's very supportive of its team. I had Vince [Carter] on my team and Vince shared a lot of stories about his time here with the Raptors. Always talked so highly about Toronto.

Q. When you hear the coaches, opposing coaches and players complain about Drake on the sideline, what is your reaction?
MARC GASOL: I don't watch or read media, so I don't know the stories, so I don't know.

Q. The Milwaukee coach complained about it. Do you think it impacts the game?
MARC GASOL: I don't know. I don't know, but it doesn't affect me.

Q. What's the key to a good start in Game 1?
MARC GASOL: Every possession from the jump ball, competing, communicating, solving issues as we face them, do not overreact to whatever. They're going to make shots, they're a really good team, but protect the paint as well the three-point line, multiple other things. It's all the same things that we have been doing but the farther along you go it's harder.

Q. A lot of pro athletes don't live within a six-block radius from the arena. Have you had a chance to get around the city at all?
MARC GASOL: Not much. Not much. When my family got here, we go to parks, we walk around, we like walking, obviously. But the cold kind of prevented us early on from doing that, but now the weather changed quite nicely and we go outside, we go to parks. It's all about the kids.

Q. On the possible return of DeMarcus Cousins.
MARC GASOL: A change in the routine. He's so talented. He can shoot it, he's a great passer, great size. I'm sure he's going to be very excited to play. Whenever that happens, we'll deal with it. If it's Game 1, Game 1. If it's Game 2, Game 2. We're going to be ready to play the Warriors.

Q. How do you prepare for all the movement that they present?
MARC GASOL: Like if you don't move with them, you cannot overreact, you cannot just hug them. You have to cover a lot of ground, you got to do a lot of talking, a lot of running. At the same time you have to play the paint. If they get layups and dunks, it's going to be a hard series.

Q. Can you talk about the mental challenge of communicating.
MARC GASOL: Yeah, you can't overreact, you can't allow things to affect you as a team negatively. I thought that we showed a lot of mental toughness against Milwaukee.

Q. (No microphone.)
MARC GASOL: I'm not in that mode to analyze what it means to me. To me it's more like, okay, we have a job to do, a challenge that we're facing right now, and I'm going to enjoy the challenge without a question. I'm preparing for it. All the things that you need to do to get ready for Game 1, and then after Game 1 it's a lot more games coming up, so you can't just hang your head and start thinking like whatever's happening outside. Like just dial in and do your job.

Q. What's the overall team mentality?
MARC GASOL: You don't prepare for games not to win, you prepare for games to beat them. At least obviously we have, we're a very confident team, we have a lot of experience, maybe not as a team but as men we do, and I think that everyone prepares and thinks that way, how can you hurt them, how can you try to defend them, and whoever, obviously, that's more of that that's going to win.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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