NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HAWKS VS. BUCKS

June 27, 2021

Nate McMillan

Atlanta Hawks

Game 3: Pregame

Q. With all the comebacks you guys had against the Sixers, I was wondering at what point you realized in Game 2 that it wasn't going to happen. And just from a broader perspective, what gave you confidence or what might have changed in a good way from those comebacks?

NATE McMILLAN: It's just one of those nights. You have those nights when you can't get anything going. We were turning the ball over like crazy. We finished with 20 turnovers, and we just could not get a rhythm. It's just the feel of the game, a feel for the game, the flow, how your team's playing.

Decided to pull guys early in that fourth quarter really to get some other guys some minutes and see if they could get anything going. It didn't happen. Just left our guys on the bench.

It's not that we have come from behind a lot, but that's not how we want to play. It was a situation where we just played a bad game our last game against Milwaukee. You're going to have nights like that.

Q. After a long time on the road, how good has it been for this team to be able to regroup back on home territory?

NATE McMILLAN: We really kind of forgot about that, that we were on the road, and we started this playoff series against Milwaukee on the road because we had come from Philadelphia and won a Game 7 and just really was focused on winning that series. All of a sudden, we are rushed into the start of another series.

We get the first game, and we play a poor second game, but you realize after that that you've been on the road for seven, eight days and you've come through a grueling seven-game series with Philadelphia. You get the first game in Milwaukee, have an opportunity to get the second and you don't do that.

Yeah, we're disappointed, but that was a good road trip. You get two out of three, and now you come home and try to defend home court. So we really didn't think about it because we were just so locked into that series.

Q. Some of the things that Trae has been really good about, keeping defenses off balance with his floating game and also the lob. As someone who has played that position, what's the key to being effective in that moment, making the split decision to either just look for the floater or just lob it to John or Clint. What's the key as a playmaker making that split decision and making it right?

NATE McMILLAN: He just has to be aware of where his guys are at, what the defense is doing, and a lot of times, making adjustments during the course of the game. Milwaukee came out very aggressive last game where they were picking up a player. They weren't sitting in that deep drop with Lopez. They just brought everybody up.

We didn't really do a good job of recognizing what their defense was doing. They adjusted how they played, but we didn't adjust to the reads that they were giving us on all of our guards. I mean, it wasn't just Trae, but, again, 20 turnovers, you're not executing. So you have to make those adjustments.

We've had the opportunity to look at that on film, but Milwaukee will be adjusting according to the game, how the game is played, whether they are sitting back or being more aggressive, and those guys have to make reads out on the floor.

Q. You answered a little bit of this in that answer right there. How much of them, especially with Trae's turnovers, were forced or unforced, and how did you feel coming out of a film conversation you had with Trae about his ability to at least reduce the part that are unforced turnovers.

NATE McMILLAN: He's going to be fine. Trae is going to be fine. He had some bad turnovers. Some of those, we were just throwing them to the defense. They did a good job of being more aggressive in their pick-and-roll coverage, and we had one of those nights. I just look at it as one of those nights where we didn't get a rhythm.

Trae's going to be fine. The defense that they were playing, he's seen it before. But we didn't really do a good job of getting into a flow, getting that ball from side to side. We basically just pretty much played in our first option or second option most of the night. And we didn't get that ball from side to side for them to defend, getting to the third and fourth option, making a read on what they were doing. They were doing a lot of switching.

We had some matchups that we didn't see, we didn't recognize, and we have to slow down in situations like that and get the ball to where we feel we have an advantage. So Trae's going to be fine.

Q. Let's go with another Trae question. I feel like he has been blessed to have that skip pass as part of his arsenal. He's been doing it very well from a young age. Just what can that do to mess with the defense and give another option rather than help.

NATE McMILLAN: Again, that's part of the read. When he comes off, they pick-and-roll. It's like a quarterback reading his options and seeing what the defense is doing and making the right read. You guys have seen Trae do that his entire career. He had a night that he wasn't connected. That happens. He has to make an adjustment to how they're defending, and a lot of times that has to happen on the floor because, if he continues to get hot and they're defending, they make adjustments, and he has to make that adjustment.

He's been doing that for us. I'm not concerned about Trae.

Q. The other night because Jrue Holiday is so big and long, are there thoughts about playing him a little bit off the ball to trick up the defense a little bit to get Trae going?

NATE McMILLAN: Absolutely. That was part of the game plan. We thought we would make some adjustments defensively, and again, we've seen teams pressure Trae, put a bigger guard on Trae, boxing on Trae. Yes, that part of the plan is to get him off the ball and allow Bogey and Kevin to initiate some offense. We can certainly do that. We didn't do that, though, and that was an adjustment that I should have called more plays to do that. And those guys who are out there with the ball knew that that was part of how we wanted to attack if they played that style of defense.

What Jrue did was really just picked him up full court. It wasn't denying him the ball. So he could get the ball, but there's some other things that we wanted to do that we didn't do in that game to try to take advantage of their defense.

Q. Did Cam do anything to get closer to your rotation?

NATE McMILLAN: He's available, but we will pretty much stay with the rotation that we have been playing.

Q. Coach, where are the main adjustments you expect from Trae Young and Kevin Huerter for this Game 3 against the Bucks?

NATE McMILLAN: Take care of the ball. We've got to take care of the ball. I mean, that's serious. You can't turn the ball over against this team. You can't take quick shots because those shots that you take quick, they are rebounding those and converting those into transition points. We have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball so that we can get back into transition.

Really our transition defense starts with our offensive execution. If we're making that defense work and we have a balanced floor when we take our shot, we should be able to get back in transition and keep this team in front of us. But if we're turning the ball over and taking quick shots and the floor is not balanced, it's really difficult to get back in transition. So for our guards, you mentioned Trae, but get us organized, execute better on the offensive end of the floor.

Q. Nathan Knight took a hard fall late in the last game. Did he have any problems yesterday?

NATE McMILLAN: He was getting treatment for that, but he seems to be okay.

Q. How can you make up for the fact that opens have been so big and physical thus far?

NATE McMILLAN: When you try it do it with speed and aggressiveness, because they are big -- they seem to keep getting bigger as we move on. Again, we've seen this type of thing, and you have to beat them to the spot, you have to outwork them. I thought in the last game they beat us to the spot, they outworked us. They were more physical, more aggressive, just really dominant out there in that last game.

We have to be able to get to that level of play where they're going to continue to be physical. It's going to be even more physical tonight because they have a read on how to play us, and we have to respond to that with the same energy and urgency that they're going to bring to the floor tonight and better execution.