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NBA FINALS: BUCKS VS. SUNS


July 11, 2021


Khris Middleton

Jrue Holiday


Milwaukee Bucks

Game 3 Postgame


Milwaukee Bucks 120, Phoenix Suns 100

Q. Jrue, Giannis just said you're our point guard and we knew you were going to bounce back. What was working for you tonight? Was it being at home or something schematic?

JRUE HOLIDAY: I think part of it is being home but just staying aggressive. The guys tell me to continue to be aggressive because that's what's going to be best for our team. I'm pretty sure, even somebody like Khris can tell you, just a shooter who is going through a slump, continue to shoot and that's what I did.

Q. When Giannis comes out aggressively looking, not just aggressively looking to shoot but aggressively looking to create, what does that do for the rest of the team?

KHRIS MIDDLETON: Just makes everything else easier. He draws so much attention whenever he has the ball on the perimeter, and on the paint. Just makes everything easier for everybody else as far as seeing gaps and being able to get open looks.

Q. What was going through your mind, you struggling a little bit but those are the shots that the defense is presenting and you need to shoot. How do you have that confidence to step up in those moments?

JRUE HOLIDAY: You know, it's just about being consistent. Believing in yourself and what you work on. I work on those every day. So I think to be able to step into those and have a rhythm, dribble and shoot them, fairly easy. They leave me open, too, so I have to continue to shoot them.

Q. Giannis said one of the major ideas for you guys was making sure to get section action, third action, to go deeper offensively. What did you see in your middle pick-and-roll with Giannis?

KHRIS MIDDLETON: Yeah, they are jumping up on my pick-and-rolls a little bit, then bringing extra bodies to Giannis' roll, so I can't hit him. So from there, we did our job. We attracted a crowd, and I just find an open man, and allow and trust those other guys to make plays and make shots.

Q. You guys in Games 1 and 2, the Suns had big runs at the end of the second quarter and you flipped that around today. What allowed you to make that push, I think 36-30 with nine to go in the second to where it got at halftime?

KHRIS MIDDLETON: It started with our defense. We were able to get stops. That allowed us to get on the break play a lot faster and a lot freer and a lot of it was Jrue and Giannis. Those guys had the ball in their hands a lot. They made great plays.

Q. Same thing in the third quarter. You hit those couple threes and you went on a huge run to end it and you were involved a ton. Did anything open up in particular or were you getting hot all at once?

JRUE HOLIDAY: I think just taking what the defense presented to us. They kind of went to that zone and sometimes in a zone you get a lot of wide-open threes and we took those chances or we took those shots and made them. But it was definitely a team effort believing in ourselves, like Khris said, making the right plays, the easy early pass, and being able to go out there and have fun and play our game.

Q. For both you guys, you're in the middle of the Finals, but is there any part of you that kind of is amazed that Giannis is putting up these numbers a week after everybody thought he had blown his ACL and was going to be off for next season?

KHRIS MIDDLETON: For me, I've been with him for years now. I've seen him do a lot of stuff like this. Like I said earlier, it doesn't surprise me. To see him do this for a while now, and now it's on the biggest stage and now everybody is getting a chance to see what he goes through; how he's hurt and he still finds a way to go out there and compete and be productive and be dominant at the same time.

JRUE HOLIDAY: I haven't been here as long as Khris but for the time I've been here, it doesn't surprise me, either. The way that he works there's times where we have to tell him to chill in practice or shoot around. No, him doing this isn't a surprise at all.

Q. What is the cat-and-mouse game that you have to play defending Chris Paul, whether it's being physical or playing up, trying to speed him up or slow him down, just something to take him out of his rhythm? Because it seems like you've been more effective since Game 1.

JRUE HOLIDAY: We were just trying to speed him up, trying to get him as tight as possible. And again, he's a professional and he'll be one of the greatest point guards in the league ever. Honestly just trying to make it a game, more like a chess match. When I have a chance to make it hard on him, and then try to take advantage of that when he's on defense.

Q. You talk always about, especially after losses, the things that you can do better, want to do better and you recognize it almost immediately postgame. Whether it be 50-50 balls or hustles like last game, and the next one, you have done it this playoff run, to win sort of the next game. Why do you think this group has been so good at that, just recognizing it right away and then putting it into practice, that next game, as opposed to maybe hoping it might happen?

JRUE HOLIDAY: For one I think it's the character of the team. We have a group of guys that want to get better and strive to get better. We all hate to lose, and we know the ultimate goal. So, we know if we get to the Finals, you need a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work. And now that we're here, it's all about getting better.

And we've done it since the beginning of the season. We had a group of guys where half of them were here and the other half were new and we had to adjust to that. And even in the playoffs, we had, what, three different teams that we also had to adjust to, and being in the situation with Brooklyn where we were down two, we got better every single game.

So I really feel like it's just the character of our guys, how we come out and approach the game every single day, and really just trying to bounce things off each other and communicating that way.

Q. You mentioned that Brooklyn game, after 2-0, people counted you guys out and after Giannis went down, people said you're not going to come back from this now. What does rattle you or makes you unrattleable?

KHRIS MIDDLETON: I think it's just our toughness, being able to go through a lot of adversity during the season and playoff runs, knowing that as long as we've still got five guys that can go out and play we've still got a chance. I think that's most important. That we have all the confidence in the world in each one of our guys. Whoever steps out on the court that we can get the job done.

Q. When you have a great player like Giannis who is doing historic things and who is the total focus of the defense, how critically important is it for both of you to play with force and to move the ball and to take shots and to not stand around and watch his greatness? And how tough is that to do sometimes when he's rolling?

KHRIS MIDDLETON: When he's rolling sometimes, like he was these last two games, you've just got to give him the ball give him his space and allow him to go to work.

At the same time, we both know what we can do. He knows what we can do. He trusts us with the ball in our hands. We're always trying to be aggressive and find ways to get us involved and keep other guys involved, also. We know we have a complete team, however many guys that can have a night that can score 20 to 30 or sometimes 40. But as long as we play together, we know we've got the best chance.

JRUE HOLIDAY: Yeah, I agree with Khris. Just being able to trust in ourselves knowing that Giannis is going to be consistent and he's going to do what he does. But we can also make the game easier for him.

I think by us cutting and taking guys away and trying to give him space to work allows him to make plays for us and be able to knock down those open shots. Even by us cutting and everything, I feel like it opens up space for him to go to work. Again, I think it's a rhythm that we've kind of gotten into and being able to figure things out, and we did a good job of that tonight.

Q. Either of you guys, there was a point in the second quarter during that run or before that run, I should say, where Devin Booker and Cam Payne had a two-on-one and Pat got back to defend that and it turned into a P.J. Tucker three. What does that kind of transition play do for the momentum of a team?

JRUE HOLIDAY: I think it's really big. Those hustle plays, we missed some of those the first couple games where we might get block or a nice box-out and it bounces to their hands, and we weren't there for the 50/50 balls. But I think to be able to get those opportunities is obviously to our advantage.

But it's definitely a team effort the way that Pat and Tuck go for those offensive rebounds and give us another chance at scoring. It's intangible and even just in fighting, they might not get it, but to be able to get in there and tap it out, it's huge for us because that gives us another opportunity.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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