	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 5, 2019

Steve Kerr

Oakland, California

Q. Do you figure that's the sort of game for both teams, confidence, what's coming next?
STEVE KERR: Meaning what?

Q. Meaning you guys didn't play your best but were right there until the end, they did some things they hadn't been able to accomplish in the first couple games? I guess you can't speak for them, but from your vantage point, do you come away from that with confidence despite the loss?
STEVE KERR: Well, we're always confident. I think the biggest thing is to learn the lessons of what we have to do better. I thought we fought and stayed in the game with some big plays, some big stops. But over the course of the game, I thought they outplayed us. They got to more rebounds. We made some mistakes defensively. I just thought they showed the desperation that was necessary to win that game, and this is the Playoffs against a great team. This is exactly what you expect.

Q. Your second unit got hit pretty good in the second quarter and you didn't really go back to them until the fourth. Are you going to have to go away from that group?
STEVE KERR: Not necessarily. We had KD and Klay on the floor at the start of the second quarter. You know, we could mix the -- mix up the pieces a little bit around them, but you know, I think it was just a tough stretch for us. But we'll bounce back next game.

Q. What do you think it takes to win the rebounding battle?
STEVE KERR: Boxing out and trying hard. You've got to box these guys out, and you've got to be aware on the weak side especially, shot goes up, guys are coming.

Q. In your experience if Steph has a bad game, what is his response usually?
STEVE KERR: He usually has a good game.

Q. But does he do anything that you notice --
STEVE KERR: He's just really, really competitive and he gets locked in and he gets a little bit angry, and he come out with a lot of focus and a lot of fight. So that's what we're expecting tomorrow.

Q. You guys have done a pretty good job of limiting Chris Paul's looks. Shot attempts are pretty far down this series. Has it been anything in particular?
STEVE KERR: Well, Klay is doing a good job. We're trying hard to keep Chris from getting to his spots, but we're trying -- that's of course what we're trying to do, same with James and Eric Gordon, and it's impossible to stop these guys, but if we can slow them down a little bit, it gives us a better chance to win.

Q. You mentioned Houston's desperation a minute or so ago. Is that kind of the mentality you want to see from your guys?
STEVE KERR: Yeah. Like I said, it's the Playoffs, so you're on the road against a great team. You can't expect to win with the level of focus, the lack of focus that we had last night. Too many mindless plays defensively. To me when I watched the game, the last four points of regulation were the key to the game. We give up four free throws on one foul, 85 feet from the hoop, and the other one just a reach, we were stopping them, we were doing a good job getting stops down the stretch, but when you hand them four free throws it's tough to win. So that's the kind of stuff we've got to clean up.

Q. James and KD have obviously known each other a long time. Do you think there's an element of wanting to one-up somebody that you're close to?
STEVE KERR: I have no idea.

Q. When you look at the stretch that Kevin is on right now, just been incredible, and when he came out in that third quarter you could see the benefit for the rest of the Warriors' offense. What do you have to do to maybe get that KD earlier in the game?
STEVE KERR: I'd be -- if you had that KD for 48 minutes, you'd have the greatest player in the history of planet, and you'd win every single game. I don't know how you could expect anybody to play at that level that he did in the fourth quarter for a whole game. The game is what it is. There's going to be ups and downs for everybody, including and maybe especially the great players because so much is required of them. I thought he was brilliant, and we couldn't ask for anything more.

Q. As the game evolves, we see more and more very deep three-pointers. You have a number of players who can do it. Do you expect that to become more and more of a weapon?
STEVE KERR: Well, it's certainly trending that way, yeah, not only the volume of threes but the distance of the threes, which spaces the floor even more, which makes your help defense that much more difficult.

Q. How much of a concern is fatigue with the amount of minutes you have --
STEVE KERR: It doesn't matter. You have to play. You've got to do what you have to do to win the game, and if you can't do it, you can't do it, but our guys are in great shape, and we've got a day's rest today, and they'll be ready to go. We didn't play 65 minutes like Jokic did, so we should be fine.

Q. You guys are 0 and 6 in overtime games this year; is that just random?
STEVE KERR: I think so. I think it's pretty random stuff.

Q. In the past you said you don't usually make adjustments until you're challenged or you lose a game. Is this a game that leads you to think, okay, maybe we might need to make some adjustments?
STEVE KERR: I think the biggest adjustment is always the emotional one, the fight, the competitive spirit. That's the first adjustment that we have to make. That's the adjustment they made last night. They fought harder, and the rebounding battle completely flipped from games 2 to 3. So what's the adjustment? Well, we've got to box out. We've got to rotate. We've got to be in the right place at the right time. We've got to anticipate what's happening. And we've got to fight for every possession. I thought they did a better job of that than we did last night. It's not that we didn't play hard. We played hard for good stretches of that game. But they outplayed us for 53, and that's why they won. That's the first adjustment.

And then you tweak some things from there. Any little thing that you see, you figure out and you decide whether to do it or not.

Q. How bad were the box outs?
STEVE KERR: I thought we missed five or six pretty blatant ones. And then they got to some that was just great effort on their part. So it was a combination of both.

Q. It looked like they made in the first half at least a concerted effort to try and attack the basket going to the rim, and then in the second half they went back to the three-point shot. Did that first half kind of surprise you guys a little bit because they were so aggressive inside and not outside?
STEVE KERR: No, because at home down 0-2, desperation, that's what you do, you go to the rim. You attack. I thought Capela got some hoops inside that helped them that first half. Nothing about it was surprising. But it's harder to get to the rim as the game goes on. So I thought we did a better job defensively in the second half, and we had our chance. We got the lead late in the fourth quarter, but again, we give up four free throws in the last, I think, two minutes, and those were the last points that they scored. So at that point we were doing a fantastic job defensively.

But it's the gamesmanship that we know that they're so good at, and we fouled them twice on plays that we just did not need to make. And that's what you have to be locked in on in a playoff game. You have to be locked in on that stuff because you're playing against great players who are going to make plays. If they do, you pat them on the back, you say nice play. But if you foul them on plays that you know they're masters at drawing, shame on us.

Q. Last night Andre said that Steph did a good job of getting to the basket. Looking at the film, were you happy with the looks he got overall?
STEVE KERR: Yeah. I thought he was really trying to get himself going early in the game, maybe took a couple quick ones, but I'm fine with that. Whatever it takes for Steph to get a groove, that's what he's going to do. So I thought he got really good shots, and the ones at the rim are ones that he normally makes. It's just a tough night for him.

Q. What is the plan today? I know the players have off, but do they get treatment, are they going to shoot --
STEVE KERR: Yeah, we're going to watch video right now, and then we'll have an optional day over at the gym. Some of the young guys will go over and play three-on-three, and whoever wants to get shots up will head over, as well.

Q. You guys doubled Harden (indiscernible) and Shumpert got a three, was that just Draymond wanting to double --
STEVE KERR: Was that the one out near half court? Yeah, that was probably a little ambitious. That's a tough spot to double. You know, we're doing that occasionally. You've got to just pick your spots. I'll bet Draymond would like to have that one back, but you can't be perfect throughout the game. You make somebody make a shot and they make it, that's all right.

Q. What's the latest on Damian Jones? He was dunking yesterday and making threes.
STEVE KERR: I think he's going to be cleared for contact next week, so he can start playing three-on-three and stuff.

Q. Maybe later down the line in the Playoffs --
STEVE KERR: He could -- I mean, it's a possibility that he could be back. And same with DeMarcus. He's coming along pretty well. So we'll just kind of wait and see.

Q. Any other stuff DeMarcus has been doing since the last update?
STEVE KERR: No, just normal progression from the injury.

Q. When Steph does have a tough game, is he the type of guy where you pull him aside and talk to him or do you just let him shoot his way through?
STEVE KERR: You know, we've known each other for so long now that it's not like, hey, come to my office, I want to meet you. We just chat. We just chat in passing. We just -- there's nothing planned. But my job as a coach is to help the players succeed, give them a little idea of what they can do to maybe make an impact in one area or another. So those conversations happen all the time.

Q. For the past five years you've been in a lot of top games and very important games. Did you have that kind of sense like before the game if your guys were locked in, kind of like put it in their minds --
STEVE KERR: Yeah, I felt like we were focused before the game. Look, for the game we had eight turnovers. It was not a careless game at all. It's just the Playoffs bring a different level of force, especially against a great team, and they're on their home floor, as I mentioned, down 0-2, they're fighting for their season. I didn't think we played poorly at all. I just thought we played with a lack of force. That's probably the best word. They played with force. They brought the fight to us, then even though we had our moments and we played hard at times, I didn't think we brought the desperation that we needed, and they deserved to win.

Q. The Eric Gordon strip of Klay, it seemed a surprise even to Klay. Is that the type of force you're talking about?
STEVE KERR: That's an example, yeah. They ran us early on the ball, pressuring us. They did a good job. But it's not just one play. It's multiple plays. Again, if you get out-rebounded by 20, that's a really good indication that the other team has brought more force.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297