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GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 5, 2019

Draymond Green

Oakland, California

Q. How are you feeling this morning?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I'm feeling good. How about you?

Q. I feel good, yeah. But when Steve talks about maybe on his drive home or the things he thinks about before he goes to sleep after a game like that, what is on the forefront of your mind this morning?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think more so for me it's missed opportunities. I think so many times you want to make it about the Steph missed dunk or different things like that. The fact of the matter is I don't really think we deserved to be in that game. It just kind of shows what we're capable of as a team that they outplayed us the entire game. They executed better. They out-hustled us, which showed up in the rebound category. I think with us not -- I think we only had eight or nine turnovers. That's probably what kept us in the game. But even if you look at overtime, like they got every loose ball, they got every offensive rebound, and that was just kind of indicative of how the entire game was.

Q. You guys still have a 2-1 lead in the series. Do you think there's been too much talk of doom?
DRAYMOND GREEN: No, I don't know what the talk has been honestly. I don't pay too much attention to it. We've got a quick turnaround here, so it's just about refocusing and locking back in on the task at hand. But if the task is doom -- if the topic is doom, that's kind of crazy, being that we still had a chance to win as bad as we played, so I think that's pretty encouraging.

Q. Steve said he thought the team had great focus before the game, but it's just the emotional play. You've been an emotional leader, and we saw how KD kind of spurred the team with his play. How do you get that emotion you're looking for?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think, well, coming in with a 2-0 lead and everybody is talking about how the series is over and how we're going to win, and there's a tendency to relax. And also, you know, they're going to come out and play like their lives are dependent on it, and I think they played with a different sense of desperation than we did. In saying that, they should. I mean, that's just the nature of what we do. Obviously you try to protect against that, but it don't always go that way. So I think we've just got to match their level of intensity. Our focus was definitely there. We've just got to make sure the intensity level is.

Q. What does it take to win the rebounding battle?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Just competing at a much higher level than we did. I think the first two games we out-rebounded them, and that was really key. But last night they were flying around, and I don't -- we didn't -- our defense broke down quite a bit last night, which creates rebounding opportunities well. So our defense can also directly help that, as well.

Q. James is going to get his shot attempts no matter what, but have you guys made a focal point on Chris Paul, slowing him down a little?
DRAYMOND GREEN: No. We've just got Klay guarding him, and Klay is a hell of a defender. I mean, they're definitely going to -- James, like you said, he's going to get his shot attempts, and you just do what you do to try to force misses. But I mean, obviously Chris is a focal point in the scouting report, but it ain't been no extra emphasis on, well, if James gets his, we've got to stop Chris. Actually you want to stop everybody.

Q. You set a double, you doubled Harden in the mid-third and got Shumpert a three, but do you want to selectively double Harden?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think our rotation has got to be a little quicker on that, but we're not overreacting to Shumpert hitting the three.

Q. You had to be at least over the game at center. Obviously you're starting at center in this series. Does that change physically for you? Do you feel more worn down when you're at that position?
DRAYMOND GREEN: No, ain't no Shaqs today. Unless you're playing Joel Embiid or Jokic or something. No. Nobody is banging like that. You probably expend more energy chasing those guards around than banging in this series. You've still got to box out and rebound and stuff, but they ain't just like posting up and bodying me every time, so no. Thank God Shaq ain't in this series, though. (Laughter).

Q. Are you still trying to find that complete game in this series?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, that's always good, but if that complete game never comes, we know we can still win. You know, you always expect that at some point you're going to put it all together. We haven't, and we're up 2-1. I like that. That's pretty good.

Q. Having been with Steph through so many highs and a few lows, obviously last night was not a high for him. What do you know about his mindset in between this time before the next game?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think Steph has a good balance of beating himself up and just moving on with life, and I think that's important. It's part of the reason he's the shooter that he is. I think if you talk to anyone who plays basketball, the toughest thing is to miss shots and keep shooting. Your confidence wavers, you just start to think. Steph will miss four in a row and then heat check the fifth one from 35 feet. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it definitely works for him. I know he don't make too much of it. As a competitor, I know he's pissed with himself, and I think that will bode well for us. Probably it's going to lead to some aggressiveness, and we like when he's aggressive. I think it'll be fine.

Q. Eric Gordon has had some good games against you guys the last couple years. How do you approach defending someone who has that kind of physical strength but can obviously shoot that deep shot?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think we've just got to be more aggressive with him. I think right now he's kind of dictating what he wants, and it's on us to dictate the shots that he takes. But you've got to give him credit. He's played really well, and a huge part of the reason why they won that game yesterday.

Q. Following up on Steph, you guys have the utmost confidence he's going to turn around. Do you personally say anything to him to get him --
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think at times you do. And at times you just kind of like -- you can feel when someone needs you and you can just kind of feel like, he got it. Like who's not saying anything. So I think it's just a feel thing. If you ask him if you say something, no, I don't think so.

Q. What have you thought of Harden's evolution over the past couple years, just into one of the greatest scorers of all time?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think he's a damn good player.

Q. Steve was sharing with us that DeMarcus has been making progress and Damian, the possibility maybe they'd come back. What have you seen of those guys --
DRAYMOND GREEN: Right now we don't really see them much. They're kind of on their own schedule. It's not like we're practicing every day or practicing much at all. When we are, it's just very focused on a few different things. So we haven't really seen much. But nonetheless, getting either of those guys back or both would be good, but right now we've just got to focus on what we've got, which I think we have more than enough to win it all with what we have now. Getting those guys back would definitely be an added bonus if we can.

Q. KD has been on an incredible stretch these Playoffs. What can you share with us that you've seen from your standpoint that maybe we don't understand about what he's doing right now?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I don't really understand what he's doing right now, either. (Laughter).

I don't know. It's pretty amazing, though. Obviously for us to have that option, just kind of give somebody the ball and get the hell out of the way, it's definitely beneficial for us. For him to take over the game like he did in the third quarter, I mean, there's not much a defense can do. I mean, that's good for us, but I can't really tell you what the hell he's doing other than scoring whenever he wants to.

Q. So there's no switch like you see like at halftime or you don't see something different in him?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I kind of felt it. You just kind of feel he was talking and communicating the whole game. You could just tell he was locked in. I think we were down seven going into that third quarter. I said to him on the bench, hey, come on now, take the game over, score 10 straight right out of time-out. Not saying I'm the reason he scored 10 straight, but it's possible. (Laughter).

Q. The day after a 45-minute game, is that different for you than after a 36-minute?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Not at this point. Maybe in January I wouldn't have been able to walk after playing 45 minutes, but you know, you get to the Playoffs, you've been conditioning for this the whole season and getting your body prepared for whatever it takes. And it's a different mindset. You know, like your mindset in the Playoffs is just do whatever it takes to win. Your mindset in the regular season is kind of like, I'm going to try to win the game, but like we've probably got a game tomorrow. It's a completely different mindset.

Q. You guys are 0 and 6 in overtime games this year. I'm sure there's some randomness, but does it bug you you haven't closed out some of those games?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think it bugs me to not close out a game. I don't really give a damn about overtime, whether it's overtime or regulation. You want to win the game. It's the loss for me, not the extra time. It's just some random fact that overtime ain't worked out for us. But we lost. A loss is a loss. If we went to four overtimes. You lose or win, that's all that matters.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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