|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: PELICANS v WARRIORSApril 18, 2015Monty WilliamsOAKLAND, CALIFORNIA Warriors – 106 Q. So, Steve Kerr said the Warriors got what they wanted. They won the first game. You didn't, but you proved that you could compete in a very tough arena. How much of what you wanted is that? COACH WILLIAMS: Well, he's right. They got what they wanted. I thought we settled down, which is a win for us, but we're not satisfied with just settling down. We gave up so many easy baskets that it got their crowd into it. They got a lot of juice. But we did figure out some things tonight. We've got to be a lot better figuring out some small, small screens and our pick‑and‑roll defense tonight was poor, especially in the first half. But he's absolutely correct. They got what they wanted. But we did figure out a few things about them and ourselves now. I'm sure they're going to play a lot better, so we have to be a lot better. The first quarter just put us in a big hole. We didn't move the ball especially well, and they just got so many easy baskets in the first quarter, and they got off to a really good start. Q. Speaking about that slower start, you said before the game having a strong first quarter was really important to you guys T how much did that slow start affect you guys throughout the rest of the game? COACH WILLIAMS: When you compare it to the end of the game and how close we got it, it makes you think about the start. But it takes more than the start and the finish to make up a game. But I thought it was huge for us to handle the crowd and handle their runs because they do that, especially in transition. I thought they got easy buckets tonight in transition. We only scored 13 points. A lot of our shots we just missed. It wasn't like we took bad shots. We missed shots. But the shots we missed, they just got in and took off. I didn't think our floor balance was great in the first quarter, and then we settled down a bit in the second half and played better defense, and it got us back in the game. Q. Do you have any early sense on the extent of Tyreke's injury? And with Tyreke hurting and at the same time Drew still working his way back, how much of a corner does that paint you into in a series like this? COACH WILLIAMS: I'm not sure about Tyreke just yet. He tried to come back. They're going to get him an MRI this evening and see where he is. But as far as being painted in the corner, we've dealt with this all year long with our team. So it's not a big deal for us. Obviously we'd like to have Drew and Tyreke healthy, but Norris did a good job. He didn't shoot it especially well, but I thought he did a good job of settling us down, and our guard play was a lot better in the second half. We'll see where he is tomorrow, and we'll make our adjustments from there. Q. Was the Tyreke injury new? Because I know he had ice on both knees yesterday. COACH WILLIAMS: No, he got banged. He got hit pretty hard on his knee and something happened. I'm not quite sure yet. I think he had a little bit of swelling in his knee, so we don't know if he jarred something or if he just had an irritation. But it's not a new injury. I mean it is a new injury. It's not something he had preexisting. Q. Could you talk about when Steph was out, it seemed you guys did a lot of charging and did well? COACH WILLIAMS: Yeah. Q. And when he came back he seemed like he would stop the plug. COACH WILLIAMS: Yeah, well, the transition, like we cut it to 11, I think. Then two possessions in a row they get threes and it goes back to 17. So that was more ground that we had to make up. When Steph's in the game, your natural tendency is to stay closer to him, and it opened up the lane. So he's a great player. Obviously, when he comes into the game, you've got to pay more attention to him. Q. Also, what do you think about Anthony's first playoff outing? COACH WILLIAMS: I thought he settled down. He had some buckets early that he typically doesn't miss. Tyreke went to the basket one time and missed the lay‑up. AD had a follow‑up dunk and it came out of his hands. I was like that's not AD. He typically finishes that. So second half, he figured some things out. I don't want to talk about it now, because I don't want to give anything away, but I thought not that he wasn't calm, but I thought he settled into what the game was like and what they were taking away and what he could do. We'll look at the film tomorrow so he can be better. Q. Davis yesterday said basically we've got to stop Steph. You couldn't quite. I mean, he's their big star, is that really the key to beating the Warriors? COACH WILLIAMS: We want to win the game, so if Steph scores 70 points and we win by one, we'll be just as happy. You know what I mean? Steph scored 34, Klay had 21. Their starters had balanced scoring after Steph. So we've got to stop all of them. I didn't think our defense was particularly great in the first half against anyone on their team. I thought in the second half we were a lot better. You're not going to stop Steph. He's going to miss shots. You can take some things away from him. But like I said, he's a great player. Q. In the first quarter, do you feel some early anxiety maybe from your guys that kind of played a factor? COACH WILLIAMS: I think it's human nature for some of our guys who are playing in the playoffs for the first time to have that. But like I said, we didn't wait until the film session tomorrow to settle down. I thought we settled down at halftime and started playing better basketball. I expected that. I didn't expect it to lead to a 13‑point first quarter and giving up 28, but I think that's natural. Q. You mentioned the pick‑and‑roll defense. But just overall they had a lot of free reign going through the middle there. Was that surprising? Was there some overplaying for the three point there or anything? What was going on there? COACH WILLIAMS: Pick‑and‑roll coverages. They set small, small screens. I didn't think we handled that well. It wasn't a ton of blow‑byes. When we committed two to the ball, they countered it well. At our place last time we played, there weren't as many middle pick‑and‑rolls. It was more on the side. Everything tonight seemed like it was in the middle a lot. When they did go side, it was a clear side. So we had a chance to rotate, because you had four guys on the side you could rotate. In the middle they created a lot of single side snap action is what we call it. We didn't do a good job of reading the dive and taking away the three. We either took away one and gave up the other, so we've got to get better at that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|