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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND TWO: GRIZZLIES v WARRIORSMay 13, 2015Stephen CurryAndre IguodalaOAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Game Five Warriors – 98 Q. That may be the first game of the series where you guys played at your tempo. If so, how did you get it into your tempo? STEPHEN CURRY:  The last two games have kind of been where we want it to be. Just getting stops is the most important part of it. Taking the ball out of the basket, especially to start the game is tough. Tonight they actually got off to a good start, got a decent lead. But I think they had to work on every possession. If you stay physical, eventually you're going to get stops. Thankfully we had a couple of shots that got us back into the game and got a lot of momentum in the first quarter, and you try to capitalize on it from there. We made the adjustments that we made the last two games and everybody executed and we were able to get stops and get in transition. That is how you speed it up. Q. Andre, how much fun were you having tonight? Can you explain why you're shooting the ball so much better in this series than in the previous one? ANDRE IGUODALA: Feeling a little bit better. I think we've been going through the same routine every day. I think the percentages always even out, so it's important to keep the confidence; and when you're shooting it well, you stay humble. But if you play the game the right way, and you trust in your guys on the team, we've got some great shooters out there, guys that are going to demand a lot of attention. It's going to flow to you and just were making shots. So playing the same way, shooting the same shots, and just shots going in. Q. Steph, talk about the first quarter where you guys flipped the script and erased that deficit and took off? Your feeling when you had the ball and said this is what I do, and this is my time right here? STEPHEN CURRY: You feel the energy of the crowd, and I was getting some clean looks. So you make a couple, keep being aggressive and just try to read the situation in every possession. I was able to get free off some great screens in Draymond and Bogut and (Indiscernible) when he came in. And two of them were off ball movement. Everybody's aggressive, looking to score, get in the paint. If you draw a couple of defenders and you're able to move it on, and that's when you get really easy looks and you have confidence to knock those down. It was a cool moment. Obviously, we were down a good amount in the first quarter, and to get back into the game and get our crowd into it to end that quarter as strong as we did was important for us going through that game. Q. Hey, Steph, the last two games you guys have been hitting shots that you weren't necessarily hitting the two games before that. So, obviously, execution has been better. Has the mindset changed at all? Do you have a confidence or relaxation the last two games that weren't there in the previous two? STEPHEN CURRY: No, we were just challenged to play differently than we were in Game 2 or 3 and not play so much one‑on‑one and forcing the issue. Trusting every single person that starts floating the floor to make plays, and that makes it easy on everybody. So I think we were just refocused in that sense to understand how we were going to be successful against this team. Because they have strengths, obviously, defensively to pack the paint and try to get into you, so you have to use that against them, and that's how we move the ball. You see how many open looks we get just by being unselfish and trying to make the right play. Q. What is it like to see Steph motioning to the crowd and waving to the crowd? He was going on a little bit there for a while? ANDRE IGUODALA: Yeah, I think he's doing a great job the last two games of knowing when to take over the game. The last two games he hadn't taken a shot in the first five, six minutes and then he goes on a quick burst. I think tonight the way we started we kind of saw that he needed to get us out of a slump. He made two big shots, and then he got the crowd into it, and he got everybody else energized. That's just showing maturity, becoming an MVP basketball player, and it showed there in that first quarter. Q. How important do you think it is to finish this off in the next game to shut it down and not take it to a Game 7? ANDRE IGUODALA: Well, every game is important. Tonight was good for us because we had a really good win in Memphis in Game 4. You're not sure how we'll respond. Will we get too comfortable at home, or will we handle business? And we had that sense of urgency about us today. So hopefully it continues. Every playoff win is going to be hard. Every playoff win is going to be hard and every playoff win is important, and you can't take any second or minute or possession out there for granted. Q. After Game 3 your team asked you to have dinner in Memphis, so what is for dinner? STEPHEN CURRY: It was a disappointing loss and you kind of want to forget about it. So just enjoy yourself, and then obviously Memphis has some good food so you've got to par take in it and move on to the next game. Q. You've been teammates with David Lee for a long time. He's gone through kind of a difficult year playing some games, sitting some games. What do you think it's meant to him to contribute like these last two games so much, and what do you think it means for the team? STEPHEN CURRY: It's huge for us to have a guy that's been on All‑Star teams and been a go‑to guy, to respond the way he has this year to different situations. It's been tough. He's had ups and downs. But the fact that he's ready to play is very kind of switching size two years ago he was a guy that was out and HB stepped up in his place in that playoff run, and now Mo goes down, and we need a guy that can step up and provide a spark off the bench and play those minutes, and he's been ready. So it says a lot about his confidence to come in and help us anyway he can. We're going to need him, obviously, in every series we play from here on out, to come in, be physical on the defensive end and do what he did tonight and give us a spark on the offensive end like he's done his whole career. It says a lot about a guy when he's ready to play and having the season that he's been through. Q. Andre, where do you rank this defensive performance compared to some of the other great ones you've had this year? ANDRE IGUODALA: It's hard to judge. I think this unit is very dynamic because we've been together for a year so we kind of understand each other. We can kind of switch it up. We can go big, go small, we can be really quick, and we communicate really well. Just the way we're moving out there and we're all in sync, it's hard to really describe. And that's what I really enjoy about the game when we've five guys on the team. STEPHEN CURRY: It sounds easy, but that's hard to do. Only championship caliber teams get to that point. And the next thing for us is to do it every game, every possession, every single minute out there. So we're still getting better, and I think that's the great thing about our team is we understand we have some more room to grow. It's going to be a process, and it's going to be hard. We're not looking forward to something in the future, but just enjoying the journey right now. Q. Steph, what do you think is one aspect of the game that you think you need to improve on moving forward? STEPHEN CURRY: Just controlling the tempo of the game from the point guard perspective. You still get a little antsy to make a huge play or push the tempo when you don't really need to, and those are just kind of pockets of games that can be game changers if you let it kind of get out of control. So I'm always trying to be as aggressive as possible. But like Andre was talking about earlier, you have to pick and choose your spots and always be under control. So still going to go out and try to make plays and be creative and utilize every teammate that you have on the floor. But just trying to slow down in certain situations when the game calls for that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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