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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: ROCKETS v WARRIORSMay 21, 2015James HardenOAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Game Two Warriors – 99 Q. James, could you take us through the last play, how it unfolded and how you view it now? JAMES HARDEN: Got the ball off the glass, and I'm thinking, just to try to get an easy one. They did a good job of having two guys on me, so I couldn't attack, and when I looked up I saw a red jersey and it was Dwight so I tried to throw it back to him. At that time I'm thinking five seconds on the clock, so I tried to get the ball back, and it was still two guys right there, and I watched the film, it's just a tough, tough play. Q. In that game where you're going back and forth with Curry, you guys are so close, it's Game 2, how tough is that to deal with and stomach that right now? JAMES HARDEN: It's tough. You know, just how hard we fought both these games. Still, we're giving up small things, too many easy lay‑ups, too many easy threes that we're having to climb back. This is a really good team that we're playing, and so when you give them those buckets and you're trying to fight back and you put yourself in a situation to win, you look back at those plays early in the game, and you kind of want them back. Q. I was just going to follow up on that one. How do you feel emotionally after doing pretty much everything you could do to take your team to win both of these games? JAMES HARDEN: It's just a little frustrated at that last play, but overall I feel good. We're really confident about what we have going on. We let two slip away, so now we go back to Houston and take care of business at home. Just because we're going home doesn't make it easy. We've got to just go out there and compete the way we've been competing, but being smart and not giving up those easy buckets, and we'll be all right. Q. What gives you the confidence to come back from this 0‑2 hole even though you guys were done 3‑1 in the previous series? JAMES HARDEN: We're playing a lot better, as well, too. We had plenty of opportunities to win both of the games, so we have all the confidence in the world. They won two on their home court, you know. Q. What about coming back the way the team did in the second quarter after you had that double‑digit deficit to get back in the thing? JAMES HARDEN: Prime example. We can't get down 16 against a really good team and during that stretch we gave up a lot of cheap buckets, a lot of transition lay‑ups and miscommunication, things like that, that if we can correct we need to correct, we'll put ourselves in a better situation to win the game. Q. Over the years I'm sure you've had a few games where you had to fight through some injury problems. Can you talk a little bit about what it's like for Dwight Howard tonight because he had that nasty bone bruise. What was his demeanor like before the game and how confident were you he was going to be able to do what he did? JAMES HARDEN: To be honest I didn't know. I didn't know if he was going to play or not, but Dwight showed how strong he is. He's a beast out there, rebounding the basketball, playing through it, not making an excuse of an injury, just going out there and giving all he got. We're really proud of him for that. Q. You talk about just the words of encouragement your teammates gave you after the game. JAMES HARDEN: Kicking chairs, it's frustrating. Frustrating to give the game away like that for myself, but my teammates and coaches were behind me, just saying that we're going home to secure home now, go out there Game 3. Ten out of 10 times we'll take that play. It gave me confidence, but it's still frustrating when I know I could have at least got a shot up. Q. And knowing that this is the first of four, how much more does a one‑point loss like this hurt? JAMES HARDEN: It hurts, but they did what they had to do. They won two games at home. We're going back home to get two games. Q. Do you have a different strategy of attack depending on who's guarding you, or do you just do what you want to do out there? JAMES HARDEN: Just being aggressive. I think when I'm aggressive, everything else opens up for myself and my teammates. Dwight gets lay‑ups, our shooters get shots. It's all about just staying in attack mode. Just got to be aggressive and make the defense play honest. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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