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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: ROCKETS v WARRIORSMay 27, 2015Kevin McHaleOAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Game Five Warriors – 104 Q. Just your thoughts on tonight. KEVIN McHALE: We didn't finish very well at the rim. They got too many offensive rebounds, then we had too many live‑ball turnovers at the top of the floor. Those three things really doomed us. Q. Harden had a rough night, 13 turnovers. Just your thoughts on how he played? KEVIN McHALE: Yeah, I mean, James had 13 turnovers, a lot of them off the dribble game and like I said, a lot of them up high. You know, but we had a lot of turnovers up high on the floor again, led to run‑outs. We didn't have‑‑ we finished really bad at the rim. I don't know what the numbers were. I didn't see them yet. But we didn't finish very well at the rim at all, and offensive rebounds, like I say, those things‑‑ for our team, it's hard to overcome those for us. Q. When you see those turnovers in James, is that him trying to do too much? KEVIN McHALE: We didn't move the ball the way we needed to again tonight. We got a little stagnant and we didn't cut and advance and attack the way we had to against this team. But give them credit; they have a lot of guys that they can switch stuff out, and they've been a good, solid defensive team all year long. You know, I mean, I really thought that tonight, had we been able to give them better shot, I think tonight's game was a game that‑‑ I didn't think that they played great, but we just couldn't muster enough consecutive stuff. They would get out to a little bit of a lead, then we'd fight back, they'd get out, we'd fight back, they'd get out, we'd fight back. At some point in that game we had to get out ahead and try and put some pressure on them, but we couldn't do it. Q. What would you say of the season if you try to take it as a whole? KEVIN McHALE: Well, I'm disappointed right now. You know, the guys fought hard. One thing about the team is that they were battlers, and a lot of guys in that room you feel pretty comfortable going to war with. Q. Afterwards was it pretty emotional in there when you gave a talk to them at all? KEVIN McHALE: Guys are disappointed. Q. Dwight picked up a double tech. Obviously it's moot now, but does the physicality have to deal with Bogut? KEVIN McHALE: You know, I've said it all series long, if you hit first, you usually get away with it. They held and grabbed a little bit and got Dwight on some retaliation stuff. But Dwight had a big night for us, 18 and 16, and he fought his way all through the game. JET‑‑ I said it before on JET, JET has got championship blood in those veins. The kid is a winner. I played him damned near the whole game. He kept fighting. He's a great kid, man. We had a lot of guys that fought hard. We didn't play particularly well, which we had to play well, but as I said, turnovers, offensive rebounds, and our inability to just finish at the rim, we were extraordinarily bad at finishing at the rim, and for us, putting pressure on the paint on both offensive rebounding and scoring hoops is usually kind of our calling card. Q. You guys counted so much on James throughout the season, and a few times when he didn't have a big game you guys were able to overcome still. The difficulty tonight, he turned it over a lot, he couldn't get any shots up. Was that because of the turnovers? KEVIN McHALE: Well, I mean, partially because of the turnovers. I think he turned down a few shots that he probably could have had in different areas. I mean, look, James didn't play well, but as I've said all year long, we don't win the division, we don't win 56 games, we don't have home court, we don't beat the Clippers in Game 7 if it wasn't for James. He had a tough go tonight. There's nothing else you can really say about it, man. Sometimes you go out there and you're trying your best and things just don't work out. I mean, I promise you, he did not plan on turning the ball over going into the game and everything else. But they can switch a lot of different guys. They plug off of our 4 men all series long. There wasn't a lot of room in the paint but there was enough tonight. I thought we got some pretty clean looks at the basket, especially early, and we couldn't make them, and then again, our inability to keep them off the glass hurt us. They had 19 offensive rebounds. Most of it was with the small lineup and just kind of throwing it up there, even though Ezeli and Bogut and Green had 14 of the 19 offensive rebounds, a lot of it came from our spread offense and chasing them around, and they just were faster to the ball tonight on the offensive glass. Q. Just a quick thought on how you see the Warriors, the match‑up against the Cavaliers in The Finals. KEVIN McHALE: I mean, they're a good team. They won 67 games this year. They put a lot of pressure on you. Be a lot of small ball I'm sure in that series. You know, they'll have games where they make shots and they put a lot of pressure on you defensively. Curry is a tough guard for anybody. I think they'll do well against Cleveland. Q. You were part of a great dynasty with the Boston Celtics. Now we have two teams going for the championship. Warriors haven't won in 40 years, the Cavs have never won. What's your take on what it means to the NBA to have new blood in The Finals? KEVIN McHALE: It's been a long time since Houston won one, too. I wish it was us. You know, I mean, at the end of the day, you play a seven‑game series. This isn't a one‑and‑done. Usually the best teams advance, so right now the best team in the Western Conference is the Golden State Warriors. The best team in the Eastern Conference is the Cleveland Cavaliers. You guys like to write stuff about 50 years ago and 80 years ago and 90 years ago and 140 years ago. Players don't think about that. Hell, if you asked them they wouldn't know who Bingo Smith was, and you guys probably don't know, either. Played for Cleveland, by the way, and a hell of a shooter. Those guys don't have any idea. Honestly, I think that‑‑ these guys don't know Rick Barry, they don't know that great Golden State team. I don't think any of that stuff means anything, to be truthful. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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