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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v WARRIORSJune 5, 2015Draymond GreenOAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day DRAYMOND GREEN: I'm not sure. I just try to be a leader, leader at all times, and bring that intensity to the floor, that toughness to the floor at all times. Just try to be that pulse that always keeps everybody going, no matter whether it's good or bad. Just bring that intensity level to the floor. Q. (Indiscernible) LeBron got 44 points. DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, LeBron's a tough match‑up. That's why he is who he is. That's why he's going to continue to be who he is. He's going to have games like that, and he's tough to stop. When we needed the stop the most, we were able to get it. And that's what's most important. Q. How much confidence did you gain? He has 44, but you win the game. DRAYMOND GREEN: LeBron's a very smart basketball player, so you know he'll make the adjustments that he needs to make. Come out and whatever that adjustment is that he thinks he needs to make, he'll try to do that. He's been successful with it a lot. So we have to make sure we come out with an even better focus level than we did in Game 1, because this is a very important game. If you can get up 2‑0 in the series, that's always huge. So we have to make sure we come out with a great intensity and focus level and try to be a lot better than we were in Game 1. I still don't think, although we won, that we made the necessary plays we need to make to win the game, but I still don't think we played well at all. I think we have a lot more to give than we did. So that's kind of exciting. Q. What did you learn? I know you talked a little bit about the jitters, and Steve Kerr said there is just a different energy level in The Finals. What did you learn in Game 1 now that kind of helps you for Game 2? DRAYMOND GREEN: It is a different energy level all around. When you come out and do your pre‑game shooting and there's media everywhere, people everywhere, it's just a different buzz in the gym. And now you understand that. You know how to adjust. You know what to expect. You know the intensity of the game in The Finals. Every series is different. So you know everything to expect now, and I think that can help us as well. I think it took us about a quarter to really settle into the game yesterday. I think we'll do better with that going into Sunday. Q. When LeBron's starting off so well and he had no trouble scoring, especially early, how do you stick to that game plan? DRAYMOND GREEN: We have a great coaching staff. The one thing they've told us all week, it's one of the keys to the series. Every series Coach Kerr writes a few keys on the board, and one of the keys was stay with it. No matter if it's going good or no matter if it's going bad, just stay with it. You hear that all week, and it's kind of engrained and planted in our head, just stay with it. We did that, and we were eventually able to prevail. But it can get a little frustrating. But also knowing we've done this all year. We know each other. We trust each other. We know eventually we're going to make plays. So having that feeling and knowing that, it's a comforting feeling to know that we're always right there. We're always just one run away. We're always a few stops away. We know we're capable of putting that together. Q. Does it affect your guys' strategy, the way you guys (indiscernible)? DRAYMOND GREEN: Well, I think we have a team that just about everybody are good defenders and take pride in the defensive end. One thing we know and learned over the years is if you want to win at a high level, you have to be able to defend. Everybody takes it as a challenge. We've been pretty successful at it. We always have a good scheme to follow as well, and our coaching staff puts us in position where we can pretty much make any decision on the defensive end that we want to make spur of the moment. It's just something that we take pride in and just try to be great at. Q. How hard is it playing defense against LeBron James? Would you prefer guarding him a bit more in this series than the couple of possessions he had last night? DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, like I said before, he's a tough match‑up. One thing that I'm not going to do is let my ego get in the way of this series. Of course I would want to guard him more, but at the end of the day if Tristan Thompson and Mozgov is in the game, I can't. And they're playing that lineup a lot. So I roll with the punches. I think Andre and Harrison did a phenomenal job. He's just making tough shots. He's making push shots over two people, floaters over two people. Those are tough shots, and you've got to live with those. The guys that we had on him for the majority of the game did a great job, and they'll continue to do that for the rest of the series. We've just got to continue to try to get better at the things that we didn't do so well. And the things that we did well in guarding LeBron or anything else, just try to continue doing those. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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