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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: ROCKETS vs WARRIORS

April 18, 2016

Klay Thompson

Oakland, California: Game Two

Warriors - 115, Rockets - 106

Q. You guys have played without Steph before, but what do you think you showed by winning a playoff game without the MVP?
KLAY THOMPSON: Oh, it's so much easier without him out there. When Steph's on the floor, his hands just sag in the paint and he doesn't move the ball, he's just a very selfish teammate (laughing). I'm just kidding, man. He's the exact opposite of that.

I think we showed that, you know, it's hard to fill that void, obviously. No one's going to do it by themselves, and we have to do it as a team. I'm mesmerized by Shaun Livingston, a starting quality point guard. To me, you can't ask for a better back-up point guard in this league. He plays with composure, he plays with great length, and he's a mismatch nightmare for point guards.

Same, Andre had a huge game, Bogut was great on defense, and Draymond's stat sheet is like it always is tonight.

Q. You had three more drives in this game than you did in any game this season. Was there any emphasis made to you? Did anybody tell you to drive more?
KLAY THOMPSON: No, just get to the paint and try to make the right play. I still think I had a few bad shots tonight, so there was room for improvement. But knowing Steph's not playing, just kind of picked up a little play making a little bit more and have to get in the lane and put it on the rim, because we've got such great offensive rebounders, something good is going to happen.

Q. You kind of touched on this, but you always want to try to drive, I imagine. But with Steph out, how much more conscious were you of looking to score today?
KLAY THOMPSON: I wasn't too much, believe it or not. Andy Varejao told me before the game just be myself, not to force anything, we've got a deep team. Steve before the game too told me channel my inner Reggie Miller and as much as I can without the ball, so I thought I did a good job of that tonight and that's why I was able to get around a lot. I played with great energy on both ends. When I do that, I play with focus, I help this team a lot just by cutting and playing active.

There are still things I can improve on but satisfied with tonight.

Q. How much of a mental advantage do you think your team holds given that the Rockets had a chance to play against you guys without Steph and still lost?
KLAY THOMPSON: I mean, I'm not in that position, so I don't know totally, but it's got to be tough, like you almost feel like you have to do everything right to beat us in a sense. Even when we're not hitting shots, we can rely on our defense and grind out games and we proved that this year. We've got such great versatility 1 through 15 that we can throw such great looks at you.

You know, there is something to the slogan strength in numbers and it's something we really do play by. We've got such a deep team. We always use it every night. Steve does you such a great job in rotations and matchups. We just match-up well with the Rockets, I guess.

Q. When you see the Rockets kind of pointing at each other, like in the first quarter they're doing that, does that give you some sense that this game is right there for you?
KLAY THOMPSON: It's a good feeling because you know when you see that, something's working right. And I think tonight we were frustrating them early in the beginning with our ball movement and our cutting and just getting good looks at the rim. We have such great screeners on this team, we're always going to find the open man. It's up lifting.

We see that as the opposing player. But at a time we gave them a little run, we got stagnant and let the ball stick too much. That's on me, and we'll get better from it. Just a great team effort tonight.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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