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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: ROCKETS vs WARRIORS


April 27, 2016


Draymond Green


Oakland, California, Game Five

Warriors - 114, Rockets - 81

Q. Draymond, the look on your face before the game, I saw you a little beforehand, was this something you felt you were taking it on yourself to kind of get the team into this game?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Absolutely. You know, obviously you saying all the comments the last couple days and everybody saying Steph goes down and the entire series changed, but we thought otherwise. We wanted to come out here last dance from the jump. We made sure we put our effort in the game from the start. Not to let them get hope. We saw what they had done down 3-1 last year. So we didn't want history to repeat itself. We had to come off from the jump and be locked in and that was definitely my plan from the start.

Q. What can you say about what Shaun Livingston has done for you guys, not only this series, but especially this series jumping in and contributing so much?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Yeah, he's been huge. Not just this series, all year. But really stepping in for Steph, and it's different. It's not the same thing that you're used to which is so unique about it. But he's been incredible for us, always steady, somebody we know we can go to if we need a basket, and taking care of the ball and really running the offense.

He's been phenomenal, so we're going to need him to continue to be that way. We're not sure how long Steph will be out, but until then Shaun will be holding it down for us. So he's been big, and we look forward to him continuing to do that.

Q. Draymond, you guys were obviously down two or three days go after the Steph injury and the news the next day. How much does a win like this and winning the series as well flip the mood? How different is the mood now than two or three days ago?
DRAYMOND GREEN: The mood was good because always it's good to win a series. It's not easy to win any playoff series. Everybody's good. When you're in the playoffs, everybody's got talent, so you've got to be locked in.

Beat this team 4-1, pretty much without Steph the entire series. I think we had him for two halves, so it says a lot about this team. So the mood's good.

At the end of the day, no one's forgetting. We want to get them back, but at the end of the day, we have to make sure what's good long-term. Just get healthy and we need to continue holding it down without him.

Q. It looked like early in the game you guys were determined to get off to an early start, a fast start. Why was that so important in this game in this building?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Because it's, like I said before, this is a team that you don't want to give hope to. You give them hope and they're very talented they can really score the basketball. They've got a lot of guys who can. So you give them hope, and it could change the entire game. It could change the entire series.

So we knew coming off, getting off to a fast start, getting this crowd involved early would be key to this game. Once we got into the start, we got off to it, we never looked back.

Q. The first quarter was really setting up your offense and got you that big lead. Was that something you plan on focusing on coming into the game?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Well, absolutely. We've always got to focus on the defensive end especially when Steph is out, because we usually don't score as many points when he's not out there. But you get it done on the defensive end, and tonight, we got it going on the defensive end and it really sparked the offense.

Now you're getting off in transition and getting a couple easy ones and some open threes and able to knock two of them down. So we really focused in and locked in on the defensive end, we can be really tough.

Q. You're plus-32 in an elimination game here. It's been discussed outside that maybe you're probably a product of Steph Curry, what he can do. What is it for you? What does this prove, what does this show that you can have this kind of impact in a series as you just said, he played two halves in.
DRAYMOND GREEN: (No Microphone) off of Steph. We play very well off each other. People would tweet me and say, oh, you're nothing without Steph, and then I'm not saying I'm nothing without him, but at the end of the day when he's on the court, he makes me better and I'll never be afraid to say that. As a teammate, you have to make each other better. So I don't really pay attention to the noise.

Oh, you can't do this without Steph or you can't do that without Steph. I know what I'm capable of. I also know he makes me better. I mean, he's incredible. If he don't make you better, you suck. So I'm fine with that.

Q. Clearly confidence is key for you guys coming off a title, winning 73 games, but does it give you more confidence going into the next series that you were able to do this without Steph granting he may not play in a Game 2 or 3 or whatever?
DRAYMOND GREEN: It definitely gives you more confidence, for sure because you know you can do it. You know the blueprint to doing it. So we know what we have to do when he's not out there. Hopefully when he comes back we can continue to do that. But while he's out, we got the blueprint on what it takes to win when he's not out there, and we need to continue to follow that.

It definitely helps the confidence a bit, and this win tonight, everybody chipped in. It wasn't one or two guys. Obviously Klay heated up. Shaun had a good game. I was able to play well, Bogut played well, Ian played well, Brandon Rush played well, Harrison chipped in.

Everybody who came in, Anderson Varejao who hasn't played the entire series came in the game with big minutes. That's a true professional. The gratifying thing about this win is everybody chipped in, and that's what it's got to be about when Steph's not out there.

Q. Some of the guys were saying in the locker room that actually the fight of James getting all those shots and those points is kind of a good thing. Why is it good to have one guy kind of dominating things on the other team?
DRAYMOND GREEN: When you get a shot you're usually not in rhythm when someone dominates the ball. Don't get me wrong, he was great. He was scoring the basketball every way. He hit some tough shots, twos and threes. But when you dominate the ball like that, that's one thing Coach Kerr's really trying to teach us, move the ball, because it just creates rhythm. Even if you don't shoot, just touching it, moving on, it creates rhythm for everyone.

So I think it can take everyone else a little bit out of rhythm. But to his credit, he was phenomenal. He put the ball in the hole tonight.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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