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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND TWO: TRAIL BLAZERS vs WARRIORS

May 1, 2016

Steve Kerr

Oakland, California: Game One

Trail Blazers - 106, Warriors - 118

Q. Obviously the points that Klay scored tonight will stand out but what can you say about his whole floor game tonight?
STEVE KERR: Not many guys in the league who could chase Damian Lillard around for 37 minutes and score 37 points, too.

Klay is a tremendous two-way player, and that was a really amazing night for him just in terms of his all-around play, and obviously we got a lot of really good performances from people.

But that's a big burden to have to play both ways like that. He was awesome.

Q. I don't know if you saw anything over the last few games, but heard anything over the last few games, but have you gotten a sense that this team is coming together to compensate for the absence of Steph and that's making you guys play so well; the fact that he's not there?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, yeah, I think it helped us to have to play most of the Houston series without Steph in terms of preparing for this one.

I think we just got into a good groove, kind of Games 4 and 5 against Houston and that carried over tonight. Our guys have an understanding of what we are trying to accomplish, how we have to play without Steph.

Q. Was anything said by any of the guys along the way, not necessarily just today, but within the last few games, anything said, anything done to sort of say, Steph's not here, we've got to step it up?
STEVE KERR: I didn't hear it but I guarantee you Draymond said it (laughter) at some point.

Q. Bogut with three blocked shots, Draymond with two, a couple real early, sometimes with blocked shots, symbolically important. There seemed to be a factor where Portland was maybe a little less than willing to go in the lane sometimes with those two guys there.
STEVE KERR: Well, defense is the key against these guys. They are a tremendous offensive team. They have a great system. They are hard to guard, and they spread you out so much with their shooting that there's a lot of open lanes.

So any time we can close the paint and still close out and get out to shooters or block a shot, obviously that's a huge help. But it's going to be tough guarding these guys this whole series, they are really good.

Q. Back to Draymond specifically. It's hard to imagine that he can ratchet his intensity up more than it is on a daily basis, but have you sensed that from him? He came out, it seemed like he was jawing right away, and seemed really intense right from the get-go today.
STEVE KERR: Kind of like the last 88 games that we've played. Draymond is always emotionally invested. I think what's happened is he's turned the corner now in terms of his decision making. You know, without Steph, our margin for error is smaller obviously and we cannot turn the ball over and get away with it.

Draymond understands that. The one game we lost against Houston, he had seven turnovers. The four that we won, I think a couple he had zero, and then the other two, he had one or two. Tonight he had two.

I mean, that's the difference. He's just not taking too many unnecessary risks. He's making simple plays, and when he does that, you look at a scoring line or a stat line like tonight, he's always going to rebound and get assists. Just a matter of making the right decisions and that's what he's been doing. I think he's been phenomenal.

Q. You guys came out, it looked like with pretty great intensity on defense, and then early second quarter, maybe hit sort of a lull with that, with some of the second teamers out there. Do you agree with that assessment, and if so, what did you guys do to recapture that intensity?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, I thought the first part of the second quarter, they kind of shook free from us. We had a few bad possessions defensively. We'll have to watch the tape to see what we can glean from it.

But it's kind of the way every game goes. It's pretty rare, especially you get into the playoffs, where you're not going to have a lull at some point. But we'll look at it and hopefully see some things we can clean up and figure some things out.

But all in all, really, really pleased with the effort.

Q. What did you see in the play where Anderson got tangled up and was eventually ejected and is Festus available to play, is he fully healthy?
STEVE KERR: I didn't see anything. I wasn't looking at the scrum. I heard that there was an exchange of chucks or elbows or whatever that each guy got one in. I don't know who's first. I thought the officials handled it the right way and then they were jawing at each other on the bench and that's why Monty kicked them both out.

As far as Festus, it was a matchup thing. We felt like Andy made some sense. Thought Andy played great. As it is, we played 11 people significant minutes. It's pretty tough to play 12. So Festus's time will come. Just like you look at last year's playoffs, there were games he didn't get in and he was one of the key guys in the Finals in Game 6 to close it out for us. He knows that he's got to stay ready and he'll get his shot.

Q. Draymond made a lot of aggressive points and scored 18 points in just one quarter. Do you think he was trying to save the game and if he was like that in the first quarter, how are you going to deal with that?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, they changed their rotation a little bit in the fourth quarter. Usually Damian comes out to start the quarter and he stayed in. He got going. He hit some tough shots. He hit a really tough baseline three and then he hit another one coming off a high screen, maybe a couple of them.

But he's a great player. I mean, he's going to score, and we just have to make him work for every point. I thought we did that tonight. But you know, he still had 30 points, but that's why he is who he is.

Q. Turnovers have played a pretty big key; were you happy with how you controlled the ball tonight?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, 12 turnovers and I believe the game we lost in Portland, we had 13 in the second quarter alone. That can pretty much tell you everything you need to know. We are playing against a team that is really smart, that makes adjustments and that doesn't turn the ball over themselves. They had nine tonight.

So that has to continue for us. We can't have a big gap in terms of the disparity in turnovers. As long as we take care of it like we did tonight and move the ball, we are confident we can score enough points to win.

Q. Can you talk about the size advantage that you guys had in the backcourt and how important that was in terms of controlling their two great guards?
STEVE KERR: I think one of the strengths of our team is our length on the wings with AndrÃ© and Klay and Livingston and then we have Harrison and Draymond switching out on those guys sometimes.

I thought our guys did a good job just in terms of making everything difficult. There's no guarantee that that's going to work again, but we just to have continue to try to challenge shots. I mean, same thing we always do, same thing everybody tries to do. And you challenge as many shots as you can without fouling, and it's not a secret but we did a pretty good job of that tonight.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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