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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v WARRIORS

May 17, 2016

Draymond Green

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. How was the film session today?
DRAYMOND GREEN: It was good. We saw what we needed. We saw the lack of execution, more so on the offensive end than the defensive end, and really our lack of force. Not necessarily energy, but just not cutting as hard, not being as sharp to create the situations that we wanted to create on the offensive end.

Q. How much of that is that their length kind of causes that, that little split-second hesitation maybe?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Well, it definitely does. It's something you have to adjust to. They're one of the more lengthy teams in the league. So it's something you have to adjust to just like anything else. I think going into Game 2 we'll be better with it.

Q. How hard is it when you haven't played a team in such a long time?
DRAYMOND GREEN: It makes everything tougher, for sure. Just not seeing them for so long. I think right now they're a completely different team than the team we faced in February, I think it was. So it makes a difference. But like I said, we've had our game to adjust. Now it's up to us to make the adjustments.

Q. What did you see different in them from past times?
DRAYMOND GREEN: The other guys are playing better. KD [Kevin Durant] didn't play well last night to KD's standards. Russ [Westbrook] didn't play to Russ's standards, yet they won the game because the other guys are playing better. So that's something that we've got to take care of and make sure that everybody else is not getting off and having really good games. I mean, you can't expect KD 10 for 30 every game and Westbrook 7 for 21, but we can do a better job with the other guys.

Q. You talked about the need to play defense without fouling, which you're very good at. How much do you guys need to clean that up?
DRAYMOND GREEN: We definitely have to clean that up because that has an effect on our offense. They're a pretty good defensive team. They have a lot of length. So if you're setting up against a half-court defense every time, it makes things a lot tougher to get into a flow. I think that was one of our problems last night is we didn't have any rhythm to our offense. So if you can get a few stops and get out in transition, maybe you don't necessarily score in transition, but now you've got rhythm going into the offense and now they're kind of scrambled. So that definitely makes a difference in the entire game.

Q. The particular length that you mentioned, how effective can your small lineup be? Do you think you need to play bigger against this team than most teams?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think our small lineup can be effective. It's been effective all year. I think it had times where it was very effective last night. So I think it can be effective. We've just got to play our brand of basketball.

Q. How much do you draw on not having lost back-to-back games all season?
DRAYMOND GREEN: That doesn't matter at this point. Obviously, it helps just knowing what to do to not lose back-to-back games, but it's the playoffs. It's the Conference Finals. At this point, everybody's good. Everybody's kind of knowing their roles on their teams. If you're at this point, you're usually clicking as a team. So that really doesn't matter. But we know what we need to do coming out in order to win this game.

Q. Were your fourth quarter problems more a case of bad shots or missed shots that you guys probably make?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think it was a rollover from the third quarter where we went ballistic in a terrible way. We were throwing the ball all over the place. We were taking horrible shots, we were iso, one-pass shot. We weren't ourselves. So I think it was a carryover from that.

Q. Steve [Kerr] was saying that you guys are fine. You've had this experience before being down. How much did that experience help?
DRAYMOND GREEN: It definitely helps. I was telling the guys when we look at our championship run, anytime we talk about it, we talk about being down 2-1 to Memphis. Being down 2-1 to Cleveland. We never talk about beating the Pelicans 4-0. We never talk about beating the Rockets 4-1. You talk about the trying times. So right now is one of those times. We've never been down 0-1, so this is foreign territory for us. But at the same time we've been in positions where we've had to battle back before.

So that experience helps, but it's a completely different year. This is a completely different team that we're playing against. So we've got to come out and play with the intensity level and focus level that we know it takes to win a high-level game of this magnitude. We do that, we'll get things back rolling, and we've got to go to OKC and win a game. But we've got to make sure we defend our court tomorrow.

Q. Russ gets going in the third quarter, how do you get that back in the bottle?
DRAYMOND GREEN: If Russ is hitting pull-up threes, you've kind of got to live with that. It's the getting on the foul line that you can't allow him to do. If he's getting pull-up threes, he's one of the most gifted players in the game, athletically, physically as far as his heart and his will. But if he's hitting pull-up threes, you can't defend everything, and that's what you've got to give up to him. You can't just let him get to the free-throw line. I think he probably shot eight free throws in that third quarter, and that's what you can't do.

Q. Did you hear the comments by Steven Adams after the game about Steph and Klay?
DRAYMOND GREEN: No, I haven't heard it.

Q. Russell, is he the most difficult? I mean, [James] Harden draws a lot of fouls and usually does it kind of like lets you get into him and then he brings it up. But Russ with his speed kind of launches himself at people?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Yeah, he does. It's a different way. Number one, he's not afraid of any contact. You know, he's almost looking for contact. And James, like you said, he does it a different way where he can do it on the floor. Russ does it in the air, and that makes it a little more challenging because he's so fast and so powerful.

But I don't think the plays where he got fouled at, they weren't the cause of him doing that. They were us running into him on the screen, on his back down a couple times. Most of his fouls were on the floor. So we've just got to be better with the fundamentals of defense. Getting our hands out of there. If we're going to body up, you've got to body up with your chest. You can't really use your arms on the perimeter. So I think if we're better with the fundamentals, we'll be better in that aspect.

Q. What do you think of the SI cover?
DRAYMOND GREEN: It's pretty dope (laughing). I like it. I think Lee [Jenkins] did a great job on the article. It's pretty amazing. I sit back and look at that like, wow, who would have ever thought this was going to happen. So it's pretty amazing.

Q. Draymond, Andre [Iguodala] said when he was defending KD down the stretch in those isolation situations it was a team effort and especially pointed out that you and [Andrew] Bogut do a lot of communicating for them. What are the things that you're pointing out to them?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Just trying to point out where help is at. KD's 7 feet, whether he wants to admit that or not. He wants to say 6-9; he's 7 feet. He can shoot over the top of anybody. So you've got to point to him where to help at so he can try to force him to drive. Because if he just gets to the spot and raised up, even if you're right there and you contest it, it doesn't matter. It's a matter if he's going to miss or make the shot.

If you can point out where his help is at and he can know which way to shade a little bit, get into the ball and continue to drive into the help, I think that helps out a lot. So I just try to let him know where we are on the floor behind him. Just when you're out there on that island, you can't see anything behind you. You don't know where anybody's at.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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