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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v WARRIORS

May 18, 2016

Steve Kerr

Oakland, California: Game Two

Pregame

Q. You guys are in an unfamiliar situation here. What is your sense from the guys how they've handled this the last couple days?
STEVE KERR: It's the playoffs. We haven't been down 1-0, but we've been down 2-1 a couple times last year. This is how it goes. It's hard, and we're playing a great team. The deeper you go into the playoffs, the better every team gets. My sense of the team is confident, you have to come in and get the job done tonight and move on. It's always hard. It's always difficult, and you've just got it deal with every game as it comes, and keep moving forward.

Q. Last couple days there was a sense of a heightened anxiety or hysteria almost. Are you sensing that or insulated from that? What is your sense on that that people are already starting to wonder?
STEVE KERR: Did you sense that from like your family or fans (laughter)?

Q. Fans.
STEVE KERR: Because we didn't see you yesterday, so I didn't know who you were around.

We don't really pay much attention to that. Our fans care desperately, which is great, so that's a part of it. The elation of winning doesn't come without the despair of losing, and it's all part of it. So when you struggle and you get down, if there is a sense out there that people are anxious or whatever, it's just being a sports fan. It was that way growing up following my teams. I'd get anxious when the Lakers would fall behind in a series, and I was hoping Magic and Kareem could turn it around. That's a great thing about sports. It's fun, it's drama-filled, it's a challenge, and in the end, it's a game, so it's fun.

Q. Steve Nash was at practice yesterday for the first time in a while. What prompted that and what kind of impact did he have and what message did he bring to the team?
STEVE KERR: Well, Steve has been consulting for us all year, and we stay in touch with him. He's out here once a month or so working with our players. He's always got good advice. He's great on the floor with our guys, but there wasn't anything in particular. He watched the tape with us and we just hashed out what we saw in Game 1.

Q. The other night Steph Curry did say, Game 2 should be fun, and you just mentioned it should be fun. Should it be a mixture of fun and seriousness? What is the focus here?
STEVE KERR: I think the people who follow our team closely and know that we have a lot of fun. We also take it very seriously, and that's the balance you try to strike. As a coach, as a player, I always played best when I was enjoying it and I was having fun. But there's a difference between having fun and not paying attention to detail. You've got to do both. You've got to be able to execute the game plan and take care of your own job and try to block out the noise and just enjoy the game itself. Enjoy the freedom that comes with playing a sport, especially at such a high level.

So it's a balance that we try to find all the time.

Q. Were they running you off the three-point line? If they were, was that your guys were driving and there were some contested shots? Were there secondary passes they could make, or do you want them to try to finish over some of the big guys?
STEVE KERR: Every team's going to try to run us off the three-point line. That's not rare. So there was plenty of that. What stands out to me was the times that we had transition 3-on-2 stuff, and I think maybe three times in the second half we took long, contested threes in transition when there was a lot of open floor.

Then we're always kind of walking a fine line the way we play between good shots and bad shots. But I think you have to understand that this team is long and athletic, and they're going to challenge shots on the perimeter. When there's open floor and you can put the ball on the floor and move it on and move the defense, you can probably find a better shot.

Q. With the ball movement being one of the things that has maybe been an occasional criticism of yours or the lack of it, there were times when the team is struggling. What is the way that you guys work on that? Is there a trick, whether it's a verbal thing or something you do on the court? How do you consistently manage to get these guys back on track?
STEVE KERR: No, we just talk about it and show film of possessions where maybe there's an extra pass that we can make or certain sets that you can run that kind of initiate more ball movement. But obviously it's a strength of ours. We move the ball. We led the league in assists. We've got a lot of playmakers and a lot of shooters. So the more movement the better for us. That's the way we play.

I thought our movement the other night was actually pretty good, especially in the first half; 18 assists I think or 16 assists maybe. In the second half it got bogged down a little bit. But, again, credit their defense, and we've got to make a few adjustments to how we're playing and get back on track.

Q. Can you talk about how Steph looked to you last game as far as movement and where you think he is from a health standpoint right now?
STEVE KERR: I don't think he's a hundred percent, but I think he's close. I thought he moved pretty well. It wasn't the best I've seen him move all year. He had a productive night, but he also made a lot of turnovers that he normally doesn't make. So it wasn't his best game. I think everybody knows that, but whether you can say that's the health or the rust from the layoff or it was just one of those games, I don't really know. I don't think it matters, really one way or the other. Steph knows he's got to come out and play a better game tonight, just like our team does.

Q. Having played the game, so much talk about home court, keeping the home court, it's our serve and split serve, everything, don't you think that's why it was so traumatic the other night? This team had done so well at home, and do you think that it's very important to protect the home-court advantage?
STEVE KERR: The way I've always looked at home court in the playoffs in general is you really want to have Game 7 at home. I mean, 80 percent of the time the home team wins in NBA history in Game 7. That's a significant stat, and there's a reason for that. Long series, you get to play at home in front of your own crowd with the series tied 3-3, that's a big advantage.

As far as earlier in the series, I'll tell you this, almost every team, that I was ever a part of had to win games on the road in the playoffs in order to win a series. So I don't think there's any sense of oh, my gosh, we lost home court after Game 1. Home court matters to me later on. We know we're going to have to win some road games, just like we did last year. I think we won road games in every series we played. It's a hard thing to do, but usually you have to do it if you want to win a championship.

Q. When you talk about Steph not being 100 percent, is it more his recovery from the knee strain or is it his conditioning? Which one do you think is a bigger factor?
STEVE KERR: Honestly, I don't know. We haven't spent a lot of time talking about his injury. He told me he's doing fine and he's out there playing. So whether he's 90 percent or 95, who cares. It's just about going out and playing. So it's not really something that we're focused on or trying to break down. He's just got to be out there and playing and we've got to assess how he's doing and the trainers have to try to get him ready every game, and that's the process.

Q. Game 1 it looked like there were times when you were asking Draymond to almost play a centerfield position and move around the court. How difficult of an assignment is that at this level? Is that something you would not necessarily ask anybody to do?
STEVE KERR: You mean I would not necessarily ask?

Q. Is Draymond a rarity?
STEVE KERR: Is he unique?

Q. Exactly.
STEVE KERR: Every matchup's different. Every team that we play presents different challenges, and we just try to figure out the best defensive assignments that we can in order to slow the team down. This team is obviously very talented and two of the top scorers in the league. So we've got to find a way to slow those guys down. The way we played in Game 1, I thought we did a pretty good job on those guys.

You know, you have to offer a lot of help. You can't expect two people to guard those two one-on-one. So we'll continue to offer help from different spots and try to keep them off balance a little bit.

Q. Along those lines, how can did you feel like you guys guarded Durant? And what is your philosophy on a superstar player like that that can get 30 shots in a game? Do you let him go? What is your philosophy?
STEVE KERR: Try to make every shot difficult. Try not to foul him. Try to cause some havoc occasionally, if you can. Fully understand that he's going to score at the end of the night 30 points, 25, whatever it is, regardless of what you do. So you try to play the percentages and take away the easy stuff as best you can and make him work. That's really the formula against any great player.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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