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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v WARRIORS

May 23, 2016

Steve Kerr

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: Practice Day

Q. Have you talked to the league, has anyone from the Warriors talked to the league?
STEVE KERR: No, not that I know of. I have not spoken to anybody, and I haven't seen Bob [Myers] this morning. But I would assume I would know if anyone from our organization had spoken with the league yet.

Q. Do you expect to?
STEVE KERR: Oh, yeah, I'm sure they'll call them.

Q. Do you have any idea of the timetable?
STEVE KERR: No.

Q. Are you preparing this practice with the potential in mind at all?
STEVE KERR: First of all, we're not really going to practice. We're going to watch the tape, and we will prepare as a staff. We'll talk about all the possibilities, but we'll just see what happens.

Q. When you went back and saw it again, did it change your opinion?
STEVE KERR: No, no. You watch this league, people flail all the time trying to draw fouls. In my opinion, and I've seen Draymond do this a lot. He goes up, he gets bumped. It was a minor foul. Adams kind of hit him here. He tried to sell it. He kicked his leg up. To me it's no different from Westbrook kicking his legs out on the threes when he feels like there's contact. Guys do it to try to sell the contact.

Obviously, the issue is he got him in the wrong place, and it was unfortunate. But I don't think there was any intent behind it. So I don't think he'll be suspended.

Q. What would a potential suspension of Draymond affect you guys going into the next game, a lot?
STEVE KERR: You know the answer beforehand, right? Against a big front line, an athletic front line, yeah, that would be tough.

Q. Did you talk to Draymond at all about this?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, a little bit.

Q. He has no intention?
STEVE KERR: Just like he told you guys.

Q. Even if you believed that he had no intention, does he have to kind of just be extra vigilant because this has happened twice and there could be --
STEVE KERR: I don't understand the argument that this has happened twice.

Q. Well, the other one where he came up on the runner --
STEVE KERR: Yeah, but he went up for a shot. I don't think you can equate the two. When you go up for a shot and a guy's challenging, that happens all the time. So this is not like everyone's saying he did this twice. I don't agree with that. So does he have to be careful? I guess. Now people are watching for him or whatever. But I don't really know how I should respond to that. He's just going to play. He's going to be himself and we'll see what happens.

Q. What did Tony Brothers say to you to cause you to lose it? What information did he give you?
STEVE KERR: I don't remember, honestly. You mean when that play happened?

Q. While they were reviewing it, it looked like he came over and said something to you and you kind of went nuts?
STEVE KERR: Honestly, I don't remember. I kind of went nuts a few times in the first half (laughing).

Q. This is the second time they have gotten a ton of free throws, and that's not something that you guys normally do. Is it their aggressiveness or passivity or a combination?
STEVE KERR: It's a combination, yeah. I mean, we did the same thing in Game 1. We fouled them. They got 15 free throws in the third quarter. Last night 25 in the first half. That's on us.

I mean, you can't beat this team giving them so many easy points, because they're going to be hard enough to defend in the half court.

Q. When you guys have taken bad shots or quick shots, how do you correct that? Are there certain plays you run or certain sets you get into or do you just say, hey, don't do that?
STEVE KERR: It's more watching the film and realizing the repercussions of quick shots that lead to transition. Quick shots where we don't have floor balance. All of a sudden, you've got a three-on-one, you're not going to win that battle.

So I thought the last five minutes of the half our shot selection went south big time. It was 40-40, and we had climbed our way back in the game by moving the ball by getting good shots, by playing good defense. Then the last five minutes it was a combination of bad shots and transition for them and a lot of fouling as well.

Q. How would you compare the feeling of being down 1-2 to the situation you faced last night?
STEVE KERR: Pretty much exactly the same. You're down 2-1, you're in a hole. You've got to win on the road, so it's the same feeling.

Q. Is Oklahoma City the best team you've faced in these two playoff runs?
STEVE KERR: They're good. I mean, they're really good. Every team presents a different challenge, and they're the most talented team that we've faced over the last couple years, for sure. But our outlook is it's 2-1, so we need to win a game on their home floor. If we do that, we're in really good shape, so that's our intent.

Q. Is there something particular that Oklahoma City is doing that is bothering you different from other teams other than having Westbrook?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, right, exactly.

Q. You've worked on that two years now and not taking that early shot. What's caused your guys to get away from that?
STEVE KERR: I think falling behind. I think guys are so competitive they want to do it by themselves. They want to help us get right back in it with a couple of big shots when the reality is over the course of 48 minutes you have to move the ball. You have to be patient, especially against their length and athleticism.

The quick shots against this team, there are two problems: One is that their length and athleticism, they're probably going to be able to challenge a quick shot because you haven't made them move at all, and two, you're vulnerable in transition, so both those things hurt us last night.

Q. Have there been times that you've been able to fix that with a timeout during the course of a game, and are there other times where, for some reason, that just didn't work?
STEVE KERR: Fix what, the quick shots?

Q. Fix the quick shots, yeah.
STEVE KERR: Yeah, I thought we did a good job in the first half of Game 1, and then most of Game 2 we did well. Like I said, first quarter and a half last night we weren't bad. We fell behind early, but we kind of expected that surge that they've gave us in the first quarter with their crowd behind them, and we got right back in it. So we were right where we needed to be and then we kind of lost our focus there the last five minutes of the quarter and that cost us.

Q. You haven't seen your small lineup get blasted like that. What was going on in that match-up where maybe their smalls versus your smalls?
STEVE KERR: Exactly what I just mentioned. Poor transition defense and lack of execution offensively that had led to some of those transition hoops.

Q. One thing Shaun [Livingston] said to us was part of the reason he thinks you guys can fall into quick shots is you've got great shot makers, and I'm sure that's something that's a constant battle. I know you guys can make it, but sometimes you need to move the ball?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, and we always walk a fine line this team between bad shots and, all right, we can make that because we've got Steph and Klay. But we don't want to make 10 passes every possession. If we can get one pass and a good shot, that's great.

Watching the tape last night, I didn't feel like this was rampant throughout the game. I thought it was more the last five minutes of the half when the lead went from like 8 to 25.

Q. When you talk about getting outcompeted, how rare is that for this team, and how surprising is it given the situation? I think one of the guys mentioned you told them, hey, it's the Western Conference Finals.
STEVE KERR: Yeah, it is the West Finals (laughing). It's a reminder, again, of how hard it is to win a championship. We felt it last year. Cleveland outcompeted us the first few games of that series, and we had to turn up our effort in terms of loose balls, long rebounds, that kind of stuff, and we did.

But it can happen sometimes. Both teams, especially when you get to this stage, both teams are going to be really talented. Both teams are going to have star players with the potential to explode. A lot of times it's one or two possessions that you don't get things done that you need to get done and the tide can turn, especially on the road.

So we've got to play the full 48. We've got to play every possession tomorrow.

Q. Regardless of intent or not intent, across the league there seems to be a lot of guys the last few years getting hit in the balls a lot more?
STEVE KERR: I like the way you said that (laughing).

Q. We're all adults here. What's going on? What's caused that?
STEVE KERR: It's a competitive game. I was doing TV two years ago when Serge clocked Blake Griffin on an offensive rebound, and he just, he punched him. There was frustration, and those two have gotten into it over the years, I know.

Q. Reggie Evans?
STEVE KERR: Reggie Evans and the Cayman Islands, yeah. It's a competitive game. Guys are talking trash out there. You know, it's high-level, intensity, there's frustration. As I said, there is also a lot of flailing, a lot of flopping. This league is rampant with guys flailing arms and legs, trying to draw fouls. Every game you watch people are doing that, and sometimes that can lead to contact. So it's all part of it.

Q. Would you agree it's more than when you played, do you think?
STEVE KERR: No.

Q. So you saw this when you played?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The balls were not off limits when I played. The balls were within the confines of that area (laughing).

Q. You're not talking about a possible lineup change, but is it possible Iguodala could be moved to the starting lineup?
STEVE KERR: Come on. If you want to speculate, you can speculate (laughing).

Q. As someone who doesn't cover the Warriors all the time, it looked like Draymond Green kind of fell apart. Is that just normal Draymond? Does he need to tone it down and refocus a little bit?
STEVE KERR: He needs to refocus a little bit. He'll admit it. It was not one of his best games. In fact, it was one of his worst. The great thing with Draymond is he always turns it around. He's one of the great competitors that we have in the league, that we have on our team, and when things aren't looking great, he usually plays his best.

Q. You've never seen a minus-43 for anybody on your team?
STEVE KERR: No, no, that was quite a stat.

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