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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v WARRIORS

May 25, 2016

Steve Kerr

Oakland, California: Practice Day

STEVE KERR: Well, I think it's just kind of a reality, sense of reality staring us in the face. We're down 3-1, obviously. So we've got to win tomorrow. Momentum can shift quickly in the playoffs. We've seen that the last couple years, so let's take care of business at home and get some momentum back and we've got a chance.

Q. The team was pretty tough on themselves last night. Lot of players disappointed. Draymond Green being on the top of that list. Are you concerned about your team's psyche and confidence right now?
STEVE KERR: No. Draymond always blames himself every time we lose. He goes over the top. It's not his fault. He didn't play a good game last night, but nobody did. I like that he's accountable and other guys, Steph, same thing, everybody wants to take blame.

But it's us. It's all of us. It's coaches, it's players, we have to do better, and we're confident that we will. We've got a day here to kind of clear our heads and get back to work tomorrow.

Q. What was it [like watching the tape]?
STEVE KERR: It was not festive. It was quiet.

Q. Was it productive at all?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, we always watch the game tape, the coaches do on computers. So we've talked about some possible adjustments and we'll meet upstairs after I'm done here and watch the tape and spend the rest of the day coming up with our game plan for tomorrow night.

Q. (Inaudible) Bogut only averaged 14 minutes. Is there some (inaudible)?
STEVE KERR: He's fouling. He's got 13 fouls in 56 minutes. He's almost fouling out of every game in 10 to 15 minutes. He's got to be smarter with the fouls. We need him out there. He was at plus-7 last night in 11 minutes. When he's out there, we rebound better. We've got to keep passing around the post. We want to play Bogut more, but he's got to stay on the floor.

Q. (Inaudible) Westbrook, what specifically makes him such an (inaudible)?
STEVE KERR: He's just explosive, and he's relentless in transition, so he's constantly attacking. You have to be diligent about getting multiple guys back and building a wall in front of them. Last couple games on his home floor he really got through our defense in transition a lot. Those were killers. He's always attacking the rim, so he's going to get to the line a lot. We've got to do a better job of not fouling. But he's a great player.

Q. Are you committed to Curry primarily guarding Westbrook?
STEVE KERR: No, no, not necessarily. Actually for most of the series we've had Klay on him. We've started Steph on him, but Klay has guarded him mostly. Klay was in foul trouble last night, which necessitated the change, and that will change from game to game. But that was last night Steph ended up on him more because of the foul trouble.

Q. I know Curry is not going to use any injury excuses. Sources say Steph is playing 70 percent at best. How does he look to you?
STEVE KERR: Is that sources with knowledge of the team's thinking? That's my favorite expression these days. Sources with knowledge of the team's intimate thinking. Who would that be? I don't know (laughing).

Nobody has said anything about Steph being 70 percent to me. Our training staff, relatives, friends, sources with knowledge of our team's thinking, nobody has told me he's 70 percent. So apparently they told the media but they didn't tell me.

Q. How does he look to you? Does he look as explosive as he's been?
STEVE KERR: No, I think the last couple games, obviously, he hasn't played as well as he can. He looked great in Game 2. He got free. I know he's not injured. I mean, if he were injured, he would not be playing. Is he bothered a little bit? Perhaps, by the layoff. He went three weeks without basically playing a game.

So he just may not be quite where he needs to be, but it's not an injury. That's the important thing to know. This is the reality. Playoffs, nobody cares. Everybody has issues and injury, and you've got to play through all that stuff.

Q. Do you have to rethink how you defend Roberson?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, you heard us last night. We were very, very careless in terms of roaming off of him, and he did a good job moving without the ball. They put him in a lot of screens and that kind of stuff, which we expected. And the tape showed a glaring deficiency defensively in terms of accounting for him. So it's one thing to play off of a guy, it's another thing to forget about him. We were forgetting about him, and that can't happen.

Q. Have they game planned to figure out how to exploit that, do you think?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, they've done a good job. We've talked about that since the first two games, what would we do? And we always do that. If we were in their shoes, what would we do? I'm sure they do the same thing. I'm sure most coasting staffs do.

So this is exactly what we expected. What we're seeing. We're not executing what we are trying to accomplish. So we have to reevaluate.

Q. (Inaudible) coming back 3-1 in Conference Finals. (Inaudible)?
STEVE KERR: Well, we are the defending champs. Most teams that are down 3-1 in the Conference Finals, I mean, I don't know the stat, but I'm guessing most of them weren't the defending champs. We feel very confident. We've got potentially three games, two of them at home. We knew after we lost Game 1, we were going to win one in OKC, and we failed at our first two chances. So take care of business at home, and we'll have one more swing down there and, like I said, see what happens.

Q. If you were going to put a percentage on Steph right now, what would it be?
STEVE KERR: I have no idea. I don't do that. I mean, our training staff has not come to me and said anything over the last week. So if he were struggling with anything, I would know.

Q. Is there a coaching technique that you haven't tried yet that can get this team to cut down on the sloppy turnovers which feed OKC's transition baskets?
STEVE KERR: It's interesting. Our turnovers really were not a problem in the first three games of the series, for the most part. I shouldn't say that. We had one stretch late third quarter of Game 1. But Games 2 and 3 we kept our turnovers down. Last night was inexplicable. They forced some, but it felt to me like the vast majority were just silly passes through traffic, trying to go over the top, lazy passes. We were not sharp.

We were not prepared to play last night, and that's my fault. That's my job as a coach is to have them prepared and we were out of sync last night.

Q. You said the same thing after Game 3?
STEVE KERR: Said what?

Q. That you didn't have them prepared well and that nobody played well, and you said a few minutes ago that nobody played well last night?
STEVE KERR: Except for Klay. I think Klay played well last night. No, look, when we play like that it's our fault. It's everybody's fault. It's my job to prepare the team to play, it's the team's job to take care of the details and follow the game plan. It's our job collectively to figure things out, players and coaches as the games go on, and we haven't done that. So we all take blame.

Q. Obviously you guys face some adversity during the season. You missed the first 43 games and you played with the pressure and the target on your back. But you never had that stretch of games where you were really out of sync and you lost multiple games in a row. Now you're doing it in the postseason at the highest stakes. Does it hurt not having that experience of having to battle yourself out of one of those stretches?
STEVE KERR: No, I don't look at it that way. This team has been together for actually longer than I've been here. They've been together for several years. But over the last couple years we've had to battle out of plenty of adversity. The season did go really well for us, and we didn't have any long stretches of poor play.

But we knew what to expect come playoff time. It's a totally different deal. You're playing great teams, especially as you get deep in the playoffs, and we're playing a team that's playing at a really high level right now. So we have to match that and exceed that. The good thing is it's best-of-seven and we still have a chance.

Q. Draymond is so good mentally, but are you worried at all that he's sort of gotten inside his own head?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, Draymond by his own admission was not himself the last couple games. I'm always 100 percent confident in Draymond and his ability to respond to adversity. That's what he's all about.

Q. What do you make of the fact that maybe for the first time he hasn't?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, usually it's one bad game and then he bounces back and plays great. This time it's two. So he'll figure it out. We'll figure it out and he'll play much better.

Q. I was wondering about their playing a small lineup?
STEVE KERR: Their small lineup is a lot like our small lineup. When you have a lot of talent and versatility when you go small, there's a reason it's difficult to guard. You've got a lot of floor spacing. You've got a lot of guys who can put the ball on the floor, make plays.

So it's a similar dynamic to what we do. Right now their small group is outplaying our small group. I'm confident that can change. But we've got to fix some things.

Q. I know you guys (inaudible) a much better defender?
STEVE KERR: If people forgot that, we certainly didn't. We knew coming in exactly what we were up against. Durant is one of the best players in the league. We know that. He has been for six, seven years. He had a terribly frustrating season last year with the injuries. They've had a lot of frustration over the years. They're healthy. They're whole. They are determined, and they want what we have.

We have a banner hanging up in here and we take great pride in that. It's a hard thing to accomplish, and they've been close, but they haven't done it, and they're coming after us. They're really getting after it and playing well and competing. We've got to stand up to that. We've got to match-up to that intensity.

We know they're going to be talented, so they're going to make tough shots. It's all the small details that we've got to take care of.

Q. (Inaudible) the reality is you're down and you have to, in essence, win three times. How do you get them to think in terms of going after one game?
STEVE KERR: I don't think it's that hard to sort of rationalize it all. Really, we're home, we have a chance to regroup in front of our home fans, and if we can do what we've done for two seasons, which is protect our home floor, then we're at 3-2, and we have momentum.

We knew, as I said, after Game 1, we knew we'd have three shots to win on their home floor, and we failed the first two times. We just want to give ourselves one more try in Oklahoma City.

Q. How much of a lift at this point is the home fans (inaudible)?
STEVE KERR: It's a big lift. I think these are two of the best home crowds in the league. Their crowd was great for them. Our crowd is always great for us. So series can change quickly. You get down 3-1, but you have two of the three at home, and that's a lot different from two of the three on the road. We need to win one game. We need to change things around and change the momentum.

Q. You mentioned last night if you win, you put the pressure on them.
STEVE KERR: Yeah, that's kind of the thinking going in.

Q. A couple of your players were out here shooting around, but you didn't really have a practice. Just a couple of them showed up to loosen up, is that what happened today?
STEVE KERR: There they are.

Q. But nobody else was here?
STEVE KERR: You mean in terms of players?

Q. Yeah.
STEVE KERR: A lot of guys are getting treatment and massage and just taking care of their bodies. But we don't need to be on the court today. This is a day to just kind of get refreshed and come in tomorrow to shootaround and get back to work.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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