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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v WARRIORSMay 26, 2016Draymond GreenKlay ThompsonOakland, California: Game Five Golden State 120 - Oklahoma City 111 Q. After that [technical foul], you seemed to like return to the old Dre [Draymond Green]. Was there anything to that? DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, after that it was just like, all right, if I'm going to try not to get a tech and I'm going to still get a tech, then I'm just going to be me. I'm not going to worry about all the rest of the stuff that's going on. I'm not going to worry about trying to be sensitive to this or sensitive to that. If I'm going to get a tech for that, then I might as well just be me anyway. So that was kind of my mindset. Q. You had a tough time the previous two games. Is Draymond Green back now? DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, I think I was better tonight. But I still didn't do all the things I'm capable of doing. But shots sometimes you can't control that, sometimes you can't control certain stuff on the floor. But the one thing I can control is the way I go out there and fight and battle. That was my mindset tonight. I was coming to a fight, and that's it. I'm going to go out there and do that. If all else fails, I'm going to fight. That's kind of what I did, and that will be my mindset for the rest of the series. Q. You talk about fighting, and Steve [Kerr] said he was proud of the will and the fight you guys showed. Did you know that in the locker room? Not just you, but everybody had that ferocity back that was missing in Oklahoma City? DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, I kind of knew after the game in OKC. The way everybody reacted to losing, the way everybody talked and felt, and going into film this morning you could just see everybody was up, everybody's spirits were high after the film, after the walkthrough. Everybody's spirits were high. I knew then that everybody was ready to go and was going to bring that dog to the game. Q. Klay, you don't always show emotion, but you showed some emotion on the court. Obviously Draymond did, Steph did. How important was that in the game, and how much do you need it for each successive game in the series? KLAY THOMPSON: I mean, it's fun playing with emotion. I mean, none of us want to go home. We're having too much fun out there. No matter what adversity we face, it's fun being out there with the guys and just going to battle. We've got to play with the same kind of intensity and emotion on Saturday, maybe even exceed it because we're playing in their building. And if we do that and play with the same poise we did tonight, we'll be in a great position. Q. You were aggressive from the beginning tonight. You took like nine shots compared to four shots last game the whole first half. What is the mindset change this game? KLAY THOMPSON: It's not to pick up any quick fouls. I hate not being out there on my own terms as far as just sending myself to the bench with two stupid fouls. But my mindset was to be aggressive, be patient at times. I took a couple rushed shots there in the beginning, but I settled down once I started playing smarter as far as moving off the ball and playing through my teammates. Q. It wasn't like you guys were perfect with the ball, but you didn't throw those passes either in the lane or at the top that they kept tipping and turning into points. They didn't have many points off of those turnovers. What were some of the discussions coming into this game about avoiding some of those? DRAYMOND GREEN: When you're playing with a team with that much length and they use their length well, you can't make the same passes that you always make. The first pass that looks open, the way you're used to going, it's really not open. Because as soon as they do this, they're going to get a deflection. So we knew that you've got to be sure on the passes that you're making, maybe even take a double look. Because if it's open, it's going to be there, but the first time you may think it's open, it's really not because those guys use their length very well. I think we did a great job of coming to jump stops and keeping our poise and not just really being in a rush. I think it was more the flow of the offense, using that, and then being fast but not in a hurry. Q. The Thunder was not very efficient in the paint. Missed a lot of shots in the paint. Andrew [Bogut] played a lot more tonight than he has in the series. How much was he responsible for making life tougher on them when they got into the paint? DRAYMOND GREEN: Big fella was amazing tonight on both ends of the floor. He used his verticality on the defensive end, he was great on the offensive end as well. If we're going to come back and win this series, like we plan on doing, we need him to continue playing that way, which I have no doubt in my mind that he will. And the most important thing was, I think last game he got a little frustrated as well and picked up a few silly fouls. Today he was smart. He didn't pick up any silly fouls, and he dominated the game on both ends. Q. The two games in Oklahoma City, was there some doubt creeping in your mind? And did tonight's game restore any doubt, if it did? KLAY THOMPSON: I'll answer this: No, not when you play with this man to my right. He'll never doubt our talent. He'll never doubt our ferocity and our toughness. Even after that tough loss we took last game, you know, Draymond set the tone after the game like, look, we've accomplished a lot this year, faced some adversity, believe it or not even with a 73-9 season. We all know we're not ready to be done, and we can do it, just one game at a time, obviously and enjoy it, because, I mean, it's tough to win a championship. It's tough to win the West. Yeah. Q. How much soul searching did you have to do individually in your private moments after games 3 and 4? DRAYMOND GREEN: I didn't really have to do a lot of soul searching because I knew exactly what it was. But sometimes we all need a little shoulder to lean on, somebody to call on, somebody to talk to. I approach this like it's life or death. It's not just a game to me. I love this. This is what I do. When I don't live up to who I know I am, it bothers me. So I had a lot of people who were in my corner reaching out to me, and it was great. It helped me out a lot. I had a lot of guys who I've played against that reached out to me, Matt Barnes, and the Big Baby [Glen] Davis, Nate Robinson, like all those guys reached out to me. To have all those people reach out to me really let me know, bro, you're somewhere else. I was on another planet somewhere or something. Just to have all those people reaching out to me. But it was also something that I already knew. I just said at the end of the day I'm coming out here, like I said earlier, to fight. I'm not going to worry about missing the shot. I'm not going to worry about if I turn the ball over. I'm not going to overthink it. I'm just going to go out here and play like I've done all year, and everything else will take care of itself. So that was kind of my mindset. Q. I know that you had mentioned that Kobe [Bryant] had texted you and he gave you a little bit of motivation. How much did you have that in mind tonight? And did you text him back? DRAYMOND GREEN: Yeah, I text him back (laughing). I actually talked to him on the phone yesterday. You know, it was great because, like he said, if it's easy, why bother? Anybody can do it if it was easy. So that kind of sat well with me, and talking to him yesterday, that's a guy that's been through it all, man. He's been through having the fans love him. He's been through having the fans completely hate him. And when they hated him, he used that as fuel. So it was good to talk to him. It was always great. Anybody can tell you something, but when you've got a guy like that who has really been through everything, it kind of hits home a little bit more, so it was great. Q. We talked about you before this game, talked about Steph, too. How important was it for you to connect and you guys to kind of lift each other's game, and did you think that happened today? DRAYMOND GREEN: It's very important. It's not just us two, because at the end of the day Klay's been great for us. Even the last game he tried to carry us, and me and Steph didn't bring what we needed to bring. But we do feed off each other. Like I said, when you've got guys like Klay who is playing well, or Bogut who comes out and plays well, it's easier for us to look to them and say, all right, we've got to pick it up. We've got to go along with them as well. So it's more of, like I can't let these guys down. I think that was kind of both of our mindset coming out here is like everybody's put in so much work this year, and I know I felt like I was letting them down, more so than I care about myself. Like I care about these guys. Everybody's grinding, everybody's putting in work. This is what we work for, and we can't let each other down. So I know that was my mindset, and I could kind of sense that that was Steph's as well. Q. Given the way the last two games in OKC went, what gives you confidence that you guys can get this series back here for Game 7? DRAYMOND GREEN: This ain't our first time going on the road. We know what it takes to win on the road, and we have to make sure that we stick to that. We have to go in there and follow the game plan, and we have to go in there and completely exceed their intensity level. That's a tough, tough building to play in. They feed off that crowd. They're always in attack mode there, so we've got to make sure that we go in there and exceed their intensity level and try to take the crowd out the game. We've done it before. We know what it takes to do it. So we've just got to make sure that we use that experience. Obviously it's a different team, different challenge, but same formula. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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