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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v WARRIORS

May 28, 2016

Klay Thompson

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: Game Six

Golden State 108 - Oklahoma City 101

Q. Well, 41 points and 11 threes. What enabled you to get going in that second half or did anything enable you to just knock them down out there?
KLAY THOMPSON: I know I got good looks in those first few minutes of the game. And we all really, really didn't want this to be our last game. Me and Steph [Curry], we got to hunt out our shot. When I'm not out there being aggressive and just not really trying to make my shot effective. So it's just one of those nights where you make a few easy looks early, and then you take those 30 footers with your feet not set, and just get your feet going and trying to stay aggressive.

Q. Klay, the last minute of the game, they got nothing offensively. Hard-pressed to get off the shot. What was going on with your defense? You did a good job with [Russell] Westbrook and [Kevin] Durant all night long. But those last two or three minutes, you just ground them to a pulp.
KLAY THOMPSON: Give credit to Andre Iguodala. The whole game, whether Durant made a shot or not, he was trying to be in them, he was trying to make it tough on them. We realize he's one of the best forwards in the world. He's going to make tough shots over 40 minutes. Our whole defense out there, everyone was on a string. We played for each other. We have to clean up the offensive rebounding a little bit, but other than that, everyone was just alert and in the right position, and not try to let them get any easy looks or score over the top of us.

Q. Games 3 and 4 here in the second quarter completely got away from you guys. There were some moments tonight where it looked like that could happen, but you guys held. What was the difference? What was going through your mind at that time?
KLAY THOMPSON: Instead of an 18-2 or 20-4 run, it might have been 9-2 or 10-2, and that's a huge difference because we've got a great team with great spurtability that can make up that lead in no time. Instead of giving them a 20-point lead at times, we were down 10. It's only three or four possessions for us.

So we never got discouraged. We knew they were going to make a run. They were playing at home, great atmosphere. I'm just happy with the way we responded, because there were plenty of times that we could have not played as hard as we did, and guys played with such great will. I'm proud of everybody on this team.

Q. Down the stretch it was anybody's game. Was there one moment where you realized, we got this?
KLAY THOMPSON: You never feel like that really until the buzzer, and that's good. You have to have appropriate fear when you play these guys because they can go off any time. So maybe when Steph hit that floater, that was a tough shot. That's what he does when we went up 5. I knew if we just didn't let them get a three and got the ball to me or Steph, it was going to be tough for them to climb back. I'm just proud of the way no one gave up.

Q. Is this the greatest game that you think you've ever been a part of?
KLAY THOMPSON: It has to be just because of the situation we're in. Down 3-2, and haven't won here in a while. You know, we were down 10 at one point. Lot of people probably counted us out. It was just so much fun to play with that emotion and that fire we did for the whole 48 minutes, and that's what playing this game is all about.

Q. The other question is what does it feel like to be -- you're on the court with Steph Curry. You're trailing in an elimination game, and yet your teammates are passing it to you, Steph's passing it to you in order to carry them. What's that feeling been like?
KLAY THOMPSON: He's been doing it my whole career. He believes -- everybody on this team believes in each other. They believe in me, and Steph told me before I went out in the fourth, "This is your time. You know, put on a show out there and have fun." I took those words to heart and I just tried to be aggressive.

Q. It seemed to some of us that perhaps the margin at halftime could have been larger. Did you guys go into halftime -- what did you feel like going in?
KLAY THOMPSON: We felt good. We're only down five and we turned the ball over like nine times going into the half and missed a lot of really easy looks we always hit. And we could have been down 10 or 15, but instead we were lucky enough to be down only by five. We realized, look, we've got a chance to win this game especially down the stretch, and our mentality was just not to give them nothing easy especially in transition.

Q. You were making a lot of shots around the arc, but there was one particular you shot that you took from well beyond the three-point, nearly away from the top of the key. At the point you made that did you feel like everything's going in that I'm going to shoot?
KLAY THOMPSON: Yeah, I try to feel like that every game, whether I'm 2-for-18 or 14-for-18. I just try to be a continuous player, forget about whether the shot went in or not and just help my shot. Believe it or not, I practice with range, and my feet were set, my legs were under me, I was in a great flow, so all I had to do was catch and release.

Q. When did you sense that Steph was going to finish kind of what you started? Was there some kind of transition that you guys made to know that it was his time?
KLAY THOMPSON: Not really. It's kind of just telepathic really, playing with each other for so long. You just kind of feel it when someone's on their shot or being aggressive. I knew down the stretch he's the MVP for a reason. You want the ball in his hands. He's always going to make a huge play, and you can live with any shot Steph Curry puts up. It's the best we've ever seen.

Q. Were you aware of what the record was for threes in a playoff game? What did you think when you looked at the box score and saw 11?
KLAY THOMPSON: I should have had at least 13 because I missed some wide open looks early. But I had no idea what the record was. I didn't even know I had 11 threes, I was just trying to be aggressive. Whether that was getting to the rim or getting a good shot from beyond the perimeter. Feels good to own a record, but it will feel much better if we close them out on Monday and play with the same toughness and resiliency we did tonight.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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