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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v WARRIORSMay 30, 2016Draymond GreenKlay ThompsonOakland, California: Game Seven Golden State 96 - Oklahoma City 88 Q. Hey, Draymond, when you guys were down 3-1, can you reflect on some of the conversations either on the flight back or the next day that went on internally? DRAYMOND GREEN: You know, after the game we just said this team has done a lot of stuff that no one's ever seen, and people have seen teams down 3-1 before, but they ain't seen many, and they've definitely never seen a 73-win team down 3-1. So let's continue to do the things that they haven't seen and that they'll never give us a chance to do. And the flight back was, it was all us talking, me, Klay [Thompson], [Andrew] Bogut and Steph [Curry]. We sat at the front table and we just kept talking about what we needed to do and what we were going to do. Then all of a sudden we started talking about what we're going to do in Game 6 when we get back to OKC. And Klay was like, I don't want to look at that. I just want to take care of Game 5 first. That was just kind of all the conversations that we had. And no one ever had any doubt that we could get this done. Q. It seemed like in the third quarter you guys really found a rhythm offensively. How important was it to hear from Coach [Steve] Kerr at the half that the second half was about ball movement, making intelligent decisions and not winning this game by force? DRAYMOND GREEN: You know, that was very important because the thing that Coach Kerr says, hey, force doesn't beat these guys. Obviously he said you're doing everything you need to do in Game 7. You're stepping up to the challenge. You're competing. But almost overly competing, you know, because we're all trying to do it ourself. We all wanted to get it done. And the thing that he said that beats these guys is ball movement, execution. Once we started do being that, all of a sudden these guys knocking down all threes and we went on our run. Q. Can you guys talk about the run that you went on 12-0, late third, Shaun [Livingston] started that with five straight, including that breakaway slam. You got baskets from [Leandro] Barbosa, [Anderson] Varejao. Can you talk about the significance of that? DRAYMOND GREEN: Klay can speak on that. I was nowhere to be found. KLAY THOMPSON: Just give our guys coming off the bench huge credit. We have really true pros on this team. They're always ready. Look at a guy like Andy tonight. His number was called on. He hasn't been getting that much playing time, but he swung us the game in our favor just with his aggressiveness, his charge he took. Same with Shaun and Barbosa. Go down the list the guys who made plays. Little things that don't get noticed out there by the casual fan. But I'm just proud of everyone on this team that stays ready. And when their number gets called, they're ready to go out there and perform. That's what won us the title last year. We plan to do the same thing. Q. Klay, you missed after a 41-point performance in Game 6, you miss your first seven shots. Second quarter you got it going, I think you knocked down four threes. What was going through your mind when couldn't knock those basketballs down? KLAY THOMPSON: The first one went in and out. A couple were bad shots, and I just said just be patient, it's going to come. Even when you're 0-for-7, the playoffs can be ugly. It's not easy to come across good looks all the time. So you've got to just continue to move without the ball. Trust your teammates are going to get you open. For me, I like to think it's a matter of time before I knock a few in, and when that happens, my confidence is back, and tonight in Game 7 there was no time to be down on yourself if you miss your first seven, like you said. It's gut check time. You've just got to play the next play. At the end of the night, it doesn't matter what the shooting numbers are, as long as you get that win. Q. Down 3-1, come back and take the series. Was this the biggest adversity this team has faced? What did you learn from overcoming that and that you can take into The Finals now? DRAYMOND GREEN: I think everybody will look at 73 wins and say, wow, this team never hit any adversity, but there is adversity in every season. It all comes in different forms. But when you're talking down 3-1, and everything's on the line, that makes it 10 times worse. So it's definitely the biggest thing that this team has had to overcome, and it took a great, tremendous effort and fight to overcome it. But like I said after Game 4, if I think anybody can do it, it's this group. Because once we figured something out, we can get it rolling, and I think, although we lost Game 4, and we got punished, I think we figured it out. It wasn't easy. That's a great team we just beat, and we had to continue to fight. And I knew if we continued to fight, which I had no doubt in my mind that we would, that we could do it. So it's by far the biggest thing. It's just everything that went into it from the great season we had the hopes of repeating, and that all being on the line in every single game for the last three games we had to win is, for sure, the largest amount of adversity we had to overcome. Q. Klay and Draymond, you guys have a seven-game series, pretty quick turnaround, now you go against a very tough team that's been having a lot of rest. Where are you guys physically, and what kind of challenge is it for you to go from a seven-game series right into The Finals? KLAY THOMPSON: I mean, I feel great. I can't speak for everybody, obviously. But I think the guys, no matter what they're going through, we've got too many competitors on this team to let that hold them back. Guys have been playing hurt all year, and we've got, like I said before, way too many competitive guys that love to compete. They're not going to miss a chance to compete in the NBA Finals. So everyone will just suck it up and just go out there, and like I said before, they'll give it their all. I've got trust in everybody on this team to come ready to play. DRAYMOND GREEN: Absolutely. I mean, obviously at this time of the year regardless how much rest they've had, everybody's got some nicks and knacks, that's just what comes with the NBA season. We may have a few more than them being the road that we've had to take throughout this playoffs, but it happens. It's the NBA Finals. You find a new wind for that. You just dig deep. It may not feel good, but you've got all summer to get back from that. This is what you play for to reach every single year. You don't come in saying, oh, they've had more rest than us, we're doomed. No, we'll be just fine. Fight through it. Q. Draymond just alluded to it. I'm wondering, if you feel the weight of everything that you had done this season, and was there something additional on the line besides trying to come back in this series and trying to keep this season alive as you played these last three games? KLAY THOMPSON: Believe it or not, I really didn't think about our accomplishments. I just thought about we went down 3-1, just to go back home and protect Oracle. Once we do that, all we've got to do is win two games. We're the best road team all year, and just think back to what makes you so great. You watch some clips of yourself having success against this team. That helps a lot. But I never try to look into the past and think, oh, if we blow this, what an historical collapse. There is no need for that. You've just got to go out there, and if you play focused and you play your hardest, that's all you can ask for yourself. If all 15 of us do that, I feel really great, and that's what we did these last three games, I think. Q. Your shot was not going in games 3 and games 4, but tonight you scored 11 points and nine rebounds. Do you think the real Draymond is coming back? DRAYMOND GREEN: I just said no matter what that I'm going to go out here and just battle. If shots fall, which they didn't early, and I was able to knock a big one down, it don't matter. As long as I bring that heart, that dog to my team, rebounding and defend, everything else -- we've got a bunch of guys who can score the basketball, so if I'm not -- if I can't get it going on the offensive end, so be it. But we've got guys that can do that, and I've just got to bring that effort, that dog to this team. So that was my focus these last three games is just to do that. Focus on that and everything else will fall in line. I know how much work I've put in. Hey, everybody -- you hit slumps at some time in the season. My struggles came at a bad time, but it happens. It's something that you really can't control. But what I can control is my effort on the floor, so that's what I wanted to make sure I brought to the table for this team and try to help us win and make the comeback in this series. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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