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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v WARRIORS

June 1, 2016

Andre Iguodala

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. Game 6 you played like 21, 22 minutes; you played over 40 in Game 7. How is that working for you? Because most of the season you were in the 20s?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Yeah, I think that was the point of being in the 20s throughout the regular season is just for the body to be fresher going into the Playoffs. You may never know how your minutes may vary from first round. We might get a big win at home and your minutes may go down, then going into a series like the OKC one where you might have 40 minutes.

So just being smart about treatments and making sure my body's hydrated, being in constant communication with our training staff and mentally being ready for the minutes to be a little bit higher.

Q. Are you going to watch the first game of the United States this Friday against Colombia in the Copa America?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Friday? Oh, see, I didn't know. We play tomorrow. I don't know what day tomorrow is.

Q. Tomorrow's Thursday.
ANDRE IGUODALA: But I think the day after that is Friday, so I'll probably be watching basketball. No soccer for me.

Q. How do you manage to have a little fun with the game while this series is going to be pretty intense?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Pardon me?

Q. I saw you were having a little fun on the court during practice. How do you manage that while this is a very intense series?
ANDRE IGUODALA: You can't change who you are just because there's more media attention and there's more people watching. That's when you put stress on yourself, and that's why you have to stay confident in who you are. So if you're an outgoing person, you have to continue to be that and, you know, be locked in and ready to go once the game starts.

Q. I know you're a big mental preparation guy, but does that change whether you're starting or coming off the bench? It's a different role?
ANDRE IGUODALA: It's different. It's really hard to explain. I don't know. It's a different approach. But I don't know. I guess you just turn a switch on and it's a little different. But like I said before, it's almost as if we're in practice and the second unit going against the first unit, and I'm starting with the second unit. We get after each other, so my mental approach going in practice is a little different than my mental approach coming off the bench in the game. So if I happen to start in a game, I just, you know -- the brain turns into a different mode, and hopefully I'm ready to go.

Q. How would you describe what it's like to defend LeBron? He's a unique combination of body and skillset.
ANDRE IGUODALA: Yeah, we've got a lot of great players in this league. We have a few Hall of Fame players who have put their imprint on the game and they're going to go down in the history books as one of the greatest players of all time, and he's one of those guys.

So I've battled a few of those guys throughout my career, and you've just got to be ready to battle for 48 minutes and make life as hard as possible for them.

Q. Kind of a big contrast after defending Durant? Similarly great, but kind of very different styles, right?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Yeah, but that's part of the journey, having to switch up your game plan or switch up your defensive principles depending on who you're guarding. In order to be a champion, you have to be able to do that from game to game and from series to series. And that's the case here.

Q. Do you need to go back and watch how you defended before or do you always do it the same?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I mean, this continues to go under the radar, but communication is key defensively when you're guarding players like that. It's not me stopping him; it's us as a team trying to get stops and trying to make life tough for him. So when we communicate and we front on guys a certain way or we scheme the right way or we're communicating, that's when we have the most success, and that's when you see percentages of guys go down.

Q. How is it different to defend LeBron, if you know that Kyrie [Irving] and Kevin [Love] are going to be out there with him, than it was last year?
ANDRE IGUODALA: It's a little different. But he had many high-assist games last year because they had great shooting as well. People tried to say he was out there with bums. He's still out there with NBA players and guys waiting for the opportunity to try to step up and play well. [Timofey] Mozgov had an incredible series last year.

And they got a little bit more shooting now. It's going to be tougher in general. They're at full strength, and we've got to be ready to make multiple efforts to try to get stops against a deadly team like that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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