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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v WARRIORS

June 2, 2016

Steve Kerr

Oakland, California: Game One

Warriors 104, Cavaliers 89

Q. Obviously Steph and Klay struggling a little bit with the shot. Do you just say: Shaun, go ahead and take as many shots? What happened with Livingston there that just seemed to open up his jumpshot?
COACH KERR: Well, I think, first of all, he just played a great game, but I thought he looked for openings. He was very aggressive. And, you know, this was a strange game for us. We're not used to having both Steph and Klay off like that with their shooting.

But the one thing we've talked about all year is if we defend and take care of the ball, then we're always going to have somebody score enough points for us, whether it's the starters or the bench.

So I thought we played great defense. We had nine turnovers total, and that allowed us to control the game. And our bench obviously gave us a huge lift.

Q. How much would you say was your defense and they were just really cold in this game?
COACH KERR: Well, it's always a combination. Nobody ever plays perfect defense. Guys always miss open shots. I thought our defense was very solid. I thought they missed some openings. So we got lucky a couple times in the first half in particular, we had some breakdowns.

But over the course of the game, to hold that team to 38% shooting, we did a lot of good things.

Q. How do you account for what happened with Klay and Steph tonight? Like you said, it doesn't happen often?
COACH KERR: Well, with Klay, he got into early foul trouble. That took him out of rhythm. Steph just had one of those nights, just wasn't going in and he had some turnovers.

So it happens. Even the best players in the world have bad nights. But it didn't hurt us because of our bench and our overall play, as I said, with our defensive effort and taking care of the ball.

Q. Can you talk about the job Iguodala did offensively and defensively, both?
COACH KERR: Yeah, I mean, Andre is a brilliant basketball player. He doesn't get enough credit. You look at his stat line and his line never usually tells the story, but 12 points, 7 boards, 6 assists, no turnovers and great defense. So that's kind of who he is for us. I think Bob Fitzgerald, our TV guy, calls Andre the adult in the room for us. He is the adult in the room. He always settles us down, and he knows exactly what's happening out there.

Q. Yet another clipboard felt your wrath tonight. What's going through your mind in those moments, and does it help to destroy something?
COACH KERR: It does. Destruction tends to ease some of the anger. So I try to take it out on a clipboard instead of a player. So it's better that way.

Q. Better not to break your players. What was happening at that point?
COACH KERR: We came out after halftime and we completely lost focus and throwing careless passes. We got lost defensively a couple of times, and we had to kind of regain our focus and our edge. The bench did that for us, so they did a great job.

Q. I asked you before the game about your lineup. You went with Iguodala off the bench despite the fact that this is a different Cleveland team than you saw earlier this season. What was your thinking behind the lineup and the way you used the bench tonight?
COACH KERR: Well, Harrison has started for two years, and it's been a pretty good two years for us. We've had a good run. It's been very effective playing the way we've played in terms of the lineup and the rotation. I didn't feel any need to change our lineup for Game 1 of the series.

Last series was very unique. We felt like we needed to get Andre on the floor right away against Durant. This series we want to get a feel for how everything's going. I thought Harrison played great, but we're not going to change our starting lineup in Game 1 of the series because we've been successful doing what we've done.

Q. Also, Andrew was pretty active early on the offensive end. Was that by design or just the way it worked out?
COACH KERR: No, just the way it worked out. He was aggressive and he got some buckets early.

Q. Coach, you used Draymond Green at the start of the second and the fourth quarters. Was stopping that Frye-LeBron lineup that's done so well in the rest of the Playoffs, was that a priority for you in this game?
COACH KERR: You noticed our rotation change. We've been playing Mo Speights to start the second and fourth quarters. Matchup-wise, it just didn't feel like the right way to go, so we changed some things around, just changed our rotation pattern a little bit. We're just trying to put the right players out there to be able to defend them, and I thought Draymond did a great job.

Q. Last year you guys won first game and then dropped a couple. Do you figure that's in the forefront of everybody's mind? Does anybody need a reminder of that?
COACH KERR: I think it's probably something we'll talk about the next couple of days, but I don't think it will be a problem. I think we're much more experienced. We have that memory in our mind. We've been through this now, and we understand you can't let up ever. Sunday is obviously a huge game. We'd like to go take care of business and get out on the road with a 2-0 lead. But we've got to play well.

Q. First of all, you talk about how a lot of times Iguodala's stats don't really blow up the page. The plays he made in the final minute to strip from Westbrook and Durant in Game 6, he did it again tonight to two of the greatest players in the world. How does he get in position to make plays like that without fouling anybody?
COACH KERR: Well, Andre is not only a phenomenal athlete with long arms and great quickness and strength, but he's incredibly smart. He's one of the smartest players I've ever been around at both ends of the floor. So he understands angles, he anticipates plays, he anticipates moves from individual players. He studies his opponents, and he's smart.

He doesn't reach very often. He only reaches when he feels like he's got a chance to make a steal. He's very rarely in foul trouble as a result.

Q. Barbosa used to be the Brazilian Blur, now I think he's about 48 years old. But he seemed to be a little blurry tonight. How does he summon that up at this age?
COACH KERR: I thought L.B. was great. He's still very fast, maybe not as fast as he was five years ago, but he's still a guy who loves to get up-and-down the floor. He came in and gave us a huge lift. Got a couple lay-ups to go early, tough lay-ups, and then made that three in the corner. Just really played an excellent game, (11) points in 11 1/2 minutes. Pretty good production.

Q. I wanted to ask you something you've sort of dealt with before. But can you talk a bit about on a night when Steph and Klay, production-wise points, they don't score that many points, you show that you can do well without them having monster nights. What does that say about this team you feel?
COACH KERR: Well, we've talked about our depth for the last two years. We rely on a lot of people. We play a lot of people, and we feel like we have a lot of talent on the bench that can come in and score when we need it.

So it's a great sign, obviously, that we can win in The Finals without those two guys having big games, but it's not really that surprising to us. This has been our team the last couple of years.

Q. You did a lot better in the second half. In the first half they kind of hit you on the boards; in the second half you did a lot better against the boards. What did you tell them? What did you do? Was there anything you changed?
COACH KERR: Nothing really. I think we were being outrebounded by 9 at halftime or 8 or something. They know what they have to do. Put a body on somebody, and obviously Cleveland's got a lot of athletic players who can get in there and get offensive boards. Tristan Thompson had a bunch of them. So you just have to keep boxing out and trying to chase that ball down. It's not anything magical.

Q. Were you at all surprised to see the Cavs sort of change their game plan as the game progressed? It seemed they went more to LeBron and point guard and kind of iso play after talking all Playoffs about ball movement and pace?
COACH KERR: That's your observation. We're just trying to look at matchups and see what's happening out on the floor and keep guys in the right spots. And I thought, as I said, defensively Andre did a phenomenal job fighting, and so did Draymond. We're just trying to make it as hard as possible for them to score.

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