	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v WARRIORS

June 9, 2016

Klay Thompson

Cleveland, Ohio: Practice Day

Q. Looking at the score sheet, you might conclude that the Cavaliers are determined to limit you and Steph as much as possible and make other guys do the scoring. Does it feel like that's true to you, and if so, are you comfortable with that equation?
KLAY THOMPSON: Yeah, that sounds correct. I mean, it's felt like that the whole Playoffs and the regular season. I mean, that's fine. That's obviously how they feel the best way to win. They had great success last game. But games 1 and 2, we have to reflect and see how great everyone else played. You have to take what the defense gives you. If they're going to try to take away your shot, just be aggressive to get good shots, but don't force anything.

Last game, when I watched film, there were a couple shots I probably forced, couple bad turnovers. Just got to learn from it though. Me and Steph, we'll figure it out, but there's no time to press and try to get our numbers. I mean, like Coach Kerr said, it's a team game, and they're going to take away what we do, and other guys are going to step up, and they've proved they have in the past. It's going to be fun.

Q. Yesterday you said you'd take today to kind of rest. How does your thigh feel? What will you do today? Do you still feel the way you did about that play? You had some pretty strong words last night. Watching it, it didn't seem like he stuck his knee out on the replay, but what do you think now?
KLAY THOMPSON: Yeah, I'm just going to ride the bike today and try to get loose. But it's just sore. It's one of those injuries where it doesn't really hold you back. It's just there, it's nagging. A lot of guys got that this point of the year, so you've just got to play through it.

As I watched the replay, it might have just been bad luck too. A knee to the thigh never feels good. I mean, I don't think he meant to do it maliciously, but usually when someone sets a screen, you usually do it with your chest or something. But I'm not going to hold a grudge. It's basketball. Just got to play through it and just get right. I'll be good for tomorrow.

Q. What are they doing defensively to take space away from you and Steph? And you also mentioned watching video and maybe taking shots that you didn't want. I also heard you after the game saying you guys want to be more assertive. How do you balance that line between being patient for the right shots but also wanting to assert yourselves in this series?
KLAY THOMPSON: I think they're just trying to run me and Steph off the three-point line as much as possible, and understandably so. Obviously we can both get hot from there. So we realize that we might have better success going to the rim or finding a teammate on the back side or, you know, just trying to play-make because they're doing a good job of stopping our initial action. At least they did in Game 3 from the top of the key with that ball screen.

So for me, I watched the film and I kind of regret taking maybe six jumpshots to start the game. I realize I had some good success going to the rim, and I realized in my pro career that if you get to the rim early, it's going to open up your jumpshots. So I'm just going to look forward to being more aggressive tomorrow night and not just settling for jumpers because it's easy when you can shoot well. It's not about settling at this point. It's about trying to go out there and make the right play.

Q. Last night Steve Kerr sat in here and said, "We came out soft." And it's not the kind of thing that he normally says, but what did you guys in the locker room take him to mean when he said, "We came out soft"?
KLAY THOMPSON: I mean, Coach is right. We did, you know. And anytime a team goes up 33-14 on you in the first quarter, that's pretty soft of us. Obviously, give them credit. They got some incredible shot-makers and they came out with a sense of desperation. But we can't expect to just show up here. That's on us. That's on our starting lineup.

But we'll respond tomorrow. I mean, we've done it the whole year, and the best part about this team is everyone's so competitive that we're all embarrassed for Game 3. We really are. So we're going to have a better showing tomorrow and I really believe that.

Q. Being criticized is part of being a pro athlete I've been told.
KLAY THOMPSON: Yeah.

Q. How do you learn? What is your strategy to kind of block that out when it starts coming, or do you block it out, do you read it? What do you do?
KLAY THOMPSON: I mean, if you're going to read the good stuff, you've got to have the strength to read the bad stuff too. So that's a part of our job. You get paid a lot of money. You get criticized. To me it's not that big a deal because I've learned it can change every game. We're up 2-0, and everything's feeling great. Then you lose a game and it seems like the world's falling apart. But we realize that it is a big deal the way we came out in Game 3, but we can learn from it, and you can take the bright side of every situation.

Obviously, me and Steph have not been the most efficient from the field as you want, but we're up 2-1, and that's a good sign. You have to give our team a ton of credit. Our bench has been tremendous this series. I expect that production from them the rest of the series. They've been so great all year, that's why we've had such a great season is our depth.

So you kind of just shrug it off and realize it's our job. You get paid to get criticized and praised and you just live with it. It makes you stronger, and you've got to embrace the challenge of digging deep and finding a way to win. It might not be pretty, but at this point in the year, nothing's going to come easy. So like I said before, got to dig deep.

Q. Do you think you're going to change something in your game personally in Game 4 learning from what went wrong in Game 3?
KLAY THOMPSON: Yeah. Yeah, that's a good question. I haven't watched a ton of film yet. I have watched some offensive clips. But today I'm going to use today to watch film. I can't give you all my secrets though, man. I know the Cavs are watching. But I will make adjustments, especially on the offensive end and on defense. I thought, I mean, obviously Kyrie was in a great flow last game. We can't give him those three-point shots he was getting. You forget how good a shooter he is, and you've just got to make everything tough on him. We've got to limit, too, what their other guys do besides LeBron and Kyrie. Jefferson, Thompson and Smith had way too big an impact than we wanted them to have. If we're going to win, we can't have everyone on their team playing well, especially on their home court.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297