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NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND

February 19, 2017

New Orleans, Louisiana - Postgame

West - 192

East - 182

Q. A minute ago Kyrie actually just suggested that, going forward, the game should be a little bit tougher, the All-Star game, but that it might have -- it would probably be an effort on the players' part to talk about it beforehand. What do you guys think about that? And as an All-Star coach, how do you approach the whole thing of effort and defense in these games? How do you address that?
BRAD STEVENS: I'm going to let Steve answer that one because he's been around the All-Star game a lot longer than I have. This game is about the players. This game is about letting them go out and show what they do best.

Certainly, I think that, whether it's from a timing standpoint, whatever the case may be, you know, there were a few too many transition baskets allowed. But I thought that was strictly coaching. And a deficiency on our part. But I'll let Steve answer that.

STEVE KERR: Yeah. I mean, I think that in the past, at least generally in the fourth quarter, guys have picked it up. That's what I was expecting. It didn't happen tonight. I would like to see it more competitive. I'm not sure how to do it. It's up to the players really.

As a coach in the All-Star game, you ever seen that movie "Weekend At Bernie's"? They might as well just bring a couple dead bodies on the sidelines. We're not doing anything up there. Just prop us up.

But I think it would be good. It would be good to possibly incentivize the guys somehow. I don't know if you can maybe get their charities involved or winner-take-all type thing, but I think it's possible to play a lot harder without taking a charge.

We know what silly is out there, if you're undercutting guys, but it's almost gone too far the other way where there's just no resistance at all. I think there's a happy medium in there somewhere.

Q. Steve, Kevin Durant had a lob to Russell Westbrook, and the whole bench went crazy. Was that an exciting moment for you? Russell kind of downplayed it.
STEVE KERR: It was just funny with all the talk and everything going into the game. I guess that's kind of the beauty of the game is that that's -- you just let the game break the ice. That play, I thought, broke the ice, and our guys were all making fun of them, and they were both laughing. It was a nice moment.

Q. Coach Kerr, why do you only give Russell and Kevin only two minutes playing together?
STEVE KERR: How many minutes was it?

Q. Two minutes.
STEVE KERR: That's all they played together? I don't know. I didn't really pay attention to how many minutes guys played together. I was just trying to get everybody 15 to 20 minutes or so. So that's just how it worked out.

Q. Why don't you put them together on the second half?
STEVE KERR: Again, I just -- I didn't even notice. It wasn't anything that I consciously thought of.

Q. Steve, keeping with the minutes conversation, DeMarcus, did he come to you and just ask out or was there something else to it?
STEVE KERR: No, I talked to all the guys yesterday, probably like Brad did. You come in, you ask everybody, are you healthy? How many minutes do you want to play? And he told me yesterday, he said, I'm pretty banged up, and I really don't want to play much. Just give me a few minutes, and that's plenty.

And then Kawhi at halftime told me he was done, he didn't want to play anymore. For the same reason, he was a little banged up. Some of these guys, obviously, they play so many minutes in the regular season. So it's tough to come out here during the break, especially if you're hobbled a little bit. So I think it was smart for both of them to sit out.

Q. This is a question for both coaches. Just curious, did you ever use the defense during the game? You know, talk to your players?
BRAD STEVENS: Yeah, we mentioned it. I mean, we talked about trying to get back in it at the end and talked about how, obviously, the one way to do that is keep people in front of you. But, no, it probably should have been a bigger emphasis in retrospect now.

Q. Steve, what does it say of Anthony Davis that a lot of guys deferring to him, a lot of alley-oop chances, guys who took and passed up open shots to get him points and get him this record in this building?
STEVE KERR: Well, it shows the guys recognize what the weekend is about. Anthony is kind of the unofficial host of the weekend. This is his team, his town here, in this building, and I thought it was perfectly natural for our guys to go out of their way a little bit to get him the ball.

Q. Coach Stevens, after being around Coach Kerr and all the players this weekend, is there anything in particular you're going to bring back to Boston to kind of carry this to a championship?
BRAD STEVENS: You know what, it is really the best thing about being a part of this, the best part about being a part of the weekend is being around all the high achievers. I think you feel that in the locker room. You hear the discussions. Obviously, the game is played at not 100 percent full throttle, obviously, but I think the -- just being around those guys and listening to their conversations and seeing what they're like, seeing even how they prepared for tonight's game, I think that that's good.

Hey, the consistency with which All-Stars perform night in and night out in this league is what makes them special. There's a lot of guys that can go off on a given night, but these guys do it every single night, and that's really tough to do.

As we told them before the game, I hope they just take a minute to enjoy the journey that got them here. They're an inspiration for kids, but they're also an inspiration for players in the league that want to be as consistent as them.

Q. Coach Kerr, can you describe that little scene that happened on the bench after K.D.'s pass to Russ?
STEVE KERR: I saw some ice flying, I know that. It took a couple minutes to wipe up the ice and the water. But there were three or four guys that were kind of leading the charge with the laughter and the mocking. So I think it was DeAndre and DeMarcus and Draymond. So it was a fun moment.

Q. Coach Kerr, what was your favorite moment from today's game?
STEVE KERR: I would say what Brad talked about, just being part of it and just meeting players who you usually have to play against, and then all of a sudden, you see them in your own locker room and you're talking to them, getting to know them.

Marc Gasol was really fun to get to know. DeMarcus was hilarious. So it's just kind of fun to have a totally different perspective on players that you're used to competing against.

Q. What was your favorite part about coaching the All-Star team?
STEVE KERR: I think, when you grow up loving basketball and playing like Brad and I did, you just can't even fathom coaching the NBA All-Star game. I mean, I never dreamt that I would be in this position. So it's an incredible honor, and it's such a spectacle and such a scene, and to be right in the middle of it is kind of surreal.

Q. Steve, just leading into that whole throwing ice at people, there's a sort of -- it's not hard to connect the dots of what that metaphor is, breaking the ice? How tense was it? Was it awkward for people? Was it tense? Was it uncomfortable before any of that happened?
STEVE KERR: First of all, there's no way any of our players saw the metaphor before they threw the ice. You're giving them way too much credit. That's your job to recognize the metaphor. So I'm glad you did.

No, it was great. This stuff has all been blown up obviously, but they're both great guys. It's basketball. It's a basketball game. Guys are going to make decisions, and players get traded, players get cut. This is all part of the NBA.

Q. In terms of players deferring to A.D., is it also fair to say that you took that approach as a coach in terms of the distribution of minutes and subbing Westbrook out with 5:45 to go?
STEVE KERR: I didn't think about it with Russell, but I thought about it with A.D. I don't know what the minutes looked like, but we as a coaching staff coming into the game, we decided we were going to play him more minutes than everybody else. And I talked to him yesterday too and asked him about that, and he was good with it. He wanted to play. So we left him out there for longer than most of the other guys.

I haven't looked at the stat sheet. I'm guessing Russell probably played 20 minutes. Maybe Steph and Klay were somewhere around there. But at the end, I was really -- what my thinking was, was get the All-Star starters on the floor for the last five minutes because that's what the fans voted in. So we had four of the five starters, but Kawhi was out. So I just left Marc Gasol out because he was playing really well and getting every rebound.

Q. Steve, are you a little worried that Steph's going to keep wearing that headband? And did you ever wear a headband?
STEVE KERR: I was calling him Seth tonight during the game. He looked a lot more like Seth than Steph. Yeah, he said he may continue to try to wear it.

And, no, I did not. I was dorky enough looking as it was. I didn't want to add to that.

Q. Coach Stevens, can you just summarize how special this weekend was for you to be here with your family, all of your coaching staff, and then obviously with Isaiah as well? Secondly, how many times have you seen Isaiah Thomas dunk?
BRAD STEVENS: You know, I probably didn't say five words on the bench tonight, but I think I said stay in your lane after the first attempt. But I loved it because he missed it, and he dribbled it out back behind the three-point line and drilled a three.

Again, it's special to be around such high achievers, as far as being around these coaches and being around these players. It's great for our whole staff to share it not only together but with Isaiah as well. As I said numerous times before we got here, we would have all traded our spots with Al Horford, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder to have one of them take our spots. They're the reason why we were here, and we were fortunate enough to live it. We've got a couple days, and then the real world starts again. That's a little bit tougher.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND

February 19, 2017

Steve Kerr

Brad Stevens