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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS: JAZZ vs WARRIORS

May 2, 2017

Mike Brown

Oakland, California: Game One

Jazz - 94, Warriors - 106

MIKE BROWN: Good win by our guys. I thought one of the things that we talked about going into the series was winning the possession game because they're a good defensive team. And, you know, they thrive off of getting steals and getting the ball out in transition and scoring easy buckets against their defensive pressure.

So we did a great job of taking care of the ball. Seven turnovers again is a franchise low. We tied the franchise record for seven turnovers in a playoff game. That was phenomenal. I thought two of our bigs were very good moving the basketball. David West had seven assists. Draymond Green was terrific, he had six assists. AndrÃ© had five assists. We slide him to the power forward quite a bit.

So for those guys that are quote/unquote our bigs to be able to move the ball like that and generate baskets for us, by moving the ball, was phenomenal. Got to give them credit, they are a good defensive team. We get into a little rut every once in a while, and some of it had to do with their defense, some of it had to do with us.

But they'd go on a little run, and every time they went on a run, it seemed like our guys locked in and responded especially that second group. That second group with Ian, Klay, AndrÃ©, Draymond, David West. We thought both halves that group was really good for us.

Q. Did something happen with Steph there? He had his shoe off, he was getting looked at. Is there a status update on him?
MIKE BROWN: No, he's fine.

Q. Limiting turnovers is something Steve talked about a lot during the regular season. Is what we're seeing now all of that work coming together at the most opportune time? What is it really that's coming together now that's causing such low turnover outputs in the last few games?
MIKE BROWN: Yeah, again, going into the year, that was one of the things that Steve talked about is part of winning the possession game. We feel like we have enough scoring power that if we lock in defensively and just do our job and win the possession game, we can probably outscore most of our opponents. So Steve had stressed that from day one in training camp.

It's just our guys buying in, trying to do the right thing, and most importantly keeping the game simple. We can score in bunches if we just make the simple play, keep the ball moving, keep bodies movement. That's what our guys did a lot of tonight.

Q. They didn't score for over, I think, four minutes of the game. Were they just missing shots or what did you like from your defense in that early going?
MIKE BROWN: You know, I thought the effort was there. A couple times we might have broken down with our schemes, but everybody was trying to cover for one another. They didn't get many looks, and again, that's one of the things that we pride ourselves on is being locked in defensively. If we're missing shots and we're locked in defensively, we still feel like we're going to come out of it, a lot of times, sooner than the other team and go on a big run to create a little separation, and that's what our guys did.

Q. We all know what Steph can do, but it kind of felt like he was having trouble with the three-point shot and then he demonstrated the other part of his game, the couple plays he made under the basket and then the lob to JaVale, just, again, a testament to how he can affect the game?
MIKE BROWN: Yeah, he can effect the game a lot of different ways, even when he's not shooting. He moves so well without the basketball. His movement creates other opportunities for other guys. He sets a back screen, a lot of times his man doesn't want to help on the back screen, therefore the guy receiving the back screen is going to get an open look at the rim. If he cuts hard enough, he sets the pin down, it's the same thing.

So just Steph being out on the floor, knowing that he can be a threat to catch and shoot anytime or come off the pick-and-roll and score at any time is a bonus for all of us. Tonight they switched out a couple of times with some bigs on him again, because of his ability to shoot the three ball, they're pressing up into him, which allowed him to dribble drive by them.

Q. Gordon Hayward, 15 field goal attempts, 4 of 15 and only two free throw attempts. What did you do against him tonight?
MIKE BROWN: He had a couple looks probably that he missed. But give our guys credit, they followed the game plan. Our whole deal is we just want to keep a body in front of these guys. If we can keep a body in front of them and they want to go one-on-one and try to beat our guys off the dribble, we feel like that could be to our advantage at the end of the day. Because going one-on-one every possession, play after play after play is a tough way of playing, and that's not their style.

Teams left in the playoffs, they move the ball very well, they move bodies well and space the floor very well, so for us, our whole emphasis, especially on Gordon, was to just keep a body in front of them and make them try to shoot tough shots. We thought that our guys did a pretty good job of trying to keep at least a body in front of them throughout the night.

Q. Was it a concerted effort to try to hurry them up early in the game? Because they were supposed to deliver a team that looked like you guys did everything you could on defense to try to get them going at a faster pace. Was that the plan?
MIKE BROWN: Again, even against Portland we felt like, you know, if we could get to these guys bodies and try to get them to speed up offensively by putting pressure on them, especially when they had the ball out on top of the floor, then maybe it may hurry them up a little bit.

Sometimes when you're pressuring guys, they see a little crack of daylight, and it's a natural instinct for a guy to want to drive against that pressure. Now the drive against the pressure, and for us we're not coming to help a ton because we feel like we're long and athletic. Now we're taking the three out of the game because they're driving for twos or driving for pull-ups. Our guys did a pretty good job of that to start the game. Even Zaza did. He saw Rudy catch the ball at the top of the floor, we don't want him to be uncomfortable out there. If he's going to handle it, he's going to have to feel a body up there, and Zaza did a good job of that early on.

Q. What did you think of that play in the second quarter where Curry crossed over Gobert, and had Gobert spinning around? Are you getting used to that sort of thing?
MIKE BROWN: No, I still enjoy it. I'll keep enjoying it. I feel like I've got one of the better seats in the house, and I'm not even paying for it. So it's a good thing. I mean, Steph is just dynamic with the basketball. And if their game plan is to switch Rudy out on Steph from time to time, I don't know, we may see that again. I don't know.

But Steph's ability to shoot the ball and his hesitations, every once in a while he'll glance and look at the rim. That's tough for anybody, let alone a seven-footer to try to defend with all of the space because of the shooters that we have behind him.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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