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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WARRIORS VS SPURS

May 13, 2017

Ian Clark

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. Will you buy a house for your mother?
IAN CLARK: A house for Mother's Day? No, not no house. I mean, she wanted -- she never asks for nothing from me. Keep it simple.

Q. (Indiscernible.)
IAN CLARK: Great. I mean, she's been there every step of the way, even before being here. She's always been a positive influence, always texting me and calling me, asking me how I'm doing, but no matter what's going on, she's always trying to keep my spirits up, you know, whether it's a good game, bad game, a loss or a win, she's remained the same, and I know I can go to her whenever I need advice or just someone to talk to that I just need to lift my spirits.

Q. Does she give you basketball advice?
IAN CLARK: She tries to. It's a little deeper than what she knows, but she does her best to try to do her research and find out what's going on so she can kind of critique me. I can say that.

Q. Mike [Brown] has talked about how he's leaning on David West a little bit. He played for the Spurs last season; how have you noticed that?
IAN CLARK: I mean, ask him questions, he gives us answers. In the pregame or during practice, anything that we feel like we can -- that D-West can help us with, knowing those guys, playing with those guys, we try to use it in our schemes and try and get better.

Q. That's kind of a role he's had all season, right?
IAN CLARK: Yeah, he's been playing in this league for a long time, so he knows the ins and outs. He's a very smart player, and he does his research to make sure he gets an advantage against his opponent, and he brings that to the team.

Q. When you look at that 36-point game, it was a weird game, but you go for 36 against a team. Does that mean something different?
IAN CLARK: I don't know if it means something different. Obviously it was a good game for me. It gives me a lot of confidence in myself. But of course I know the circumstances of who wasn't playing --

Q. It's still 36.
IAN CLARK: Yeah, it's still 36 points. I guess I would try to use that as some confidence against these guys. You're able to use anything that you can against a team, especially being in the Playoffs.

Q. Do you remember what you were thinking going into that?
IAN CLARK: Just to be aggressive. Coach told me that I would go in a little earlier, of course, but when I get out there, I just want to try to win the game, and that was being aggressive on the offensive end, being simple, but just going all out and trying to play my game.

Q. The runner is definitely something you've gotten much more consistent with this season. Is that something that you were adding to your game in the offseason? Where did that come from?
IAN CLARK: I actually started it a while back. I've always been smaller than a lot of guards, so being able to go in and not finish amongst the trees and just being able to have a floater is something that I try to use, and being able to use it more consistently now has helped me, and I just now try to get better at it. I worked on it a lot more, more so different areas of the paint this summer so I can shoot from anywhere. I'm getting it up higher because you have defenders right in front of you, defenders of different sizes. Just being able to get it up high and have a touch and give it a chance.

Q. Where did the tradition of you and Steph doing that pregame volleyball, where did that come from?
IAN CLARK: I can't tell you when, to be honest. It was sometime last year that me and him were just fooling around, and it got to the point where we were just trying out every sport, and then it got to the point where we just have a routine now where it's the same sport every time.

Q. Do you guys talk about it before he does it?
IAN CLARK: Usually before when it was different sports, he would just come out with a new sport and we'd see if he could figure it out, each other could figure it out.

Q. You're like literally going through your teammates; do they know --
IAN CLARK: They know now.

Q. Like the first couple times --
IAN CLARK: I think some of the new guys, Zaza [Pachulia] kind of got in the way a couple times. He didn't know. But I think the other guys, when they figure it out from the first sport, they kind of move out of the way?

Q. Steph is just going to do it; whoever is right in front of him and he's kicking the ball, he's doing it, but he's not going to hit anybody because he's Steph.
Q. How do you get drafted into this? Like he just decided, hey, Ian is over there, let's do it?
IAN CLARK: Yeah, like I said, I can't remember exactly when. We was just fooling around. We have a lot of little stuff that we do, even in practice. We shoot half-court shots every day, stuff like that, and I think this just carried over to pregame.

Q. I asked this question of Durant: Why do you guys love Ian so much? You're connected to all those guys.
IAN CLARK: Yeah, I think it's part of the team dynamic. You know, coming in last year, my first year, I knew something about -- I didn't know everyone, of course, but just the way they interacted with everyone in the locker room, it's easy to be around. It's easy to get attached to these guys, and in different areas you do with it different guys. Me and Draymond, I've known Draymond for a long time playing in Summer League, so me and him on the road, we're always together. During the pregame stuff, I would do a lot more stuff with Steph. Andre [Iguodala], I talk to him all the time about different basketball stuff and just life in general, but all those guys I'm connected to, and I think we are all connected to each other.

Q. Kevin was saying they respect where you've come from, how far you've come. Those guys, No. 1 picks, No. 2 picks, do you think they feel like you took a different journey?
IAN CLARK: I think so. Me and Kevin talked about it at the beginning of the season a little bit. He told me, I respect the way that you come to work every day and how you carry yourself being an undrafted player and working your way to get to this point now. You know, it's cool to kind of hear that from him, from a guy of his caliber, but it also just makes you want to work harder and work more.

Q. He's like happier for your three-pointers than you are.
IAN CLARK: Exactly.

Q. How does that happen? Is it Steve Kerr's -- well, I know he wants the bench always involved. How does it develop where you guys are so connected to the stars, to the eighth, ninth, tenth --
IAN CLARK: I think we all just want to pull for everybody. Coach talks about how we've got so many guys that can make plays on the team, and I think it carries over from the players that we trust in everybody on the team to shoot shots, to make plays, and we're so happy when it's me making a shot, if it's KD making a shot, if it's Klay making a shot, we have that respect and that hunger for everybody to do well.

Q. You're still doing this gesture, you and KD? You're pointing at each other?
IAN CLARK: Yeah, we were doing it earlier in the season. That was a spur of the moment thing. But we do it during practice and stuff, but it's all fun and games.

Q. Can you talk about the differences between last year's team and this year's team, pros, cons?
IAN CLARK: Last year, those guys were guys that won the championship together, obviously, and there wasn't a lot of change. You know, the team was a lot of camaraderie. The bench was well-connected, and this year, I mean, both teams are obviously doing well. But this year there's been more of a challenge, I think, getting everybody to be on the same page, and I think that we clicked early, and we kind of found our groove, and it's been working out for us. But this year is more -- I think it's more veteran leadership, like we talked about David West being able to talk, having his insight a lot, Andre is obviously talking a lot more. You bring in Matt [Barnes], you're not saying a lot of things about him, but he's been in the league for a long time and he knows a lot, so he actually speaks out and talks, as well. That's kind of the difference, not saying it's a pro or a con, but it's just a difference that I've noticed personally of the guys that have different insights, but that's one thing that I noticed for sure.

Q. Outside of that, what has been the positives as far as your play? Last year you guys were chasing a record. This year you don't have that monkey on your back. Can you talk about how that's been a positive and how maybe you guys all chasing threes as much this year? How have you felt about your team's play overall this year?
IAN CLARK: I think this year, like you said, we're not playing with that monkey on our back. We're playing loose. We're having fun. It's something new for us, so we want to figure it out, being competitors, and I think -- but also, you know, it's a little chip on our shoulder now because from losing last year and wanting to end off the season as great like we had during the regular season, you know, it's a hunger for us to get back to The Finals and win it. I think that's more the mindset now, but it's a little bit better because we're not chasing records, we're just playing basketball.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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