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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WARRIORS VS SPURS

May 14, 2017

Mike Brown

Oakland, California - Postgame

Warriors - 113, Spurs - 111

COACH BROWN: What a game. It could have gone either way. Being down 25 or whatever we were down. I give our guys a ton of credit. They stayed composed. Not one point in the game did our guys hang their head or think or even not believe. So our guys' composure throughout the course of the game was fantastic. Then, on top of that, the crowd. I think the crowd brought it tonight. You know, everybody always talks about sixth man, sixth man, sixth man, and I don't think we get that win without the way the crowd was tonight. It was phenomenal. They kept giving us energy at the right time. Our guys kept feeding off of it. It was amazing.

One guy I'd like to point out, I thought Zaza did a heck of a job. We don't normally run Zaza that long. I think I ran him the whole third quarter. He looked gassed, and we talked about bringing him out, but he was playing so well, just doing a lot of little things that we kept him on the floor the entire game.

But Steve [Kerr] always preaches win the possession game, win the possession game, win the possession game, and we'll give ourselves a chance at the end no matter who we're playing. Our guys hung in there in that area, and we ended up shooting more free throws than them. Got more offensive rebounds than them, and we tied them in turnovers. Usually when that happens, for us, we feel pretty good about the possession game. It gave us a chance to win. We expected to come back.

Game 2 will be tough. We have to do a better job of paying attention to the details. We've got to box out. We were terrific on the offensive glass last night. We can't leave strong side shooters. They have too many good players, too many shooters, and if we're helping off the wrong guy at the wrong time, they're going to knock it down.

The big one for us, we've got to finish the play. There were a couple of times where they got a loose ball or something like that, and we kind of stopped playing. We've got to finish the play until we secure the rebound. But give our guys credit, heck of a win.

Q. A couple of injuries. Andre Iguodala, was he hurt? He didn't play much. Also, Steph kept shaking his hand and it was getting worked on. How is his hand?
COACH BROWN: You know, I have not talked to the medical staff about Steph. He was fine to me. Then Andre, he just looked a little hobbled out there. I haven't gotten any type of diagnosis from our staff or anything like that. So in the second half, because he looked a little hobbled to me in the first half, I just went another direction.

Q. Aldridge was really hurting you guys inside the first half of that game. What changed? What did you guys do better against him?
COACH BROWN: I thought our activity level on him was better in the second half. You know, he's a tough player to guard in a one-on-one situation. You know, mixing up Zaza on him with Draymond, and then mixing up our double teams. Can't give him a steady diet. If you give him a steady diet, he's going to get a great rhythm because he's a great player. So I thought our activity on him in the second half was much better.

Q. You're down 20 at half, down 25 at other times. You've got Popovich on the other side. What are you thinking? What are your emotions? Do you show them to your players? Do you show I'm in this game too? What is your messaging to them through this?
COACH BROWN: I just prayed. No. You know, we all stay composed. We have a veteran team. I know Steve is here tonight or today, and he saw things from afar that gave us a little bit of life, too, that he relayed to the group and relayed to us as a staff. So we've been down not only to these guys but other teams before. Game 3 we were down to these guys big, and we just kind of stayed with it until we found a group and a way to play. We ended up getting ourselves back in the game.

So with the team that we have, the veteran guys, their composure, and then the firepower, we know that we're always going to have a chance. So that makes it easy to stay composed or calm. But we all did it, including the coaches and the players.

Q. This was a game of runs for you guys and getting that lead back. But what impact did the energy in the building have? Did the guys sense it? Could you feel it? Was that part of it?
COACH BROWN: It was one of the first things I said. Again, our guys did keep their composure, but being down 25 and playing at home really helped us get over the hump. The crowd, they weren't great, they were phenomenal. You could feel the energy off of every little thing that we did that was halfway decent. If it was halfway decent, the crowd was going crazy. And our guys fed off of it the entire night, especially in the second half. We've got to do a better job with those little details going into Game 2, because San Antonio's going to be ready, and they're going to be just as tough.

Having said that, Bay Area people, we need you again.

Q. Obviously, you want every player healthy, but Kawhi goes down. Did that affect anything you did, and could you sense the gravity of the game obviously changed almost immediately, but what changed about it?
COACH BROWN: I'm not quite sure when he went down.

Q. (No Microphone)?
COACH BROWN: We'll take any run that we can go on. But our guys, I just began -- no matter who was on the floor, we had a game plan going in that we felt was pretty good. The first half we didn't quite execute it offensively. We were a little stagnant. There was no pace to our game. I mean, everything was walking it up. Our wings weren't running and filling the corners to create great spacing and early offense. We weren't getting our quick drags and our quick pin-aways. This allowed them to control the tempo. When they're playing comfortable or anybody's playing comfortable against us, we have a hard time.

So, you know, you don't want to see injuries for anybody. But, I mean, that's part of the game. I know you can't compare Kawhi to Andre, and same thing for us. Andre's a big part of what we do, especially when we go small. I just felt he was hobbled, so I kept him on the bench.

They've got a deep team. They've got a deep bench. You saw it against Houston. So our guys, give them credit. They just kept fighting.

Q. Even when you guys are struggling, it seemed like Kevin was very determined to snap you out of your funk. He was the one guy going to the hoop a lot and creating offense. How much did he personally sort of lift you guys out of that?
COACH BROWN: Oh, 34 points-wise. So that was terrific on his part. But like you said, the thing that we liked more than anything else is K.D.'s ability to attack the rim. Not just in the half court, but obviously in transition. He got out, he filled the wing. He didn't settle for a jumpshot. He saw who he had in front of him, who was at the rim. He looked to attack. We need that from him. He's the one guy that we really feel helps us get to the bonus early. It was evident with him having 12 free throw attempts. So the more aggressive he is, the better we are.

Q. That first half with those turnovers that the Warriors had, I think seven of them were steals, and probably the other three, there were some passes where, you know, they just went out of bounds. The player wasn't there. Is that what you mean by paying attention to details and getting them to focus a little bit more? Because the Warriors were a little bit sharper in the second half.
COACH BROWN: I thought our turnovers in the second half were just about our poise or lack of poise at the time. We were kind of a little bit of a rush to start the game. And that made some passes, in my opinion, go here and there, and created turnovers, and allowed them to run out and break on us and/or control the tempo.

So what I'm talking about, you know, paying attention to the details, for the most part is defensively, what our game plan is. Are we locked into what we're supposed to be doing defensively? In that first half, we made a lot of mistakes that we normally don't make versus any team. So we have to be better with those little details. Boxing out, not leaving strong side shooters, things like that. We have to be better with those things going forward against a very good Spurs team.

Q. Zaza played the entire third quarter. I'm not sure that happened all year. Why was he so vital to what you were doing in that quarter? And in the fourth quarter, similarly with Shaun [Livingston], who played, I think, almost the entire fourth quarter.
COACH BROWN: Yeah, we don't normally run those two guys as long as we did tonight or today. I just thought Zaza's energy, his toughness, again, you're not stopping a guy like LaMarcus Aldridge. But I thought he did about as good a job on him as anybody for us up to that point. He was doing a lot of little things for us offensively and defensively and coming up with loose balls, a block or changed shot here and there. Finishing the lay-up at the rim. Coming up with the offensive rebound.

So I thought his energy, his toughness, his ability to pay attention to the details. He was one of the guys that did in the second half, especially, it was huge for us. Then, same with Shaun. Shaun, his length out on the floor defensively was good for us. Another ball handler. They had LaMarcus around Shaun, which was great. Now you run Shaun into pick-and-roll, and basically he's a point guard when he's rolling. He's going to make the right play 99.9 percent of the time. So I just thought matchup wise-wise, the size and play-making ability and all that other stuff, and then him being long and maybe not securing rebounds, but tipping the ball out to us offensively or defensively from time to time was huge. They were both big for us.

Q. You talked about the players' composure when they're down 20, 25. This is the closest game you've had since you've taken over the helm. How was your composure on the bench?
COACH BROWN: I felt -- I was pretty composed. Just from the standpoint, again, we've got a veteran team. All those guys, when I looked in their eyes, I felt they believed. Our staff was terrific. We've got a veteran staff. Guys that are composed themselves. We just kept talking and trying to find ways, kept trying to find matchups and rotations to find any advantage at all to help us creep back into the game. So because of it, it made it easy for me to stay composed.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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