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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WARRIORS VS SPURS

May 16, 2017

Kevin Durant

Oakland, California - Postgame

Warriors - 136, Spurs - 100

Q. K.D., can you talk about the ball moving? The Warriors had 23 assists in the first half.
KEVIN DURANT: You want me to talk about it?

Q. The ball moving. You had 23 assists in the first half.
KEVIN DURANT: Yeah, we just came out and played our game. We moved the ball. Everybody touched it and felt good about themselves, and that generated some good looks. Yeah, it was a good job passing the ball.

Q. What did you like about what you got from Patrick [McCaw] tonight, kind of filling in for Andre [Iguodala] and getting 18 points?
KEVIN DURANT: Came out, played a great game. He was aggressive early, driving the basketball. He's really athletic, so when you put a big on him, you want him to use his athleticism to get by them and create some havoc in the paint, and he did a great job of it.

Q. Mike [Brown] was saying that Steve [Kerr] mentioned you guys play with urgency, and it seemed everybody was able to maintain that for the entire game, even when you guys were on the bench. What does it say about your bench scoring 63 to keep that all going?
KEVIN DURANT: That's just been the message all year is play with urgency and start the game off with some energy and throw the first punch. Unlike Game 1, we did that tonight. You know, they're a little undermanned, but they still play extremely hard. So we knew we couldn't take them. We couldn't come out here and relax and think they were going to give us the game. We had to go take it.

Q. In the second quarter you took a three and LaMarcus was guarding you. Looked like he kind of slid his foot under yours. You actually landed on it. Obviously your ankle's fine. Do you recall that and what did you think of that play?
KEVIN DURANT: Yeah, bigs are not used to being out on the perimeter and guarding guys on the perimeter. So that whole thing is to kind of give you space so when you pull up, they just contest. That's just part of the game. It's been happening forever, since I've been in the league. I think bigs just try to contest shots and sometimes that stuff may happen, but it's not on purpose at all.

You know LaMarcus. He's a stand-up guy. He just plays the game the right way. So it wasn't anything more than that. It was just a big. Out on the perimeter, that's not where he's used to guarding and he's just trying to do his best to contest the shot.

Q. There has definitely been a little bit of criticism from outside that says you guys can win like that just because Kawhi didn't play. So by that case are you looking more forward to the game on Saturday to show you guys are really ready?
KEVIN DURANT: Yeah, I mean, if you guys don't know, Kawhi Leonard is a damn good player. So, you know, you take him away and also Tony Parker's not out there to kind of control the ball, yeah, of course they're going to be a different team. But we're a pretty good team too. We feel like we like our chances against anybody, no matter what is on the court. That's the confidence we have.

But we've got to be ready Game 3. We know they're probably going to be full strength in Game 3 and be ready to play us. Their crowd is going to be incredible, like it always is in the Playoffs. But, yeah, we always get criticism.

Q. Steph talked earlier this year about how much of a kick he gets out of watching you do your thing. Steph seems to be on a roll right now. Are you able to enjoy that as a teammate? Seeing him do his thing, how much are you able to get into that and how much fun is it to watch?
KEVIN DURANT: Yeah, of course it's fun to watch. He gets everybody else open once he gets it going like that. He creates so many open shots for everybody else. You know, just the team we have, if he got it going, give him the ball. Klay has it going, give him the ball. Same with me. Same with anybody.

To see him knock down those shots and play with that aggression, and it's definitely better for us and better for the rest of the guys in the group as well. So, you know, he's shooting from two, three feet behind the three-point line, man, that's impressive. It's definitely been fun to watch.

Q. Can you ever remember where you didn't have to impose your will and you guys still win like this? It seemed like a lot of guys got a rest within the game. Have you ever experienced anything like this?
KEVIN DURANT: Yeah, I have. Yeah, when you've got most of the guys that can handle the ball and that can create offense, sometimes you can space out and wait for the ball to come to you. I think our offense is not based on just giving one guy the ball and move out of the way. We cut and move, we make multiple passes. Somebody opens, we pass them the ball.

So it might not be my night some nights to go off and score a lot. It might not be Steph's night to go off and score or Klay's, but sometimes we just do it all as a group. Whoever had -- what, seven guys in double figures, you know what I'm saying, and somebody else with nine points. So with everybody touching the ball and moving it, we don't have to just say, hey, go get us a basket every time. We can rely on our ball movement more than just give your best scorers the ball and tell them to go score. Now sometimes you need that. We've seen that throughout the Playoffs we've needed that in some games. But most of the time we rely on movement.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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