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NBA FINALS: CLEVELAND VS GOLDEN STATE

June 1, 2017

Draymond Green

Oakland, California: Postgame

Warriors - 113, Cavaliers - 91

Q. Can you talk about your defense on Kevin Love.
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think everybody keep making this Kevin Love matchup with me a thing. It's just basketball. I'm not seeking out, trying to say, oh, man, I'm locking down Kevin Love. And he's not coming out there saying, oh, I need to guard Draymond. He plays within his offense; I try to play within our team defense. And that's just what it is.

I think he missed some shots that he could have made. He had a couple in and outs. But I wasn't the only one on him as well. There were other guys that did a great job. And yet he still had a huge impact on the game, 15 points, 21 rebounds. I think he had a very solid game for them.

But overall it was a complete team effort, obviously I helped a lot, so it's not all -- I switch a lot, it's not always me on Kevin Love. Anybody who was on him just tried to make him take tough shots. And he can still hit those shots. So we just got to continue to play great team defense.

Q. You guys went on a 13-0 run to start the second half. Was there anything said in the locker room, or what was the mindset that you guys had coming out in the second half that really allowed you to turn a close game into a blowout?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I never felt at any point it was really a blowout. Obviously up 20 is cool, but one thing you know about this team is they can storm back from that. So, it was never the feel of like a blowout for us. At halftime we just said we're playing good, I think at that point we had one turnover. And we spoke about that as well, to continue to not turn the ball over and lock down even more on the defensive end.

In the first half we missed a lot of bunnies and we said if we can make those, make a few of these bunnies, and continue to play the way we're playing, that we could possible bust the game open a little bit. And we were able to do that.

Q. Kevin Durant. Pretty good. Why is he particularly important for you when you get to this level against this opponent in this NBA Finals?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Because he can just go get a bucket. And that's one of the things that we need, a guy who can go get a bucket, get to the foul line. Tonight he shot eight free throws, which is huge. They were going on a run and he picks up a foul and gets to the line. That's huge for us. You are talking one of the best players in the game. To have a game like that when he's playing that way, it's tough to beat. 38, 8, 8, zero turnovers? I mean that's, we're real tough to beat when he's doing that.

And so, no, he just did what we expect of him. We're going to seek him out, get him the ball, and guys got to defend him. He was amazing tonight, and I expect nothing less in the rest of the games.

Q. There's been times in the past when you guys kind of lived and died by the 3-point shot, but tonight, especially early, guys were really taking it to the rack, especially Kevin. How much of that was dictated by the defense and what does -- how much does that help you guys just transcend your offense when that's available?
DRAYMOND GREEN: One thing about K is he can get to the basket anytime he wants. He's seven feet. So there's usually never a bad shot that he takes because he sees right over people. And with their defense, I think that if you saw a couple times in the first half we're in transition and they're just jumping out at the three, and he gets an easy dunk. You could tell that their game plan was to take the three away.

And when you do that, when they do that, you got to drive the basketball. I think we did a great job of that. And if they're going to play that same type of defense, you have to take what the defense gives you. You can't just sit out there and say, oh, man, I'm going to get a three up because we want to shoot threes. You just got to take what the defense gives you. And if that's a lane to the rim, then you got to take that lane and try to finish. And usually that will loosen their defense up some, and that's when the threes will start coming.

But for the most part we continued to drive. I think also we missed a bunch of easy ones that we usually make, that we will make, so we just got to continue to do whatever the defense say do, you know, you take that.

Q. 20-4 turnover advantage, just how massive is that?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Yeah, I got -- say that one more time.

Q. Just the 20-4 turnover advantage --
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think that was huge. We scored 21 points off their turnovers. They scored six off ours. When you turn the ball over against this team, it's almost impossible to guard. Usually it's LeBron coming downhill or Kyrie coming downhill with a bunch of shooters around him.

So we know coming into this game that we got to really value the basketball. And if we can get a shot at the rim, it's always to our advantage with all the great scorers that we have.

Obviously I don't think we'll have four turnovers every game, but if we can keep those turnovers down, it gives us a much better chance at having a game like this, even where in the first half, in the beginning where we were missing easy shots, we were missing shots that we would normally make; that not only having one turnover in that first half is key. And so if we can continue to stick with this blueprint, take care of the ball, defend, we put ourself in a good position.

Q. Nice jacket, Draymond.
DRAYMOND GREEN: Thanks, bro. You too.

Q. With Klay, obviously you guys haven't lost in the post-season and he hasn't been himself. Does it get to a point where you start trying to look for him? Like a couple of times I believe in the third quarter you looked like you were aiming for him trying to get him going.
DRAYMOND GREEN: No, the trying to get him going, he's one of our best scorers. Just because he's not hitting shots don't mean we're going to stop going to him. He loosens up the defense. They're still chasing him all over the floor. They're not just going to leave him open.

So it's never a point like let's feed Klay, let's get him going. That's one of our guys. We're going to get him the basketball.

But the most important thing is the way he's defending. We have enough guys who can score on this team that if one guy can't get it going, we can go other places and we -- and then our ball movement and our flow allows everyone else to get baskets as well. We're not just going to say, oh, man, we really need to get Klay going.

One thing about him is he's going to keep shooting. He took 16 shots tonight. That's a lot of shots. And we don't expect him to stop shooting. We want him to keep shooting, and we know he will. But his defense the entire Playoffs has been spectacular. That's huge. I think everyone always -- you just are looking and waiting for that game of where he just goes off. But if that game never comes and he continues to play the defense that he's been playing, we should be just fine.

Q. Was there any level of frustration for you when you started the game 0-5, got those two early fouls?
DRAYMOND GREEN: No, I mean, obviously you want to make the shots, and I missed some easy ones, but I knew that I had to stay locked in, I'm going to figure it out. Come back the beginning of the second quarter and my mind was just locked in on trying to make plays, trying to be great on the defensive end and just bring whatever I can to the game.

Shots won't always fall. I put a lot of work in. I want to continue to shoot the basketball, and I know they will fall eventually. But as long as I can make an impact on the game somehow, that's all I ever really care about.

Q. Mike said that in the third quarter when you jumped over JR for a loose ball that was kind of a catalyst for you guys coming back. Was you starting a little bit cold shooting the ball, did that kind of make you gear up and go a little bit harder in the second half, or was that just a constant thing for you?
DRAYMOND GREEN: That's kind of what I bring to this team. I've never been a guy who let my shooting determine what I do on the basketball floor. If I was that guy, I would have been out of the league a long time ago. Because I shot like 20 percent from the field and 10 from three my rookie year. So it's never really a focus of mine. If I'm hitting shots and doing all those things, that's great and it's extra for us. But at the end of the day, I have to bring that energy to the floor, no matter what, because that is my role on this team.

Q. What was your sense for how much Kevin welcomed the challenge of guarding LeBron? And also I wonder, do you have any kind of sense for how much he appreciated being back in The Finals for the second time in his career and first time in a while?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Kevin's a competitor. Obviously being that he's guarding LeBron, he's taking that challenge on. And I expect nothing less out of him, being the competitor that he is. He's also a guy that loves the game of basketball. So to be playing at the highest where you can be, it's something that he appreciate, but we all appreciate, you don't take that for granted. Especially a guy who I think he hadn't been back in five years, five or six years, you gain even more of an appreciation for it. So he showed that tonight, he came out ready to go, and it was huge for us.

Q. So this is your third Finals in a row, and in the past two years in The Finals, especially even you were one of them, you couldn't be the team that played the entire season, there was always like, for example, for you individually or as a team, for example, you had the technical fouls or like couldn't keep up, but this year you -- this game you looked much more disciplined. So does that experience help you?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think experience always helps. The more experience you get, the more you become accustomed to a certain thing. And obviously being of what we went through the last two years, you learn from that and you grow. And adding some of the pieces we have added definitely helps.

But one thing we said is we just got to come out and play our game. There's been times over the last couple years where we just weren't playing our game. And if we come out and play our game, I think the sky's the limit for this team.

Q. They had a lot of success in the last series running pick-and-roll at Stephen Curry. It looked like you guys did a better job on that this time. Why were you able to do better?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Steph took it personal. His shows were great. His defense was amazing. And if he -- when he takes it personal like that and he accepts the challenge, we're a damn good defensive team. And his -- like I say, he was up the floor on his shows as opposed to getting strung out, and guys were locked in behind the play. So if there was a miscommunication on one show or two, there were guys that were helping. We were all locked in on the screen together.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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