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NBA FINALS: CLEVELAND VS GOLDEN STATE

June 3, 2017

Stephen Curry

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. What do you think you need to do to win Game 2 differently from Game 1, and what do you expect from Cleveland to do differently from Game 1?
STEPHEN CURRY: It's hard to know what to expect because I'm not in their locker room, obviously. But you expect them to play physical, have a lot of energy, feed off LeBron and Kyrie. I'm assuming they're going to try to get some other guys involved, especially trying to get their three-ball-game going. We have to be ready for that and to stop that, for sure.

For us, if we can kind of carbon-copy what we did Game 1, maybe finish better in the paint when we had opportunities, to finish possessions on the offensive end, and do a great job rebounding the basketball off of their misses and turn that into transition opportunities for us, we should be in pretty good shape.

So every game's different. That's the beauty of The Finals. It doesn't matter really what happened in Game 1. It's a whole 'nother experience that we have to be ready for.

Q. Us in the media have had a little bit of a fun with the Rihanna story, but just more generally speaking, can someone who sat very close and is very noisy have any kind of an impact on the game or the mentality of the players? Can it have an ever fire you up or something like that?
STEPHEN CURRY: At times, yeah. There's a lot of noteworthy people that show up, especially this time of year to The Finals games and whatnot. If you have a personal relationship or history with certain people -- I saw Kevin Hart on the sidelines. He's over there cracking jokes the whole game. Stuff like that, you can have fun with at times.

You don't want to obviously let it distract you. As players we do a pretty good job of being able to tune out noise and distractions and stuff on the fly when we need to to be able to do what we do on the floor, but still enjoy the atmosphere of the stage that we're on.

Q. So her music's not banned from the locker room or anything after Game 1?
STEPHEN CURRY: I don't think it was on there to begin with.

Q. Your new sneakers have been getting a good response online. Can you give us your thoughts on the Curry 4 and how long it was in development?
STEPHEN CURRY: For a while. The whole shoe game is crazy. It takes a long time, a lot of idea and input and the whole process is kind of fun to go down that road. So, yeah, I feel good playing in it. It's a progression of the Curry line that we're trying to continue to elevate and make that best shoe in the market. So I'm feeling pretty good about it. Obviously, at the end of the day, they helped me play well in Game 1, and I want to keep that going.

Q. Watching you and KD shoot there at the end of practice, how has it been to have not just KD but guys on this team, how contagious is it in terms of how you work, how you work on your skill, in terms of elevating your own skill?
STEPHEN CURRY: It's huge. Most guys are self-motivated, self-driven. We understand what it takes to elevate our game, get better every single year, how to use our practice sessions, our individual sessions, whatever it is, to stay sharp. But when you have a culture of guys that work, guys that want to be great and want to put the time in and not cheat the game, it's huge because you can feed off of that energy.

Even though it's an empty gym after practice, a game like 36 of the regular season, it's the same process. We finish practice, guys get their individual sessions in, some guys come back late at night, get shots up. It's just kind of the status quo around here. We're going to work and you're going to do whatever you can to get yourself ready for a big moment throughout the course of the season. That identity and that kind of expectation has been established from day one. So it's huge.

Q. Have you learned much from KD as a newcomer to this team or even David West, guys like that, in terms of how they approach it?
STEPHEN CURRY: Yeah, for KD, there's a lot of different footwork drills and stuff that I've never done before, that he has learned along the way; that I just sit and watch and I try, from time to time, just to kind of shock your body a little bit and see if you can do it and how it may help you. I do a little Karate Kid-type balance drill on my pregame warmups that I got from KD and Steve Nash. Just talking about it one random practice and just trying to add that to my repertoire.

It's a long career that you want to have, and you have to find different ways to challenge yourself. Whether it comes from KD, whether it comes from Steve Nash, other great shooters, any of my teammates, all that input is very valuable for me as I go forward.

Q. We got a taste in Game 1 of the different dynamic that KD brings to this team. But from your perspective, how have you guys worked things out and especially building the relationship between yourself and KD?
STEPHEN CURRY: It's been pretty natural, really. We talked about it all year long. You don't really have to force much of the infusion of KD into your lineup. He's an efficient basketball player. A high-IQ guy, fits right into the mold of what we do here.

We have gotten better as the year has gone on. It hasn't always been smooth sailing, but there's been a collective mindset of just understanding what we all bring to the table, understanding that we don't need to sacrifice anything, that we can all be ourselves, be as aggressive as we can be on the floor, and that we all complement each other very well.

I think that's shown. That's why we are here sitting in The Finals, and we want to be able to finish out this journey to make all that work worth it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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