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NBA FINALS: CLEVELAND VS GOLDEN STATE

June 3, 2017

Kevin Durant

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. Can you talk about Klay tomorrow, even when he's not shooting well, what his defense means to you guys and how he also opens up the offensive end for you?
KEVIN DURANT: Well, if he's not making shots, he's still a respected shooter and nobody's going to give him open shots if he starts to miss. So we know the gravity he pulls when he's out there, and his movement off of the ball is one of the main reasons why we're a good team. And his defense is the reason why we we're one of the best defensive teams in the league as well.

So when he's not shooting the ball, that doesn't take him out of his game, that doesn't lower his confidence. He just continues to keep shooting and stay aggressive on both end of the floor. So we'll need that going forward if we want to finish this off and if we want to win the next game. We're going to need everybody to play extremely hard on both ends, no matter what.

Q. What adjustments do you expect to see from them tomorrow, and were you surprised at all the way you were able to go through the lane untouched so many times?
KEVIN DURANT: Well, I'm pretty sure that won't happen tomorrow. They will be way more physical. They're going to be way more aggressive in the pick-and-roll on the offensive end and defensively. They're going to try to get their three-point shooters going and rebound the ball. They're going to try to get more offensive rebounds. They're just going to muck the game up and be physical.

We have to come out and be even more physical than we were in Game 1. We have to be better at finishing around the rim. We can't leave points on the table. Defensively, we just have to talk a little bit more and communicate on pick-and-rolls, on anything, transition. So we definitely have to be better.

Q. Can you go back and kind of relive for us what you went through when you got the first news of a serious injury and the relief you must have felt later and then how that time off might have affected your perspective on what you were doing with this team.
KEVIN DURANT: I got injured in D.C. first minute of the game. I ran down the court, my knee started hurting, and I walked in the back and they said I had a sprained MCL. That's it.

Q. They were saying broken tibia, I thought?
KEVIN DURANT: Yeah, but it was a sprained MCL, and I was out six to eight weeks. When I sat down, my main concern was just trying to get as healthy as I can to get out there and play in the rest of the regular-season games. I played in three regular-season games at the end of the season, and so that's what I was more so focused on. Just cheering my teammates on and trying to help from the bench and just be a great teammate while I was out. That was my main concern.

But being injured, that's part of the game. I just tried to not hang my head because of it and come back as strong as I can.

Q. And was it difficult at all to fit back in a second time after being out that long?
KEVIN DURANT: It was an adjustment. I won't say it was difficult. I had to adjust and I had to play the rust off a little bit. I was out for a month, and so I was just making sure my timing was right, my touch on my shot was right, my wind. I just tried to make sure all that stuff was right before we got to the playoffs. And it took a couple games for me to get it back, but I felt good once we started.

Q. What's it been like working with Steph and what have you picked up from each other in it terms of elevating your own craft, elevating your game?
KEVIN DURANT: Well, you want to know why Steph is one of the best players in the world, one of the best players ever. You just want to know how hard they work. You want to know their approach to the game. You want to know how serious they take it. So day one, when I came in, I see his work after practice, after shootarounds and how regimented it is. He's like a robot.

I think in order for you to be good in this league, it has to be an everyday thing. And it is with him. So that's the first thing I wanted to see. And just I wanted to see how he became so good, the techniques, the methods that he used to work on his game. I definitely learned a lot from him as far as his base of his jump shot, his balance in the pick-and-roll, his ball handling, just all the skills that you see within the player. I wondered where he got it from, and I see it every day, the stuff that he works on.

And then like you said, I was over here listening to him [during his press conference], the unorthodox movements that you really can't try in the game, but stuff that it works on his body, the Karate Kid type of stuff that he was talking about. I think that he's taken it to another level in just trying to challenge himself. And I try to do the same things. We challenge each other as well, so it's been a great dynamic.

Q. You mentioned the other day working with Steve Nash. Why did that relationship develop and why would a seven-footer try to reach out to a 6'1" point guard to become better?
KEVIN DURANT: Well, it happened a couple years ago. We had some mutual friends. I admire everything about Steve Nash. I mean, he's 6'2", 6'1", not athletic at all, but a two-time MVP and made it look easy. And it was because he's efficient. He was high basketball IQ, no waste of movements, his balance was always on point. He made all types of runners and floaters and all different types of shots.

I know that comes from just always working on your game, always trying new things. So I wanted to be able to make those shots, those layups, those fadeaways, those stop-on-a-dime pull-up jump shots. Playing the pick-and-roll. I just tried to do all the stuff the guards did to try to expand my game, and I went to Steve.

Q. Five years ago you faced LeBron in The Finals. What's your perspective on how both of you have evolved in those five years?
KEVIN DURANT: Experience is always a great teacher and always elevates you, and we both have been through a lot since then. And our games have grown, and we have seen more and more different -- just the game has changed since then as well, just playing with two traditional bigs, usually, five years ago, and now the game is going smaller and smaller, so it feels like it's such a long time ago.

But just the experience of just playing so many games in between then, and especially him, he's been in The Finals every year since then, and I played in a lot of games since then as well, so just try to use that experience to help me out today, and I'm sure he did the same.

Q. After the Game 1, when asked about what has changed about this year's Warriors, LeBron's answer was the simple: K.D. Do you think that's the only thing that changes with the Warriors this year?
KEVIN DURANT: No, I think we all got better and we have worked well together throughout the season. We know that one day it may be me, one day it may be Steph, Klay, Draymond, you know. We didn't go into the game saying like we need to get this guy the ball in order for to us win. We just kind of let it flow, and I was able to hit a few shots, and I was only just -- I was only able to score in transition and pick and rolls because of Steph and Klay and the rest of the guys, just the movement they have on the back side of the ball.

So I just tried to be aggressive and use them as help as well, and we try to just work well with each other, work well off of each other. And we know next game is going to be a totally different, physical game, and we're looking forward to it. And you never know who will come up and show up for us.

Q. Steve Kerr said the other day that when Mike Brown got here he was sort of adjusting to the way you guys play offense without set plays all the time. Have you seen Mike kind of evolve through this season to come to terms with that?
KEVIN DURANT: Yeah, I remember the first few practices, me and Mike, we were new guys and we were looking at each other like: This is how it goes down here. The first day I heard the music turn up as soon as Coach finished talking to us before practice start. They turned the music up loud and guys do their own thing during the warmup drill. And I'm looking at Mike, I'm like, you know, I'm not used to this. Like it's usually quiet and we just go straight to work. What I'm used to. And he was the same way.

As far as the offense, he was like, sometimes we don't run a play for two or three minutes straight. And I'm like, man, I'm so used to making sure we run something every time down.

So it was an adjustment for both of us. It was great for me to have Mike to kind of like go through the season with me and kind of help me out and help me get adjusted. I think I helped him out as well. For sure, it was different. It was different for both of us.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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