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NBA FINALS: CLEVELAND VS GOLDEN STATE

June 8, 2017

Draymond Green

Cleveland, Ohio: Practice Day

Q. They have played better every game. What are you expecting out of Game 4?
DRAYMOND GREEN: For them to play better. I think we'll get their best shot tomorrow. Yesterday I think was their best shot during the series. We were able to take the punch, the many punches that they threw, and were able to come out with a win. But close-out games are always the hardest. This is a team that's going to come out and say, we're down 3-0; we're not laying down. They're going to come out and fight. We know we have to try to pull a full 48 together if we want to close this thing out.

Q. All the talk in the media is about going 16-0. Have you guys talked about that in the locker room?
DRAYMOND GREEN: That came up once last night. I think the only reason that came up is because we want to win this next game and if we win that, that's 16-0. It definitely wasn't one of those things where it was a goal, where it's like, let's go out and go to the Playoffs and let's go 16-0. That's too much on the mind.

But now that it's a legit possibility, one game away, I think you should think about it at this point, because you want to win the next game. You don't want to prolong the series and give a team more and more confidence.

So it's a realistic goal and I think it's something that you should push for now, just because that means you're done.

Q. How do you maximize your recuperation after a game to be a hundred percent ready mentally and physically for the next game?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Right after a game, it's just hard to come down after a game like that. So you eat, you relax, recovery boosts, massages, Epsom salt baths and all these things. Just trying to do whatever you can to get back to full strength. I think we have a great training staff that makes sure that they put us in the best position, makes sure we're getting our vitamins and different things to put us in the best position to get back as close to a hundred percent as possible for the next game.

Q. How many hours of sleep do you try to get before a big game?
DRAYMOND GREEN: You can try to get however many you want, but it doesn't always go that way. With adrenaline and all that stuff, it just doesn't always work out that way.

Q. Given that this is the third year between you two teams, given how it ended last year, how satisfying would it be to end this thing here on their court, in front of their fans, in their locker room?
DRAYMOND GREEN: It will be very satisfying to do that. We have obviously won here before. That is a great feeling, winning on somebody else's floor, celebrating on their floor, celebrating in their locker room, quieting their crowd.

As an athlete, one of the best feelings is going into enemy territory and just silencing their crowd. So it would be a great feeling. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter where you win it at, as long as you can win it. Obviously the opportunity is to win it here, so you want to take advantage of that and try to close it out as soon as you can.

Q. Does this team need to win the 16th game, or 16-0, to be considered one of the greatest of all time?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think it's all subjective, someone's opinion. I just want to win 16 games.

Q. Is everything OK with your mom and your family? Obviously, a Cavs fan seems to be hassling them last night. Is everything fine with that?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Yeah, they're fine. It happens every year. Fans here are just brutal. My mom can hold her own, though. She's good.

Q. Tristan Thompson was so effective for the Cavs in the first few rounds of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. How much of a point of emphasis do you put on trying to limit him and what has it taken to limit his effectiveness this series?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Huge point of emphasis. Just really trying to keep him off the boards, the offensive boards. That's what he's great at. That's what he's made a living off of and made his name off, being one of the best, if not the best offensive rebounder in the league.

I think coming in that was part of the game plan. That was one of the keys -- keep Tristan Thompson off the offensive board. So I think we have done a great job of that.

It started with Zaza. Zaza has accepted the challenge and he's battled him each and every time. When Zaza is battling like that, it carries over to everyone else. You don't want to let him down; you don't want to let everyone else down. I think it's been everyone paying close attention to detail, knowing that, if he's on the floor, you have to be finding him whenever the ball goes up, because he's going after the rebound.

And then getting rebounds. Steph has come up with so many rebounds in this series. That's been huge for us, because all the time when you're boxing those guys out, like Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson, you can't always go get the board. So you need guards to come clean it up. And we have been doing that. So it's been a complete team effort.

Q. Can you describe the level of confidence right now for the team?
DRAYMOND GREEN: We're very confident. With a 3-0 lead, you should be confident. But we're not satisfied. We're not complacent. So that's the most important thing, just keeping that confidence. You should go into every game with confidence, but understanding the task at hand and what we need to do.

Q. This is a close-out game. How much of what happened last year is in your mind?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Not at all. It's a new year.

Q. How do you guys work so well together? Why does it work so well with your team?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think unselfishness. Guys aren't worried about who is taking the shots or who is doing what at any given point. It's about us putting yourselves in the best position that we can put ourselves in.

I think that we have a group of guys who enjoy playing together. We enjoy being around each other. We have fun. And then also just having a bunch of guys who can make plays. At any given time on our team you have five guys on the floor that can all make plays for each other. I think that's a big reason why it works.

Everybody is looking to make the play for the next guy.

Q. Even though you guys are having a chance to go 16-0, I mean, all your teammates say you guys can get even better next year. What does that mean for the rest of the league that a team this good can get even better?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I don't know what that means for the rest of the league. That's really not my worry. But I do think we can get better. I know we'll get better. But we need to get better for tomorrow, not next year. We need to brush up on some things that we didn't do well yesterday and try to close this series out and figure the rest out later.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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