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NBA FINALS: CLEVELAND VS GOLDEN STATE

June 11, 2017

Kevin Durant

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. Is in your mind the same concept of winning the next game and winning the title, or are you trying to keep them separate?
KEVIN DURANT: We just want to play a good game. We can't worry about what happens after the game. We have to play from the beginning. So if we worry about just the first possession and go from there, then mentally we'll stay locked in. But if we start thinking too far down the line, then we take our focus off of the task at hand and put it on the goal, and your energy just keeps going -- it's an up-and-down thing.

So you want to stay level and even throughout the game, energy-wise. You don't want to go down. You want to have spikes up and stay even. We just have to stay locked in from the beginning.

Q. Do you take some encouragement that the only game you guys have lost in this series was when they set records for quarter score, half score, records for three-pointers made? Like it took a pretty exceptional effort to knock you guys down.
KEVIN DURANT: Yeah, but they could do that again. They didn't do it by luck. We didn't play up to the level we were supposed to play at, and they exposed that and took advantage of it and came out and played extremely well.

So you have to give them credit for how they played. It's not only just because we didn't play well; they came out there and took it to us. So you have to give them credit. And they can duplicate that. So we have to be ready for it.

Q. Obviously the first loss in the postseason, what's the mood been for two days? Do you think, okay, that's all right, it was going to happen, or are you thinking you need to maybe make some adjustments going into the next one?
KEVIN DURANT: Yeah, it's not all right. We didn't play well. We have to make some adjustments and watch some film and see how we can get better from it and try to apply it in Game 5 and be ready to come out there and be ready for a dogfight. So it should be fun.

Q. Not specifically, but maybe generally, where do you think the adjustments are going to come, mostly on defense, mostly maybe rotation kind of stuff?
KEVIN DURANT: I don't know.

Q. 50 turnovers in the last three games for the Warriors?
KEVIN DURANT: How many?

Q. 50. Any concerns heading to Game 5?
KEVIN DURANT: Just, yeah, not turn the ball over. Not make the silly passes. Watching film, we just threw the ball in the direction, in the crowd. They steal the ball. We try to get a foul, steal the ball. We just dribble the ball off our foot, throw the ball away, out of bounds with nobody even close to the guy. Just stuff like that we have to control.

I think that's, especially on the road, on their home floor, they feed off of that. So we know we can't do that, and especially a dynamic athletic team like this. We have to make sure we keep the ball in our hands, and we can't give them the live ball turnovers.

Q. Any credit for the Cavs for those turnovers?
KEVIN DURANT: Yeah, I mean, they were pressuring. They were getting their hands on some basketballs and getting into the passing lanes. So we have to be smarter and stronger.

Q. You guys were the best team defending the perimeter this year, the three-point line. They shoot 24 threes. How much of that is them just being hot, and how much of it was breakdowns? And what kind of breakdowns were they? How do you correct them?
KEVIN DURANT: I think every offensive rebound they might have got they might have hit a three on it. Tristan Thompson got probably two or three in the first quarter. Kevin Love knocked down some threes and he got hot. Then JR Smith, he's a streaky player. So he hit his first one because we weren't on his body. We gave him an open look, and he knocked it down. Then as you open the floodgates for him, he hit that one near half court, and it looked like a mid-range jump shot because he was in the flow and he had some confidence.

If they make tough threes over us, we can almost live with those instead of just like the stare down rhythm, you can make a sandwich before somebody even gets out there and shoots. And you knock it down. So we can't just give them open shots.

Q. The other side of the coin, it seems like they're double-teaming Steph a lot coming off screens and stuff like that. How does the rest of the team adjust to that?
KEVIN DURANT: Just be available for him. We got two on the ball, that means that somebody's open. Steph was doing a good job of taking on that double team and trying to find a pass and the roll man, and we just tried to make plays after that.

Q. Last year in The Finals as a viewer, do you recall when the series went 3-1 what was going through your mind? Did you feel like Cleveland was still in the series, and what was your impression as the comeback unfolded?
KEVIN DURANT: I didn't watch.

Q. You didn't watch any of The Finals?
KEVIN DURANT: No.

Q. Do you normally do that, not watch the Finals?
KEVIN DURANT: Yup. I don't watch.

Q. So you only watched 2012 and this series?
KEVIN DURANT: Before then, I was on teams that weren't contenders. So it's a little different when you're a contender, I guess. But I didn't watch. But you kind of know the pulse of a team being up 3-1. Obviously if you're up 3-1 in this series, as a fan, and you're coming home, you feel as though that the away team has to have a spectacular game in order for you to win. So last year I didn't put it past Cleveland to have a spectacular rest of the series, and that's what they did.

Q. There was a report that Draymond contacted you after Game 7. So he was informing you what happened?
KEVIN DURANT: That's false. A hundred percent false.

Q. That's a hundred percent false?
KEVIN DURANT: Yeah.

Q. You've been in a similar situation up 3-1. How difficult is it to match? Draymond talked about it how Cleveland's desperate, a team like that's desperate, back against the wall. How difficult is it for you guys to match that, knowing that you still have wiggle room, but they don't?
KEVIN DURANT: Man, for me and I think for our team, we know what the situation we're in. We know that anything can happen in this league, and we know that champions just don't lay down and die. So you know they're going to come out and play with a sense of urgency, play with that energy from the beginning. Just take it a possession at a time, just focus on what we have to do every time down the court on both ends of the floor, and we'll be fine. I think both teams feel that way.

So just try to take it slow. We can't worry about the games that happened before, or we can't worry about what will happen in the future. We just have to stay in the moment and help each other out each and every play, and we'll see what happens.

Q. So you're saying that the Draymond did not make that call that he said he made a few days ago?
KEVIN DURANT: No, he didn't make that call. Not right after the game.

Q. Well, when was the first conversation? Was he the first Warrior to reach out to you?
KEVIN DURANT: Why does it matter right now?

Q. Just a curiosity about how those -- like what the first conversation was about, like --
KEVIN DURANT: I've been talking about this all season. Like, I'm tired of it. At this point I'm not mad or anything, but I'm just saying at this point in The Finals, I'm trying to stay where we are. I'm trying to stay locked in. And like it's been the whole year now, so it's over.

Q. The reason I was asking, I'm just curious, like does it feel like this was always the momentum it was leading toward, is like right now this is why they wanted you and needed you here?
KEVIN DURANT: Like I said, I'm just trying to stay where we are, stay locked in in this moment. We don't talk about, this is why they needed me or this is why -- no, we just continue to come out and play our game, continue to what we have been doing since day one in the training camp. And looking forward to going out there tomorrow and having some fun. That's the only thing that matters.

Q. I counted back there when you are having the shooting practice with Steph, and I think it's the first one during the past few practices day before a game that your shooting percentage is better than Stephen Curry. Does that happen a lot during the season, and how ready does it mean for you for the Game 5?
KEVIN DURANT: So you're saying I shot better than Stephen when we worked out?

Q. That's right.
KEVIN DURANT: I always shoot better than Steph when we work out.

Q. So how ready does that mean for you for Game 5?
KEVIN DURANT: Hopefully it means that we both come out there and play extremely well tomorrow. And we have been putting the work in, so just rely on that and when we need it during the game. So hopefully we both come out there and shoot well tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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