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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS: PELICANS vs WARRIORS

May 8, 2018

Steve Kerr

Oakland, California: Game Five

Game 5

Warriors 113, Pelicans 104

HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: Before I start, I'm just going to -- I want to so I congratulations to the Pelicans. They had a great season and that was a hell of a series. They showed what they were made of when they fought back in the fourth quarter and made things difficult for us.

We knew that that's the type of game it was going to be. Every series is difficult to close out, especially with a team with that kind of firepower and they came at us. Congratulations to Alvin. I thought he did a great job with his team, and their players, they really had a great year. It was really fun to compete against them and we're happy to be moving on, and fourth straight conference Finals, I think our guys should be really proud of themselves.

Who's got a question?

Q. What left you most encouraged regarding Steph's progress?
HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: You know, we played him 37 minutes tonight. So the conditioning is absolutely coming. In fact, it's probably there. You know, if he can play 37 minutes in a playoff game, then I think he's okay. And now we got about five days till our next game.

Time to recover and continue his work, and you know, just feels like he's back now.

Q. What did you think of Draymond's -- how he took over the game in the Final Two minutes, and also his rebounding impact, and did you see when he went over to the Pelicans huddle and what was your reaction to that?
HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: Draymond was amazing the whole series. Obviously he's such a valuable player for us, and you know, a guy who fits the modern NBA so well. You've got to be able to guard everybody on the floor and Draymond does that.

I saw him go in the huddle and didn't surprise me. (Laughter).

Q. What can you say about what Klay did for you in that first quarter when you guys struggled to get going shooting-wise?
HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: Yeah, Klay broke out quickly. I thought that was great. Set a good tone for us. He got us going.

You know, it seems like he does that frequently. He gets off to a lot of good starts, and it was good because we otherwise, you know, didn't seem to be making a lot of shots. I liked our energy and I liked the way we were playing. We weren't turning it over. We were defending.

So he was able to knock down some shots, and get us rolling.

Q. 37 minutes, was that enough for Steph? Looked like you had an argument on your hands again when you took him out in the third quarter.
HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: Actually, I don't think he did argue when I took him out. He may not have been happy but he looked tired to me after about eight minutes in the third, so I took him out around the 4:00 mark, then we played him the whole fourth I think. It all worked out fine. You know, we tried -- the biggest thing that changed in the second half is once I took AndrÃ© out at the 6:00 mark at the third quarter, I did not want to bring him back in.

AndrÃ©, we don't want him playing huge minutes, and we thought we had the game in hand. I told AndrÃ© after the game, if ever there was a game that showed you're actually underpaid, tonight was the night, because by not playing him, they got back in the game. We let Mirotic get free. When AndrÃ© is on the floor, it's like the baby-sitter is there and everything's fine (laughter).

But we take him out and we lose our poise a little bit, but I wasn't going to throw him back out there. We needed to hang on and allow him to rest. But I think that's why you saw what happened in the fourth quarter. You know, we just got a little tired. We got a little rattled and we didn't finish the game like we wanted to.

Q. Jordan Bell got back into the rotation a little bit today. You said that you could see him playing in the next series. Now that the next series is here, do you expect Bell to be a factor against the Rockets?
HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: I think he could be a factor. I like what I've seen of him, not only on the floor the last couple games, but in practice, his focus is there, his energy, his athleticism. So he could definitely play a role in the next series.

Q. I know the dust hasn't settled much but what is your take on the Rockets and what do you remember about that last game against them back in January?
HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: I don't remember anything about the last game against them.

I take that back. If I remember correctly, there were guys missing in all three games that we played on both sides. I think Harden missed a game, KD missed a game, AndrÃ© missed a couple. I think AndrÃ© missed opening night, if I remember. But yeah, it's a weird deal because we haven't played them in so long, and we only played them three times, just because of the schedule.

So it's been a long time since we've seen them. But we know they are a great team. We know they are ready and we'll be ready for them.

Q. On Houston, how much do you think you have to raise your game to meet their's, or do you think you're at the level you need to be right now?
HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: Well, we're going to need some contributions from our bench. We're going to need to find some minutes. I think everybody has to stay ready. It's a series where you've got a lot of shooting out there for Houston, a lot of one-on-one play, we have to stay in front of them. Guys like Nick Young, Jordan, they all have to stay ready because we can use any of them in this matchup.

Nick Young played really well against Houston this year and he's a good matchup for them. I think every series is different and you have to look at your opponent and figure out what you need to do to matchup and to win some battles, and we'll get together. Staff will get together tomorrow. Players will have tomorrow off and we'll -- staff will start building our game plan.

Q. Third quarter, you guys really put the throttle down on them. What was it coming out of the half that you guys talked about and what allowed you guys to really put them away in the third?
HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: Well, we felt like we probably should have had a bigger lead at halftime. I think it was only three but we had back-to-back turnovers maybe with four or five minutes left in the quarter. It led to five quick points for them and it changed the tone of the first half.

The main message at halftime was we're doing great. We just had a couple of errors, and you have to remind guys that, you know, the ball is everything, and a couple turnovers can change the entire tone of the game.

So the whole message was, just keep doing what you're doing, but be solid and we'll break free, and I thought our guys were amazing in that third quarter and broke the game open.

Q. Starting five, 32 assists, four of the players, four of them had five -- 37 rebounds, only committed eight fouls. What went into your decision to tweak the starting lineup this game when you normally move things around?
HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: Just because we played well last game, and you know, we might as well keep doing what we're doing if we are doing well.

New Orleans plays small, we know that. They put shooters everywhere and they have got one big guy with Davis, so it's a small series, small game, so we decided to go with that five.

Q. You said might as well keep stuff going while you're playing well. Any chance you want to reveal your starting lineup for Game 1 (laughter) in the West Finals?
HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: No.

Q. Draymond was an assist shy of a triple-double tonight, feels like his stat line of the series. What can you say about his impact in the postseason to this point?
HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: Pretty much the same thing I've been saying for four years. The guy has huge energy, amazing defense, incredible basketball intellect. He's a future Hall of Famer. He's right in his prime right now but this guy, he is the perfect modern-day NBA big: He can guard everybody. He can step out and make threes. He can handle the ball in transition. This is what -- this is what the NBA has become and you have to have somebody like Draymond to have a good team, so we're lucky to have him.

Q. Your logjam at center, seems like Luy has emerged reliable -- I think he's played 20 minutes in all but one game, seemed like struggled in the second half tonight but obviously held his own against Davis. What has he done to solidify that spot and how much of a role, impact, can he have against the Rockets?
HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: Well, like Draymond, he's a guy who can guard multiple spots. You know, he can switch on to point guards or he can protect the rim, and that's what it takes these days to be a big in the league.

I blame Mike D'Antoni for making all of the big centers extinct in the NBA. Zaza Pachulia should go down and complain to Mike and say, "You ruined my career, Mike."

But honestly, like when Mike decided to go small in Phoenix, whatever that was, 2004, 2005, and make Stoudemire his center, it started this chain reaction, and it's one of the reasons the game is just small and fast and open and the big guys have to be very specialized and they have to be versatile. They have to be athletic.

It's tricky, you know. Zaza has been our starting center for two years, and in these playoffs, the game has changed so dramatically, and we'll see that obviously with Houston in a big way, because Mike is a guy who kind of started it all.

Q. Obviously your defense has gone up-and-down in the season, but at times in the season you clamped down on the Pelicans. Is it where you want it to be right now?
HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: Our defense?

Q. Yeah.
HEAD COACH STEVE KERR: Yeah, our defense has been great in. Two series, we're the No. 1 ranked defense in the playoffs of all 16 teams. Our guys have brought it. They have brought the energy, the juice, the awareness, and we have a team that can defend a lot of different styles, and that's important in the playoffs because you see a lot of different teams obviously.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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