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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WARRIORS vs ROCKETSMay 14, 2018Draymond GreenKlay ThompsonHouston, Texas: Game One Warriors - 119, Rockets - 106 Q. Draymond, did you feel you were maybe a little too amped to start the game? And also, what did you think of the way you guys started and the way you guys withstood their early run? DRAYMOND GREEN: I think I was a bit overzealous, a bit amped up, but I'd rather that any day than coming out flat. I'll take that and live with that and live with the results. As far as our start, they got off to a good start. You would expect that at home. I think James [Harden] was hitting some tough shots. But to withstand that run, it says a lot about our team. We withstood the first run. I think we were down 12-4, and we were able to get back in the game. Then they went on another 8-0 run. So to go through all that, I think we came out in the first quarter down one. That was big for us. Q. Draymond, talking a little bit more about that early start to the game, when you're on the road and you're playing in front of a hostile crowd like that, how do you then bring yourself back down, calm down, reset and get to the point where you can win a basketball game like you did tonight? Also, how do you deal with those fans as you're leaving, going through the tunnel and they're saying whatever they might say when they're a hostile crowd? DRAYMOND GREEN: I think there are times in a ton of games where you just have to reel it back in, whether good or bad. You could be playing too good and get overhyped. You could be playing horrible and get down on yourself. I think that's all part of being a pro. It makes a difference having great teammates who always support you, having a great coaching staff who is always supporting. That makes a difference. As far as tied up 56-56 walking into the tunnel, there isn't much somebody can really say. I don't really pay much attention to what people are yelling from the crowd anyway. I can get in trouble and lose money, they can't. So it's a lose-lose battle for me. Q. Klay, it seemed like you were feeling it tonight. Even after a three, you kind of gestured to the crowd. How did you feel tonight? And Draymond, what kind of element does it bring when he's on fire like that? KLAY THOMPSON: I felt great. This is the best time of the year. Only second to The Finals. You could just feel the energy in the building at tip-off. Shot was feeling good. I'm still a little upset with myself going 6-for-15 from three. I'll hopefully be better Wednesday. Like I said, I felt great. We've been waiting all year for this opportunity, and this is what you train so hard for, playing in an atmosphere like this. We enjoy every second of it. DRAYMOND GREEN: When Klay gets it going like that, it really opens the floor up for us. It makes us all the more dangerous in transition when he's running the wing and shooting like that. Nonetheless, that's a huge part of our offense, so it's no surprise that he's able to get it going. That's kind of what we expect. Q. Klay, Kevin Durant and James Harden were both spectacular tonight. What's it like mentally when you're guarding someone where even with a hand in the face they're making shots? And Draymond, was there a favorite KD moment that you had tonight? KLAY THOMPSON: Well, it's no fun when someone's making those type of shots, because you feel like you did everything in your power to force a bad shot. But that's why they're two MVP-caliber players, because they make those. The greats do. I've grown a lot and the whole team has in not getting deflated. They can go on an 8-0, 10-0 run, but we have so much firepower and playmaking ability that we could get back in it in a few minutes. It's no fun, but it's part of the game. You've just got to play through it. DRAYMOND GREEN: I think my favorite moment was the one where he drove baseline in the fourth quarter and he rose up over two guys, like flying and leaning out of bounds. Kind of a little stick shot. They played great defense on that play. So for him to still hit that shot, it was tough. Q. Klay, can you remember a game where you were that open from three that many times? It seemed like you had some looks without anyone on you? KLAY THOMPSON: I mean, there have been many, but in the playoffs, not too many. You've just got to take advantage. We've got so many great players on this team. They're going to draw attention. You've just got to be ready to shoot. Like a guy like Nick Young made a huge impact tonight. He might not have gotten the minutes he wanted in the previous series, but he's a pro and he stayed ready and he stretched the floor as well as anybody. Hopefully I can get the same kind of looks on Wednesday. Run around and hunt great shots. Q. Draymond, it looked like there were some tense clashes between you and Trevor Ariza at certain points in this game. What was the battle between you guys like tonight? DRAYMOND GREEN: I don't think we had really any clashes other than me setting a screen. Other than that, we didn't really come in. He was on Steph and KD. We didn't really have any clashes. However, I did think I set a good screen though. Q. You started this game with so much intensity. I just want to know, is it because it's the first game or is this the way you're going to keep pushing it second game, third game throughout the series? DRAYMOND GREEN: No, it's because it's the Conference Finals, and the further along you get in the playoffs, the more intensity you have to bring in order to win. Being that we've been in The Finals three straight years, I understand that. So I know where my intensity level needs to be in order to help this team win games. So that's what I try to do. Q. Klay, when you watch Kevin tonight and you saw what he was able to do in the mid-range, and they only had single coverage on him and the way he got amped up and wanted to get back in the game at times and begged Steve Kerr to play 48. What did you think about his energy and his competitive spirit? KLAY THOMPSON: Oh, man, when he's like that, he's unstoppable. I've experienced it. Played him one-on-one. You have to do everything you can to cut him off. But he's so good at just rising up. Probably the best in the NBA in just getting a good look no matter who is on him. He makes us go when he does that. So do Draymond and Steph when they're pumping their chest and playing with that spirit. It just trickles down to everyone on this team, because when the best player can do that, that's easy to follow. Q. Last week you kind of mentioned to Kevin after Game 3 that he wasn't aggressive enough against New Orleans. How would you compare the kind of Kevin you saw in this game compared to back then? DRAYMOND GREEN: I think he was different. We saw it in Game 4, we saw it in Game 5 and we saw it tonight. We always need him to stay aggressive like that. I think sometimes when you play on such a great team with other great scorers in Klay and Steph, you tend to sometimes think, Oh, man, I need to get him a shot. The way the offense is set up, the ball is going to find those three guys and they're going to get their shots. So when he's playing aggressive like that, we're really tough to beat. Steph didn't really even get it going tonight. Klay had it going, but if we can get all three of those guys clicking, which we have plenty of times, that's great for us. Q. This is the first time you've started a playoff series on the road in a long time. Can you talk about how important you felt it was to win Game 1 and just the intensity you needed to bring tonight? KLAY THOMPSON: It was a great win, but this series is far from over. I've been in this same situation, me and Draymond, before. His first year or third year, his second year against the Clippers. We came out and won a tough game, and they came back and beat us by 30 in Game 2. So it's natural to relax, but we're not going to relax. We're still not where we want to be, and we've got a long way to go. DRAYMOND GREEN: It's a different feeling starting on the road. We haven't really been there in quite a while. Three years we haven't started on the road, so it was definitely a different feeling. But I think it was a good challenge for us. You get so much of the same stuff over and over and over again, you tend to take it for granted. So I think to start off on the road for us in this series is kind of cool. Now saying that, like Klay said, we won one game. Let's try to win two. Not relax and say, Oh, we got a game on the road. That don't matter. Try to win two games. Q. Draymond, following up on that, just how satisfying is it though to see Houston have this great regular season, them talking about being obsessed with you guys and then you take home-court advantage away from them in the very first game? DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, like I said, it's great to come out and get a win. We come into this series, we don't post stuff on the wall saying they're obsessed with us. We don't post stuff of them saying they're better than us. And we definitely don't come in with the mindset of stealing home court. I haven't even heard that in over the past five, six days. All I heard was let's go in there and try to win. Obviously that ends up being home court, but we don't look at it that way. We're just trying to win every game we play in. Tonight we're able to do that. On Wednesday, it's going to be even tougher. So that's a challenge, to try to come out and play with that same intensity or even better. Lock in even more. Just continue to try to win basketball games. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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