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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WARRIORS vs ROCKETS

May 18, 2018

Kevin Durant

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. The consistency in your playoff scoring is incredible. What goes into that? Is it mental toughness? Is it focus? Is it having a different level in the playoffs? How do you do that?
KEVIN DURANT: I stay consistent with my work habits. Try to get as much as I can in after practices. Mainly, whenever I get free time to work on my individual game, I try to do that as much as I can. That consistency allows me to be confident when I go out there and play.

Then I always have this pressure on me as a kid. Every game I feel like I have to play well and play as hard as I can. I can't take any game for granted. I always have that pressure coming home at night. My mom would ask me what happened if I had a bad game. She would ask me why I didn't play so well. Just having that little pressure stayed with me as a kid. Just wanting to play well each game and just wanting to give it my all in practice and shootarounds and workouts and in games.

Q. When you have an off game does your mom still do that?
KEVIN DURANT: No, I'm professional now. I take care of that stuff on my own now. But it's cool to have -- I don't want to call it fear, because that's such a dangerous word. But it's like, I guess you don't want to be satisfied or content. You just want to keep going and see what happens.

Q. It seems like in this series, the first two games at least, Draymond has been able to get in the middle of the court. They've either playing five-out or they've got Clint Capela and he's got to stay with him. Is there anything you guys can do around Draymond to help him maybe freelance a little bit more, or is it just a matter of him figuring out the spacing on this team?
KEVIN DURANT: Draymond is smart enough to figure it out. He knows when to go and when to stay home. That's just the series. Every series is not going to be the same. We might have to play different ways individually. Draymond is so good at adapting to any system, any style throughout his career, especially in the playoffs. Just figuring out that I might need to guard this guy a little closer or I might help off a little bit more. It's just on Draymond to figure that out. We just all kind of figure it out on our own and it blends together well. I think Draymond is smart enough to adjust and figure stuff out.

Q. A few games ago in the other series [against New Orleans] Draymond sent texts overnight and you woke up to the text in the morning. What kind of impact does that kind of leadership have, and what kind of stuff did he say in that texting?
KEVIN DURANT: Well, that text isn't the reason why I came out and played that way the next night. I mean, it was definitely helpful, but I had already planned on doing that before the text came through, before I went to sleep that night. But to have somebody that knows what you're thinking and to feel your vibe -- because I think throughout practice that day, he kind of felt my vibe a little bit on how angry I was.

That's good when your teammates kind of know who you are without even having real communication, but just through vibes and energy. I appreciate that more so than anything. Just be aggressive, be who you are. I had planned on doing that. Obviously, to have Draymond there is an encouraging part of it.

Q. What is it about him and his personality that allows him to communicate that way so directly with someone like you, who is at the top of your game?
KEVIN DURANT: I just think that empowerment starts from the top, from Joe Lacob all the way down to the players. Everybody feels like they have their own voice here. Draymond has worked his way up to having a loud voice as far as the stuff you need to do on the basketball court. Just his opinion on things and his basketball knowledge of things.

Coach encourages everybody to speak up. Draymond takes advantage of it. Every time he speaks, it's impactful for us and helps us. That's his role. That's what he has decided to take on with this team and it's been helpful for us.

Q. In order for you to do what you do night after night, how much of that is having such a strong sense of self-confidence and believe belief in yourself, and not letting outside noise or anything affect you?
KEVIN DURANT: I think it's more so just the love of the game. Just wanting to play and having a good time playing. Trial and error of the game is what I really enjoy most. It's doing something well and then not doing something well and trying to figure out how you can turn that into a strength. I think that's something I always try to focus on the most as a basketball player. It's allowed me to get this far, so I'm going to continue to keep an open book on myself as a player and see how far I can take it.

And take a little bit of risk as well.

I just think playing a game within a game has allowed me to be confident out there. Just my love of the game has allowed me to leave it all out there.

Q. After you guys came out and really dominated and played so great in Game 1, how do you explain the turnovers, the lack of focus and the reasons that you lost the second game?
KEVIN DURANT: You said it. Turnovers, defensive breakdowns; that stuff just comes down to focus. What do we want to focus on each time down? I think we just played in spurts last game. Against a great team like that, especially a desperate team down 1-0 on their home floor, you knew they were going to come out with that energy. We can't fade in and out of being focused when we're trying to win a championship, especially against a championship-caliber ball club like the Rockets.

I just think we had too many possessions where we went from playing great defense to three or four possessions of not playing great defense. Those possessions add up to six-, seven-, eight-point runs. Then you're down 10, 11, 12, and you're fighting uphill. It only takes a couple of inches in basketball and a couple of possessions to turn the season or series around or just a game.

Q. Is it harder to deal with guys like P.J. Tucker and Trevor Ariza getting theirs as opposed to James Harden and Chris Paul? In a sense it almost seems like James and Chris are going to get theirs anyway.
KEVIN DURANT: We just want to play a good defense, no matter who has the ball. We're not just saying, CP and James are going to score all the points. Whoever gets the ball at that time, we want to make sure we play good defense, just make it tough on guys. Eric Gordon is a tremendous scorer, Sixth Man of the Year. James, CP, P.J. Tucker has been shooting the ball extremely well this year. If they get the ball, just try to take away what they like to do best. If they make a tough shot on you, then run back down the court and keep grinding. If we do that, we'll be fine. That's easier said than done.

Q. After missing six weeks Steve Kerr had said that maybe Steph Curry has lost some rhythm. How do you explain his play in the series so far?
KEVIN DURANT: I don't think so. I think they're switching out a lot and they're doing a solid job of switching out. I think he did a good job of driving to the rim. He may have missed a few threes, but I mean, worrying about missed threes with Steph Curry? Just keep being aggressive, keep fighting over screens, playing good defense and getting into the paint. Just playing in the flow and he'll be fine.

I don't think anything is lingering from the injury. I just think that a couple shots went in and out. You make a couple of those threes that were open, you're talking about a different night.

This is a make-or-miss league. If Steph misses a shot, everybody gets up in arms about it. But that's how great he is. So many people expect him to make every single shot. Sometimes that doesn't happen. But he continued to keep fighting -- seven rebounds, seven assists, he's playing his tail off on the defensive end. It's a series. You're not going to knock them out in one game.

Bad games happen in the playoff series, throughout the season, throughout your career. You move on and you just keep getting better.

Q. Steve also said Steph can miss one or two, and then he can go and make them in bunches. I'm sure you expect that soon enough on a certain level.
KEVIN DURANT: I knew the last couple days would be about Steph shooting the ball, but that's the last thing I worry about. I've got so much confidence in him as far as shooting the ball. I said this way before you guys ever said it -- that he's the best shooter ever. I've got confidence in him on that side. You know what I'm saying? I think we all do. All the fans, the players we all do.

He got his looks last game. All of them were great shots, but sometimes they don't go in. I know Steph is confident always. See him working on his game right now? Preparing for the next game. That's what elite players do.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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