	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WARRIORS vs ROCKETS

May 19, 2018

Chris Paul

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. When you spoke to us yesterday about Sante Fe, everybody in the local media tweeted what you -- it made a direct and immediate impact on that little town, one specific player, a picture, who's injured in that. He brought up what you said and what it meant to him. What's it mean to have that kind of impact that quickly?
CHRIS PAUL: I didn't know that. I didn't know that.

Q. He said you cared about the little town?
CHRIS PAUL: Absolutely. It ain't about the little town, it's about people in general. It's not about the location, it's about the human race, and me and my wife were talking about -- I have two kids of my own who I take to school every day -- well, I try to as much as I can, but either way, they go to school every day, and you hope they come back to you. Like I said, prayers go out to those families and everyone that was affected by it. This is becoming somewhat of the norm and shouldn't be.

Q. How special is it that you put a smile on their face when they really needed one?
CHRIS PAUL: Yeah, I'm glad I could do that, and hopefully our team and our organization, I'm sure we're going to try to do things to try to help those families that are affected to give them those bright spots in times like this.

Q. What's kind of the fun part about taking on this challenge of being just you guys on the road in this environment and taking on a great team?
CHRIS PAUL: The fun part about it is that this is what we do. I mean, like we hoop. We play basketball. A lot of us have been doing it for a long, long time. It's just part of the process. We get two games at home, two games on the road. We've got to get a win.

Q. What are the priorities to be able to defend them?
CHRIS PAUL: You've got to close out their shooters, just try to make everything as tough as possible, and execute your game plan. Obviously you want to make other guys shoot probably more than others, as I'm sure they would like out of us. But that's why it's a game. It's not that easy.

Q. Does anything change, the mentality, the approach when you're on the road? Do you just try to do what you did last time, or does it change?
CHRIS PAUL: It don't change. Just everybody in different shirts, know what I mean? It don't change for a lot of us. We've been playing for a long time, and we've had a ton of road games, so you just go out there and you figure it out.

Q. Does anything change knowing that you have to get a game here?
CHRIS PAUL: No. No. You just go out there and win it. You figure it out. You defend, you try to make shots, and you try to come out on top. You think about one game. That's all we're thinking about is Game 3. It's funny because like in the last series, we just go out and hoop.

Q. With Trevor [Ariza] guarding KD in the last game and his ability to stretch the floor, can you talk about the importance of his two-way play in the Playoffs so far?
CHRIS PAUL: I don't know, like Trevor has always been that guy. I don't know if it's just because there's only four teams playing right now, everybody gets a chance to see it. Know what I mean? Because Trevor has always been a two-way guy. When we played together in New Orleans, he was a two-way guy. That had a lot to do with my decision to come play here, too, with the Rockets, is that Trevor is another two-way guy, and you've got to have guys like that in order to advance.

Q. You mentioned trying to get certain guys to shoot, and Steph [Curry] is 2-of-13 from long-range. He's probably one of the guys you want to get the ball out of his hands. How do you assess the way you guys are wearing him out a little bit?
CHRIS PAUL: Wearing him out how? I didn't know he was 2-for-13, nor do I care. Like in our league, I think coach was saying that you've got to have a short memory. Y'all can play the percentages, all that stuff like that, know what I mean, but you're not going to leave him open. Us that play, you know, we know all it takes is one shot to get you going and whatnot. For us, we're just going to keep playing, play our game plan, and control what we can control.

Q. Outside of the numbers, do you like the job you're doing defensively?
CHRIS PAUL: I mean, we won one game, lost one game, know what I mean? Like if you make shots, if you miss shots, whatever, and your team wins, who cares. At the end of the day, the only stat that matters is wins and losses.

Q. How valuable is a player like Trevor Ariza on a modern NBA team that's trying to space and defend, it seems like he's kind of prototypical as to things you would want in a basketball player.
CHRIS PAUL: Trev is Trev, know what I mean? This is my 13th year, so it's, what, Trevor's 14th year? He's been doing this for a long time, know what I mean? It ain't like he just turned into this guy that can defend and this guy that can shoot. So he just goes out and plays his game. We don't have a lot of guys that we change the way that they play. Like we are who we are.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297