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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WARRIORS vs ROCKETS

May 21, 2018

Chris Paul

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. As opposed to being all technical and X's and O's about what was wrong last night and what you need to fix, can it just be missing and not making shots?
CHRIS PAUL: It can be, but it's bigger than that from last night. We've got to defend better. We gave up offensive rebounds, transition points, all that different type of stuff, and we've got to make shots.

Q. Can you guys get the kind of force that you talked about last night offensively in times when it's a real half court game? Yeah, they made a shot, they're going to make shots, or does it have to be off missed shots, off turnovers?
CHRIS PAUL: It doesn't have to be. We can play with that force off of made baskets, and we've got to try to do that. That's what we did at home, Game 2. Even makes and misses, we pushed it to get up the court. We've got to find a way to play with more force.

Q. Is that about mindset?
CHRIS PAUL: It can be, it can be. We've just got to keep being aggressive. Early in the game, we had a lot of layups. I don't know, five or six in the first half, that we missed that we normally make. We've just got to -- when we miss those they were converting threes and that can't be.

Q. So when Coach [Mike D'Antoni] says you all played soft, is that an easy fix, about being more aggressive?
CHRIS PAUL: Yeah, that's, you know, come out and be aggressive, try not to get into foul trouble and all that stuff. Just try to figure out the happy medium. But as far as how aggressive are they going to let you play.

Q. You saw probably pretty close to their best as you would have expected. Can you feel like you guys can beat that enough times in this series if they're going to stay at that level, or do you have to knock them down some?
CHRIS PAUL: Say that one more time.

Q. Can you beat them at that level, playing at that level -- in other words, you can play better than you did, obviously. Can you beat them at their best or do they have to be diminished in some form or another?
CHRIS PAUL: That's probably a tough question to ask me. You're basically asking me do I think we can win with not so many words. So, that's a tough question to ask me.

Q. You guys were able to bounce back with making whatever adjustments you needed to in Game 2. You guys won so many games this season. Coach mentioned he feels like the pressure is on Golden State more than you guys?
CHRIS PAUL: I don't know. I don't know who the pressure's on, whatever. We're going to come in here, get ready for the game tomorrow, and prepare. You know what I mean? All the other stuff is irrelevant.

Q. How are you feeling physically?
CHRIS PAUL: I'm okay. I'm okay. Trying to get treatment and all of that and be ready for tomorrow.

Q. Are you battling or dealing with something, and what is it that you're dealing with?
CHRIS PAUL: No, I'm cool. Just trying to figure out what we can do to make adjustments to win Game 4.

Q. You wouldn't tell us if you were anyway.
CHRIS PAUL: We are getting ready to try to win Game 4. I'm cool. For us it's about watching film last night, seeing what we need to do to get better.

Q. You said, watch the film. I asked Mike at this point if you guys need to even look at that to understand what you did wrong. Does that have benefit at this point?
CHRIS PAUL: I mean, you can look at different things. Maybe see a play here or two, wrinkles and all that stuff. But, I mean, we know what they're going to do. We know what they're going to do. You know what I mean? We know their play calls. They know ours for the most part. It's just who can do what they like to do better, and last game they did it a lot better than us.

Q. Mike said he thought you guys may have gotten out of rhythm by trying to hunt the mismatch with Steph [Curry] and forcing the switch over.
CHRIS PAUL: I mean, sometimes, but Game 2, it is what it is. You do it. You know what I mean? You go at it, and when it works, it works, and when it doesn't, it doesn't. Sometimes guys got in there, missed easy shot, fouls, whatever that may be. But we're going to play the way that we play and we're going to see what happens.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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