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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS vs WARRIORS

May 30, 2018

Jordan Bell

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. Has this felt like a dream at all for you? Have you had time to really savor it as a rookie?
JORDAN BELL: Yeah, I feel like the last game I really stepped back and like really looked at it on the plane ride back. It was me, Quinn (Cook), JaVale (McGee) and Nick Young. We were all sitting at the table together on the plane. Everybody just started talking like, This is crazy. Are we really in the Finals? None of us have been besides JaVale.

So we were just talking about it the whole year -- what it took to get here, all the stuff we went through. The last game, we just really wanted to win. We didn't care what we had to do. Swag was talking about playing defense. He's like, Man, I've never played defense a day in my life, and I was trying to do whatever it took to win. I was saying the same thing. I was flopping and doing whatever I could to try to get a win. So it worked out. We were all just really happy about it.

Q. Can you talk about being a part of history? This is the first time four teams have met consecutively in a championship. Just kind of talk about being part of history for this series?
JORDAN BELL: It's great to be a part of history. But I want to be on the other side of history -- the part where we win. I don't want to just make it here, just the team that makes it a fourth time to The Finals. I want to be the team that won it three out of four times. Or be part of one team that won it.

It's great to be part of history. Your name is in the record book. But I don't think anybody really cares about making it to The Finals. Like making it to the Final Four last year, nobody really cares. It's about winning the whole thing.

Q. Other than Andre Iguodala, who else is better mentor for you this season?
JORDAN BELL: The whole season? Just about everybody. David West has been helping me out a lot lately. Zaza (Pachulia), since I got here, has really been helping me a lot adjust to the NBA life and the NBA game. Then K.D., Draymond. I mean, everybody on the team has been helping out a lot.

Q. Are they able to keep you grounded?
JORDAN BELL: Yeah, definitely. Everybody's keeping me grounded. Keeping me level. I don't want to get too high or too low on myself. If I make bad plays, they lift up my spirits. When I'm throwing the ball between my legs and being fancy, they try to bring me down a little bit and not get out of hand. But they always keep me in check.

Q. What is the key against Tristan Thompson?
JORDAN BELL: Just to be really aggressive with him. Try to box him out, keep him off the boards. He's a great defender.

Q. Pretty active?
JORDAN BELL: He's really active on the boards. I think playing against him, you might have to worry about just boxing him out instead of getting the rebound. Make sure you let one of our guards or players come in and get it.

Q. The moment of getting drafted, being from California. Was it a different thing when you get drafted, you know you're going to stay in California and come to a team with a chance to win?
JORDAN BELL: Yeah, definitely. I tell people all the time that I felt like I was the number one pick in the draft last year, just because of the situation I'm in. Being from Southern California. Getting drafted to the Warriors. This being my favorite team growing up. So close between home and Oregon where I went to college, so right in the middle. And having a chance to win an NBA title my first year. To me, this is best situation I've ever been put in.

Q. How was this your favorite team growing up?
JORDAN BELL: Because I hate the Lakers. Yeah, my brother, me and him have a big rivalry. So whatever team he liked, I liked the opposite. Then when I kind of got older, I was like I'm not picking the Lakers, but find another team. But I think -- what team was it? I think it was the "We Believe" team; that's when I first got into basketball.

I was a football player all my life, so I kind of got into basketball when I was watching them. They played similar to the way we play now. Very unselfish moving the ball. Very tough. They weren't very good that year, but I was watching them and was like, This is a very unselfish team; I love it. So it was my favorite team.

Q. Why do you think these third-quarter runs happen? What goes into it?
JORDAN BELL: I think Coach does a really good job at halftime of making in-game adjustments. It's hard to try to change something while you're still playing and things are going on.

At halftime, we know what they want to do the whole game. We know what we're not doing well. So halftime we watch film, try to go out and execute. With the talent we have, it's kind of hard not to have a good third-quarter run like that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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