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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS vs WARRIORS

May 30, 2018

Jordan Clarkson

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. How do you feel being in your first Finals?
JORDAN CLARKSON: It feels good. Excited, anxious to play. So we didn't have a long break. You know, we're here and we're ready to go.

Q. Is this what you imagined with the trade?
JORDAN CLARKSON: Yeah, from day one it's kind of been preached to us that this is our goal. Make it to the Finals and compete for a championship.

Q. What have your teammates that have been here before told you about being ready for this moment?
JORDAN CLARKSON: A lot of them just kind of telling me that we're here. Ain't nothing to lose now. We're here to win, win a championship. That's kind of what's been preached to me. Go out there and be you and play free. Nothing on your mind.

Q. How free flowing have the texts been between yourself, Larry [Nance Jr.] and Nick [Young]?
JORDAN CLARKSON: I actually talked to Nick last night. We talked to him a few times before. So Nick is one of my closest friends. But forget about Nick.

Q. Is it hard to win trash talking with him?
JORDAN CLARKSON: No, no, no. I've got some stuff on Nick. He doesn't want none of that. He doesn't want to go there with me (laughing) .

Q. What's Nick saying to you?
JORDAN CLARKSON: You know how Nick be talking, man. You know sometimes Nick is one of those guys you kind of just pick some stuff he's saying and you're like, alright. But most of the time Nick is just like a fly. You just like shoo him away all the time, and he's always in your ear.

No, no, it's going to be definitely good to see him. I was going to catch up with him last night, but I passed out. But it's going to be good to see him and play against him, especially after the times we had in L.A. and stuff like that. We're ready to compete, though.

Q. What trash talk do you say to him?
JORDAN CLARKSON: I don't know. I ain't going to say nothing right now. I'm not trying to put my man's business out there like that.

Q. He said [Dennis] Rodman visited him in a dream and told him to play some defense. Are you worried about his defensive game now after being visited from Dennis?
JORDAN CLARKSON: Hey, Nick's going to have to have a lot of dreams, man. He needs to have a lot more dreams if he wants to keep his defense up like that (laughing).

Q. Talk about your first experience being in the postseason not only with LeBron, but now that you're here in The Finals?
JORDAN CLARKSON: Say that again? My bad.

Q. Just your whole postseason experience, your first time in the postseason and now you're here in The Finals. Just describe it.
JORDAN CLARKSON: I'll probably take you back to the trade. New situation, new start for us. We've only been here, what, two, three months kind of putting this together. For me, the whole playoffs have been learning how to play in this game, half court stuff. [Tyronn] Lue giving me the opportunity to go out there and play, and now we're here.

Now it's time to put it all together or leave it all on the floor. You know, it's definitely each round I feel like I've learned something new each time I stepped on the floor. Now there's no turning back. We're here. Leave it all on the floor, everything I learned through the process, through the time that I've been here playing with these guys. Time to put it together.

Q. Have you gotten any advice from the guys that have been here before -- Tristan [Thompson], JR [Smith], K. Love -- about your first Finals experience?
JORDAN CLARKSON: The biggest thing is we're here. Now it's time we go to work. Just be who you are. You worked all year for this. We worked this summer. Put everything together, so it's time to just leave it all out there now.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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