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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS vs WARRIORS

May 31, 2018

Steve Kerr

Oakland, California: Game One

Warriors - 124, Cavaliers - 114 (OT)

Q. Can you just take us possibly through your thoughts as you're watching JR Smith grab the offensive rebound, dribble it out near you? What were you doing, what were you thinking? Can you sum up that moment?
STEVE KERR: I was disappointed that we didn't get the rebound first, then, you know, we got lucky. He could have taken a shot, but he dribbled out. I guess he thought they were ahead. Reminded me of a play -- I'm a basketball junkie, so I don't know. Derek Harper dribbled the game out, clock out with Dallas years ago. Sometimes this stuff happens. It's just, you know, we got lucky. We got lucky.

Q. Can you describe what was going through your mind when Klay Thompson suffered that injury in the first quarter, and just sort of the relief when he was able to return?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, it was a scary play. It looked pretty bad. I think he was out the rest of the quarter. So I didn't know if he was going to be able to come back or not, but he was available and he turned into Klay right away when he took a 35-footer on his first possession back out on the floor, so we knew he was okay.

Q. The whole sequence on the block/charge and them going to the review, it's obviously a bang-bang play, and usually with replay you hope they get it right. What was your level of confidence when you first saw the replay that it was going to get overturned?
STEVE KERR: I had no idea. I couldn't really -- I looked up at the scoreboard, and I wasn't looking at the right time. I was gathering the team around to talk strategy. So we needed to talk to the guys. We gathered them together and they overturned the call, so we got a break.

Q. What was your thinking with JaVale's minutes, more than we've seen in a while, and what did you think of the results?
STEVE KERR: I thought JaVale was great. We just needed a burst. We needed some energy. His minutes were important. He helped us get off to that good start in the third quarter.

Q. Obviously the guy is fantastic, but LeBron gets 51 tonight, 49 regulation. Anything you can do? Did you try everything with JaVale and Draymond, et cetera, et cetera?
STEVE KERR: We held back a lot of strategy tonight. We've got so many things up our sleeves. We're going to shut them down next game.

(Laughter)

Q. We expected your team -- I mean, we've seen the Warriors come out strong in the third quarter. It didn't happen this time. But in overtime they just turned it on. What was the difference? What happened between that third quarter and overtime?
STEVE KERR: Between the fourth quarter and overtime?

Q. The third quarter and overtime. Usually the team comes out strong in the third quarter. But this time around they didn't, and in overtime they turned it on?
STEVE KERR: We're playing a great team. It's The Finals. It's not going to be easy. I know everybody has been saying and writing that it's going to be easy. It's not going to be easy. We're playing a great team. They've been to The Finals four years in a row, just like we have, for a reason.

They have a guy who is playing basketball at a level that I'm not sure anybody's ever seen before, when you consider everything he's doing. He's got a really good group of teammates around him, and they put a lot of pressure on you. They're really hard to guard. So it's going to be a tough series.

Q. You talked in the pregame about how Game 1 there is a lot of keyed up, a lot of jitters. Did you feel that you came out a little bit slow in the first half? And overall how did you feel about the defensive effort for the team?
STEVE KERR: Well, I think Game 1 is a little bit of a feel-out game. You come off an opponent you've been preparing for for two weeks, and all of a sudden the series ends and you've got to start over again. Both teams.

Obviously, we're relatively familiar with each other, given our meetings over the last few years, but they're a little different now this year after the trade at mid season, and they've got some different characters, different weapons.

So I didn't think our defense was very good in the first half. But I think it will get better.

Q. If we could stop time for a moment at the end of the fourth quarter and ask you how you felt the team played, not after the overtime, but at the end of four quarters, how did you feel the Warriors played?
STEVE KERR: I thought we were pretty good. I didn't think we were great. I didn't think we were bad. I think we can play better.

But it's not like we came out there and stunk it up. We played hard and got after it. We had a really good third quarter. So we'll look at the tape and figure out what we're going to try to do next.

But one step at a time. We got the win, and we're thrilled with that, and we'll see what happens next.

Q. What was your perspective on what kind of went down in the final minute -- the Tristan Thompson foul, the scuffle, Steph and LeBron and all that stuff?
STEVE KERR: I'm really not sure. I haven't talked to Steph or K.D. about it. I have no idea what that was about.

Q. Had you ever seen one of those block/charge calls overturned in the last two minutes? How aware of that rule were you?
STEVE KERR: I've seen it, not often, but I've seen it a couple times. I don't remember exactly when they added that to the possible reviewable plays. I think it was maybe two seasons ago. But I've seen it a couple times.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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