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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS vs WARRIORS

June 2, 2018

Steve Kerr

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. I'm wondering if you could take me back to your playing days. I'm thinking mostly of Michael (Jordan), but it could be anyone. How did a player like Michael sort of lift a team when things were seemingly at their worst after a loss, like the one that Cleveland had in Game 1, everything going wrong at the worst time? How is a superstar player able to lift teammates in the face of great adversity?
STEVE KERR: There is just so much confidence in that player amongst the group. That's how it was with Michael. If we lost a game, you go back to the hotel, you're upset and then you go, oh, yeah, we've got Michael. We're going to win Game 2. That's the kind of confidence he inspired in the group. Then, the way he carried himself, it was the same way. Like, we've got this, you know? It's a huge asset to have guys with that kind of confidence. We've got that on our team. I know they've got it with LeBron. And that's why we're both in The Finals.

Q. What have you noticed with Kevin Durant during this postseason run compared to last year? It seemed like last year was a much easier ride, but this seems more challenging. What have you seen about what he's showing you?
STEVE KERR: I think just the same thing that our team has shown. Last year was a pretty smooth ride, and we were clicking. We didn't have injuries. We had a pretty healthy run. I think this year, it's just been harder overall, just because of the cumulative wear and tear of the journey.

Kevin has still been great. He hasn't probably been as consistent as he was last year, but neither have we. I would say that about every one of our guys. It's been a little different vibe, but that's OK. Every trip is a little different. We're right where we want to be, and we're all very confident that we're going to get better from here.

Q. On the conference call (on Friday) you said Andre Iguodala was doubtful. And he wasn't on the court today. At least we didn't see him. Is there a fear he might not make it to this series? Is there any fear of that for you?
STEVE KERR: It's just day to day. We don't think about what's going to happen later on. It's just each day he's getting a little better. He's still doubtful for tomorrow, but making some strides.

Q. A couple coaches this year had to take a leave of absence with health issues relating to sleep as part of it. You've always been big on work-life balance. I'm wondering where you got that, who influenced you on that front? And secondly, I was just curious when do you think you got your best sleep in your career? As a player, coach, executive and broadcaster?
STEVE KERR: I'll answer the second one first. Player, definitely. The game-day nap. My good friend Jud Buechler just recently became an assistant coach for David Fizdale in New York. He left the Lakers and joined the Knicks. When Jud retired, I said, do you miss the game? He said, I miss two things -- naps and per diem. So that's the right answer. But naps are like a ritual for players.

Q. Not now, though?
STEVE KERR: It's different as a coach. I think as a player you sort of earn it with the physical energy that you expend, and then it just feels normal and feels natural. That's a game-day routine for every player.

Q. Are you saying that the best sleep of your career was not working with me and Marv (Albert)?
STEVE KERR: Well, Marv definitely put me to sleep at times. But the first part of the question was?

Q. Work-life balance.
STEVE KERR: Work-life balance, I think Phil (Jackson) and Pop (Gregg Popovich) made a big influence on me. I think when I was a player, I kind of wondered if coaches were like holed up in their office all night sleeping on the cot. I wasn't exactly sure how it worked. Both those guys had such diverse interests outside of the game. You know all the stories about both of them. I think seeing how interesting they both were and how devoted to their families they were and their kids, and how interested they were in our lives besides just what was going on in basketball, I think they really influenced me.

Then when I became a coach, I was obviously lucky we had a lot of talent.

But it's evident pretty quickly that there's only about five or six ways to guard the screen-and-roll. If you think you're going to find another one by being in your office at 11 o'clock at night, you're mistaken. You've got to put the work in, but you've got to have a good life too.

Q. One of the talking points since Game 1 has been that with performance by LeBron and the way it ended that the Cavs might be very deflated. As your experience as a player and a coach, what are you expecting to see from your opponent tomorrow night?
STEVE KERR: Well, I know it's not the exact same team, but we had them down 3-1 a couple years ago. They might have been deflated, and they came back and won. So we're expecting another great effort from them. We've been through this too many times. We beat Houston on the road in Game 1 and the narrative was, you know, series is over. It seems to always be that way. There is just overreaction after a game.

Not blaming all of you in this room. It's the other media people who are out there on the floor. Those guys don't get it. You guys get it.

It's one game. The series changes with each game. All we've done is win one, and we're on to the next one.

Q. When you went over the tape, obviously LeBron scored 51, but were you generally OK with the looks you gave up? Do you think they were challenged most of the time, or were you upset with some of those looks?
STEVE KERR: With him in particular?

Q. Yeah.
STEVE KERR: OK with some of them. I didn't think we made him work hard enough, though. I thought everything was smooth sailing for him. It's one thing to have a philosophy where you're going to say, hey, we're going to make this guy beat us and shut everybody else down. You can have that philosophy in general. Lot of teams have done it with superstars in the past, whether you're talking about Kobe or Michael or LeBron or whoever.

But it only works if you actually make the guy have to really use a lot of energy. That's not necessarily our strategy. Of course we're trying to keep other guys down, but we've got to make them work harder in general. I thought our defense was subpar the other night.

Q. When you say make it harder, is that more into him? Is that generally what you think when you say make it harder?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, we've studied the sets that they like to run. So you get to a certain set, you've got to know when to put pressure on him, when to back off. It's kind of typical in a series, the first game, you sort of feel it out, and then you start to get more comfortable.

But, yeah, we've got to put more pressure on him. We can't just sit back and let him pick us apart.

Q. Is Kevin Durant one of those guys where you go back to the hotel and kind of go, OK, we have him, we'll be fine. Then a day after he has a game like he had in Game 1, what do you see out of him in practice?
STEVE KERR: Yes, Kevin is one of those guys. The ultimate confidence guys, when you know he's on your side -- you think back to Game 7 against Houston. All the shots he hit down the stretch. There's not many people on Earth who can do what he can do under pressure in the playoffs.

He's an unbelievable talent and safety valve anytime we need him to get a bucket. He's focused. He knows he didn't play very well in Game 1. He's excited for Game 2.

Q. Those five assists that he got, can that help a guy maybe get a little more consistent, a little more confident, even if his shot's not falling?
STEVE KERR: Kevin is a great all-around player. He's going to fill up the stat sheet, and he did pass the ball well. I'm not sure a player of that caliber requires something, an assist to get him going. I think he's got a lot going for him already.

Q. Could you contrast the defensive challenges for Kevon Looney in this series and Jordan Bell in this series compared to Houston when it was on an island versus James Harden? Now it's LeBron. It's Kevin Love at times?
STEVE KERR: I think not just for Kevon, but for all of our bigs, the last series was about one-on-one isolation defense and then containing the dribble, stepback threes. Or contain the dribble and defend without fouling. It was repetitive. Our guys got used to that.

This is different. When you get switched onto LeBron, he's different from Harden. He's going to look to pass early in a possession. They're running a lot of sets, really good sets where they isolate him. But then you've got (Kyle) Korver on a pindown or you've got Love off of a curl.

So there's more going on around that isolated player, for the most part, with Cleveland. And LeBron obviously is such a great passer, he's going to try to pick you apart.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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