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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: CLIPPERS vs WARRIORS

April 13, 2019

Stephen Curry

Oakland, California: Game One

Warriors - 121, Clippers - 104

Q. Talk about making all those three-pointers tonight, what kind of significance does that have compared to some of the other things you've accomplished?
STEPHEN CURRY: I mean, in terms of playoff records and things like that, obviously it helps you're playing a lot of playoff games and having an opportunity to go after those type of things.

The way I play, the shots I take, obviously have confidence every time you rise up, but to be in the same category and to pass a guy like Ray Allen and all the iconic moments he's had in playoff games and finals games and all that type of stuff, it's pretty surreal.

So definitely honored and grateful for those opportunities. I always joke, though: I shoot a lot of threes; I'd better make a lot of them.

Q. Steph, both Beverley and Kevin Durant said that that was fun for them out there tonight, even though they were trash talking and going back and forth a little bit. Steve wants you guys to play smarter. How do you guys sort of balance the two when a game gets a little testy like that?
STEPHEN CURRY: We've got high-IQ individuals on our team, and we know when the leash is a little longer, you can kind of get away with stuff like that. There was a nice competitiveness and intensity out there. Pretty sure if the game was a little closer with four minutes left, K would have had a little more constraint, but he wanted to kind of set the tone. The way they play and how physical they were, stuff that Pat does, which makes him who he is, we're ready for all of that.

You love the competitive fire. Like the Playoffs is just -- it's hard to explain how different it is. Everybody showed up tonight.

Q. Steph, that first quarter you didn't get a lot of things going, a couple assists, but the last three quarters, that's when you started picking up. Were you just trying to get a feel for the flow after that first quarter?
STEPHEN CURRY: Game 1s are all interesting because it's a feeling-out process, and everybody comes in a with a certain game plan of how to defend us and how to take especially me, K and KD out of our spots on the offensive end. Can't force stuff. We had turnovers early and often, but for the most part, it was just taking with the defense gives you.

Draymond was unbelievable in that first quarter being confident when he had the ball in his hands, making plays, being aggressive. DeMarcus the same.

But over the course of 48 minutes, the way that we played, share the ball, continued to move bodies and stuff like that and looked for each other, it's kind of hard to key on one of us the entire game, and we've got to take advantage of it.

Every game is different, too, so who knows that will happen Game 2 and beyond.

Q. Since Steve became the head coach of the Warriors, you guys are 15 and 1 in playoff Game 1s. I know you mentioned that it's kind of a game where you feel each other out, but what's been the key to consistently getting off on the right foot in these playoff series?
STEPHEN CURRY: Home-court advantage helps. Besides Houston, I think we've been at home for every single one of them, so you've got to protect home court, especially in the Playoffs, or the energy in the building was amazing. It always is.

But you come in with the right attitude, try not to get distracted by officiating or missed shots, just play hard, have a high IQ to what we're trying to do, and good things happen.

Tonight was an example of all of that for sure.

Q. Steph, about a week and a half ago, Landry had those five threes in the first half against you guys, then you threw KD on him. How important is stopping Landry in terms of slowing down their offense?
STEPHEN CURRY: He's a guy that can get hot at any moment, and they run a lot of good sets for him. Got to know where he is at all times. KD's length is great in terms of even if he has a little bit of separation, K can close out pretty quick, and we can switch all over the court and stuff like that.

We did a good job of it tonight, got to refocus and understand they're probably going to make some adjustments to try to get him some better looks, and we've got to be ready.

So K did an amazing job on him. Whoever was on him just made it tough. Even the one shot he made in the fourth quarter, we had a good contest on him, and he just made it. Just got to keep bodies on him.

Q. Obviously the death lineup has a lot of talent --
STEPHEN CURRY: Did you just use that nickname?

Q. Tim uses Hamptons five. I didn't want to steal that.
STEPHEN CURRY: Oh, it's the same -- okay.

Q. When Steve went to that in the second quarter, what did you do collectively to stop what they were doing?
STEPHEN CURRY: I don't really know specifics, just we always play faster, a lot of different play makers with the ball in their hands. We've got to pick-and-roll, alley-oop to Andre, got shooters all over the place spaced out, and when Draymond is in those play-making positions, he usually makes the right decisions.

Defensively, as well, we're a little bit more versatile. But again, that's part of our team and the makeup of this year. We have a lot of different looks that we can go to, and we've got to be able to adjust on the fly when those lineups happen and just play with confidence and play together.

Q. You hit that one shot from 30 or 32 feet with a defender draped on your back as you were running down the court. I'm wondering, a shot like that, is that totally spontaneous, or as you heat up are you starting to think about lengthening the floor a little bit?
STEPHEN CURRY: It's a little bit of both. You don't want to choreograph what you're doing, but obviously if you had a couple go down, the momentum starts to pick up and you just see the rim a different way. Shout-out to the contacts.

Q. It's not every night that you're the leading rebounder of the game and the only guy with double-digit rebounds, too. What does that mean to you, to do that on that end of the floor?
STEPHEN CURRY: It's usually not 15, but consistently every night I try to help our bigs out and our team, and rebounding the elbows and maybe getting one or two just loose balls on the offensive end give us an extra possession.

But tonight I was off the ball defensively a lot, and in the right positions. You see the ball and the angles and try to be at the right spot at the right time, and for us, any time a guard gets a rebound or any time anybody can just get it and go, it's hard to defend that, as well.

I think that's the part that helped us in terms of maintaining possession and getting defensive stops but then also being able to push and the wings are running and it starts to speed up our attack a little bit. It's also fun, as well, when you can battle with the big guys a little bit and get some boards.

Q. How locked in to the Masters are you going to be tomorrow morning?
STEPHEN CURRY: As locked in as I can get until practice starts. So hopefully -- I don't know the timing of it all, when the back nine will start, how close that will be to when practice starts.

But yeah, I'll be locked in for sure, hoping to see some Tiger magic, to be honest with you. It's exciting for the game of golf when he's doing what he's doing.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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