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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS: ROCKETS vs WARRIORS

April 29, 2019

Steph Curry

Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. ... all the noise, they're getting the short side of the whistle, even dating back to last year's Western Finals?
STEPH CURRY: I mean, I don't know what to say about it. It's kind of -- it's not surprising in terms of how the game unfolded and what you want the narrative to be.

For us, if we really wanted to exhaust our energy on that, we could clip together 10 to 15 plays where it didn't go our way. Me taking the 3, somebody coming underneath me, two hands on drives, all that type of stuff.

But we understand in the playoffs, the way the game is called, it's a little bit more physical. And whether you're trying to get fouls on every possession or not, like it's going to be 50/50 calls. And it's just how it is.

But it sucks that that is the narrative coming out of it, because we literally could exhaust our energy on that as well. So what are you going to do about it? Hopefully Game 2 it's about the game and how we play and making shots and the energy and intensity that we need to play with, knowing what's at stake, and that that becomes the conversation for sure.

Q. (Indiscernible) do you feel there's any adjustment you need to make as far as --
STEPH CURRY: For sure. I'm probably not the right one to be talking about fouls. (Laughter) I got five of them yesterday. So I got my fair share. So I'm good.

Q. The (indiscernible) team report said you had seven?
STEPH CURRY: Yeah, I saw those two plays, so, again, if you really -- it's the same conversation with every NBA game that happens, regular season or not. You can literally go possession by possession and say what was supposed to be a foul, what was not. And both teams most nights are going to have grievances on how things are called. But at the end of the day basketball decides the game.

Q. What's your specific perspective on how you guys close out on Harden on the 3?
STEPH CURRY: In terms of?

Q. In terms of where guys land and where the line is of the space.
STEPH CURRY: We watched a couple of them. I think just in terms of the majority of the time, we're trying to close out, maintain our space. And sometimes he closes that space and it's just -- it's a read from the ref.

And for us, like, we understand tendencies and things like that and knowing we put ourselves in that position. But the biggest one that happened in the fourth quarter, the fourth quarter with Draymond, that it wasn't called, it was accurate in terms of James closing the space on Draymond.

And if there's nowhere for the defender to actually contest and stay in his own lane and the shooter can close that space, then that's when it's going to be tough no matter who it is. But I think over the course of the game there might have been -- there's a lot of 50/50 situations and we're going to do a great job of not putting ourselves in that position.

Q. Do you think this is strategic on their part to influence the officiating tomorrow night?
STEPH CURRY: I think the reason that you asked that question is pretty self-explanatory (laughter).

Q. Is it tricky because James can go three feet on those shots almost, it looks like?
STEPH CURRY: That's just the way -- obviously, that's something he's been doing. Whether that's how he thinks he normally shoots or that's just the way his body goes, like whatever it is, we as defenders have to be able to contest, not take up his space that when he takes off and live with the results. Again, we watched pretty much all of them and know how we're going to adjust going into Game 2.

Q. Do you get a fair (indiscernible)?
STEPH CURRY: Next question. (Laughter).

Q. How do you guys kind of adjust -- with the turnovers again being an issue, you want to get out and push the pace, but also take care of the ball. How do you get that to --
STEPH CURRY: We talked about that for a long time. And this five-year run, like, the way we play and how loose we are, fast pace, how we move the ball, turnovers are going to happen. We always talk about it's the type of turnovers that you have to avoid, especially in a playoff game where possessions are valuable.

In that first half, we had somewhere we were trying to thread the needle with the pass or the read was just the wrong read or we were rushing and not letting the floor get space before we drove and knew where the lanes were.

So those ones we need to correct. There's going to be turnovers just, again, the way that we play. But keeping them around that 10 number and just getting shots up at the end of the day for us works to our advantage.

And the fact that we play the way we did with 20 turnovers speaks a lot about how much better we can play and hopefully take control of the series.

Q. Steve really liked the energy and the effort on both ends. Was that discussed today too as you guys watched film and just --
STEPH CURRY: It was a carry-over from Game 6 of the last series for sure, in terms of a sense of urgency, especially on the defensive end, communicating. They're an extremely talented team and have guys that can create all over the floor. So you can't get defeated by them making tough shots because they're going to take a bunch of tough shots.

They shot 74 shots and 47 of them were 3s. It's going to happen. They're going to make shots. But we've got to be able to push back in transition, continue to just stay solid. We'll do better, myself included, or hopefully especially with dumb fouls in terms of reaching and things like that.

But intensity and energy was great and it allowed us to pretty much have control of the game the entire way and want to try to repeat that.

Q. What's your perspective on the whole math of figuring out the whole 3-point equation and what's better to take?
STEPH CURRY: I mean, they designed the team to shoot 3s. And that's something that, I guess, I don't know the math of how every possession, if you take a certain amount of 3s or 2s, if it works out in your favor no matter what percentage you shoot. But for us, we just want to create good shots. We know we have a lot of great 3-point shooters and we can do it off the dribble or off the ball.

But you want to shoot a high percentage, and that's something we kind of hang our hat on is the type of shots that we create. And I guess for them they shoot, what, 45 3s a game, something like that, shooting in the 30th percentile or something.

So it's going to be a lot of long rebounds and things like that that we have to focus on. But if they make shots you can't get deflated. You've got to just push back and make them defend over the course of the game and hopefully it works out in your favor.

Q. How tough a job do you think the referees have, particularly in this series? Obviously the rule interpretations, the in-between games, the lobbying, the complaining on the court, that type of stuff.
STEPH CURRY: It's a lot of action. And I think they have done a solid job throughout the whole playoffs in terms of just trying to make the right call on every possession and whatever. There's going to be complaining. There's going to be questions and conversations on the court.

There's going to be reactions and people throwing their hands up because everybody thinks they never foul, all that type of stuff. It's all been part of the game forever.

In the heat of the moment as a player sometimes you don't realize what actually happened until you see the replay or you go back see the film the next day. That type of -- so it kind of just comes with the territory. At the end of the day, you hope that each game they come in with the right mindset, like they do as professional referees and we do as professional basketball players, and give their best effort and just leave it out there on the floor.

Q. Is there too much complaining in the league, especially in the playoffs, higher intensity games?
STEPH CURRY: From the players?

Q. Yes.
STEPH CURRY: Scale of 1 to 10 it's probably an 8, 9, something like that. Because it matters. Like if nobody was out there complaining, then I'm sure fans would just be, like, what's going on, like, do these guys even care about what's happening or whatever.

There's a fine line between that competitive fire and feeling like everything should go your way and you have a reaction to a call, but then you're able to move on the next possession. To me it's, honestly, exhausting talking to the refs every possession. So I try and stay in my lane, understand that I do foul sometimes. And sometimes there are bad calls. It's just part of the game. Keep it moving.

Q. When you guys study each tape, do you stop the tape after each Harden 3?
STEPH CURRY: No. (Laughter).

Q. You said you guys went back and looked at them.
STEPH CURRY: I should say I personally did to see. We as a team did not. That did not dominate our film session.

Q. I mean --
STEPH CURRY: There are bigger things to worry about, for sure. I definitely did just so I can understand what the difference is between a foul and non-foul because I thought I got fouled in the first half on a jumper where it's actually James, he came into me. So it's just one of those things just want to see what the reads were Game 1 so we could be prepared for Game 2.

Q. You did that on your own before the group?
STEPH CURRY: Yes.

Q. Following up on that, how much different is it to face him where he jumps, where he stops, compared to anybody else in the league?
STEPH CURRY: He has a knack for getting you in a position where sometimes he can contort his body or find a way to create contact and things like that. And sometimes they're fouls, sometimes they're not. For us we understand we played them four series in five years. So we've seen it all.

There's another element now you can insert in the conversation, but that's unfortunate in terms of the level of play and the competition out there on the floor that's dominating the narrative, which it shouldn't.

Q. How is the ankle holding up? At the end of the game you had that matchup with Nene. He had the bead on you. You didn't take advantage of that throughout the game. What made you take (indiscernible) on the last shot?
STEPH CURRY: It was the right read. We talked about it earlier, in the first half we were just rushing a little bit and the spacing wasn't great. And that's kind of like the Game 1 feel-out situation because they played us different than the Clippers did. So gotta make those adjustments. So just shoot the shot you feel like you can take and make.

Q. When teams are using analytics to study tendencies to get any little edge, is it sort of a natural extension of those analytics to apply them to referees as well. Do you like that direction, if that's the way it's going?
STEPH CURRY: Hell no. (Laughter). No. There's a human element to this. Always has been, always will be. It's basketball, I guess. I don't know how that can cross that line. So it's a very interesting conversation right now.

Q. Did dad ever teach you anything about how to deal with refs, how to respond to that?
STEPH CURRY: Not really. He wasn't very big, from what I know watching him play, he wasn't a big talker, complainer, whatnot. I think he would just mention, try to know them by their first name and they might approach the conversation a little different if you have a little sense of respect for sure.

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