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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS: ROCKETS vs WARRIORS

April 30, 2019

Mike D'Antoni

Oakland, California: Game Two

Warriors - 115, Rockets - 109

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. With the series being this tight, is it going to come down to the things like offensive rebounds, turnovers, loose balls?
MIKE D'ANTONI: Well, yeah, I mean, usually always does. Tonight especially. In the first half we had way too many turnovers. We had 14 turnovers. Cost us 20 points. Took care of the ball the second half, right there.

There's some things we can do. We can adjust some situations that we didn't do a real good job tonight, not as good as they did.

I just thought we showed a lot of heart with a lot of adversity on the floor. Didn't give up. They did what they're supposed to do: they won their two home games. Now, if we're good enough, we'll win our two home games and come back here for Game 5.

Obviously we're going to have to play a little bit better.

Q. How big a problem is what Draymond Green is doing right now?
MIKE D'ANTONI: It's always a problem. He's an All-Star for a reason. He's really good. Kind of a point guard at the center or forward position. He plays well. He's a heck of a player.

Q. Talk about how James played the second half, how he played after getting the injury.
MIKE D'ANTONI: He fought through some stuff. The guy looked like he was not in great shape the first half, I think it might have cleared up a little bit. But he got raked pretty good in the eyes. But that's him. I mean, I didn't have a doubt he was coming back unless it was something catastrophic.

I'm sure he would have loved to have played better. Under the circumstances, I thought he played great. We had our chances down towards the end. We were only three or four down. They made big plays. We just didn't get it done.

Q. In that stretch you just alluded to, you're within three, is it their excellence or are there things you wanted to correct there that gave up some of those shots?
MIKE D'ANTONI: It's always a little bit of both. Kevin Durant one-on-one is one of the best scorers the league has ever seen. He made some shots. I thought overall we did a good job. If we have four or five plays, we just have to be more solid. We laid on a screen or they got threes, right? We just got to do a better job. We will.

Like I said, we'll have to adjust some of the things we do down the stretch, try to take the ball out of his hands. But against a good team, good players... They played well.

Q. Any time a superstar goes out, it's obviously more difficult. For the load that James carries for you guys, what is it like during those minutes when he's out?
MIKE D'ANTONI: Well, it's tough sledding. A lot of what we do. But at the same time I thought we did a good job of kind of righting the ship, give us a chance towards the end.

That just means Chris and Eric and those guys got to play a lot more minutes. But I thought we overcame that pretty well, as a matter of fact.

Q. Was there an effort to get Clint Capela involved in the second half a little bit more than in the first half?
MIKE D'ANTONI: No. We do the same thing every time. If they guard Austin certain way where James and Chris feel that he's more open or whatever, they're just reading the play. We don't target people. We have plays, we run 'em, whoever is open just got to read it. Could be him. Could be Eric. Could be Gerald. Could be Austin. Whoever is open gets it and they got a make a play.

Q. What do you think of the way the Warriors have defended the lob game with Capela?
MIKE D'ANTONI: They're good at it because Draymond comes, fakes, goes back to Clint. We probably have to go a little bit stronger to the rim and finish. They're smart. They play the in-between game pretty well. Draymond is probably arguably the best defensive player in the league. He's smart.

Sometimes we get it, sometimes we don't. Again, there are some things that we can do. We'll see on Saturday, so... Obviously for us, that's the game. We got to go after it Saturday.

Q. Did you feel there was more clarity and consistency with how the game was called? Less questions about it.
MIKE D'ANTONI: Yeah, again, these are good refs. Good refs last game. We just had a few problems on a couple plays. These guys are good. They didn't determine anything. They just called the game the way it was, and it was good.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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