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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS: ROCKETS vs WARRIORS

April 30, 2019

Draymond Green

Oakland, California: Game Two

Warriors - 115, Rockets - 109

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. What has been the key defensively for you as far as slowing down the lob game to Capela?
DRAYMOND GREEN: It's always so tempting when James get down. He'll step up. Once they step up, they throw that lob like a 90% shot for them. You just have to trust your lane.

We had guys on James, got to trust that. Pick and choose your spots. That's been key for us. We gave up a couple of them tonight we shouldn't have.

I mean, they're great at that. You're not just going to completely take it away every time. As long as we can keep them to a minimum, it will be good for us.

Q. Draymond, take us through what happened with James' injury. You talked with him afterwards...
DRAYMOND GREEN: We were fighting for a rebound. I made a mistake and hit him in his eye. Just to check on him. It's not about hurting anybody out here. So many times people forget, when a guy have an injury, you live with that every day, every second of every day. It's not just about this game.

If his eye is messed up, he got to live that every day. Just want to check on the guy. At the end of the day it's bigger than basketball when it come to injuries.

Q. You talked about the lobs to Capela. What about the lobs you've thrown in the Clippers series? That play worked a lot for you. Describe what you see when you get the ball in that situation.
DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, I'm usually reading one defender. Most of the time it's Klay or Steph or someone in the corner, they're not helping out. Usually reading that bottom guy as a defender. Just trying to be patient and take whatever it is that the defense give us, whether it's driving all the way to the hole and the finish. I've had a couple of those in both of these series, whether it's throwing a lob if that guy steps up.

Kind of a feel thing. Always been something that's worked for us over the years, not just these two series. The way people guard nowadays, we don't get it as frequent as we used to maybe in like 2014, '15. Nonetheless, when the play is there, you got to take it.

Q. Coach played the starting five for a lot of minutes tonight. Is that something you expected? Talk about the group, whether you expect that starting five to play going forward.
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think for this particular series, that is our best lineup, against these guys. It's the playoffs. You're not preparing for a back-to-back. You're not preparing for three and four nights. We got three days off. I think that probably played a big part in it.

Steve knows we got tomorrow off. We still have Thursday practice, Friday. We got a lot of time to recover. When those minutes are up like that, it is what it is. Just what we got to do. You want to win a game. However minutes we got to play, that's what we got to do.

I think the most important thing is we have time to recover. I think Steve understands that for sure.

Q. Do you think that double T should get rescinded?
DRAYMOND GREEN: We'll see. It is what it is. We'll see what happens. Tonight was a great officiated game. They let us be physical, both teams. They made the calls that they need to make.

It's kind of disheartening for a game that I love, since I was a child, to see the talk over the last two days was nothing about basketball and everything about foul calls. Is that what this game is coming to? The talk is going to be about foul calls?

I love the game of basketball. It was fun out there tonight. Like I said, they let us be physical, let us play the game of basketball, which I enjoyed. I ain't really worried about a technical foul. It is what it is.

Q. Everybody at the start of the game was noticeably less demonstrative towards the refs. Is that something you talked about going into the game, given all the talk that occurred after Game 1?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think both teams just realized what the hell was going on last two days. You can't really turn a blind eye to anything. Today's day and age with social media and all these things... Everyone was aware of all the talks about officiating, foul calls.

Come out and play the game. I think both teams did a great job of that. They weren't complaining about many calls, we weren't complaining about many calls. It's kind of embarrassing for the game of basketball, how much it's been talked about, fouls and officiating. What about beating your man? What about stopping your man? Nobody talked anything about schemes the last couple days. All about foul calls.

I think both teams were locked in on coming out and playing the game to the best of their ability. You have to give credit, both clubs did that.

Q. You held the Rockets to 20 points in the first quarter. How important has that been to be locked in from the tip?
DRAYMOND GREEN: It's very important. That's a ballclub that they get going. They can become impossible to stop. To start the game with that type of defense and intensity the way we did these last two games is key in being up 2-0 in the series.

Q. Your conditioning and health seem to be in a really good place right now. How much of a difference does that make into your game compared to last year?
DRAYMOND GREEN: It makes all the difference. I mean, all this year I don't think I was in great shape at all. Part of it was I wasn't healthy most of the year. Really just locking in and focusing on my body, getting it healthy and ready for this time of year has been important.

I feel great out there. I think it's showing in my play. But it's a long road for what we want to do. Just got to continue to do the things that I've been doing, continue to try to bring it on the floor.

Health plays a big part in that. It feels good to be healthy. I haven't been healthy in a while. It feels good to step out there and not have an ache. Sometimes during the year, like the toe injury, every time you step on that toe, put pressure on it, it's killing me. You kind of dread going on the floor.

Feels good to go out there and be healthy and play the game I love with my body feeling good.

Q. You obviously have a lot of talent and experience. Tonight, what do you think was key in having so much balance from a production standpoint?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I don't think anyone forced anything. When we needed Kevin to get buckets, he did that. When we needed Steph to control the offense, he did that. Klay got going. Andre started off the game, I think he had maybe the first five or six points.

It's important because when it's just one guy scoring or two guys, it allows the defense to kind of key on those guys. When it's balanced like it was tonight, we're really tough to stop when it's going that way.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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