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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: TRAIL BLAZERS VS. WARRIORSMay 18, 2019Draymond GreenKlay ThompsonPortland, Oregon - Postgame 3 Golden State 110, Portland 99. Q. One for each of you. Klay, Steve Kerr called Draymond a wrecking ball tonight. See, he was right. How would you quantify what you saw and what he brought to the game tonight in transition? KLAY THOMPSON: Stats are ridiculous. Four steals, doing it on both ends, plus 16, but it's nothing new. I've seen him do it for seven years, just filling out the box score and he's like a secondary point guard out there. He relieves so much pressure for me and Steph, being able to play off the ball. His ability to make plays out of the pick-and-roll is probably the best ever. So he makes us go, and especially when you push that pace. So proud of Dray, and I know he's not satisfied. Q. With Kevin [Durant] not on the floor, more is needed from you as an initiator and play-maker. How does that having the ball in your hands lead to the kind of thing we saw out there tonight? DRAYMOND GREEN: I think for me, when Kevin is not on the floor, I know I have to be more aggressive. And so whether that's attacking the basket, putting more pressure on the defense, I understand that. I think it's very easy to just try to get these guys to make more and more shots when Kevin is not on the floor, but it can't put that much pressure on them, so I just try to take it upon myself to really push the pace and get the tempo to where I want it and try to make plays for other guys, as well. Q. It seems like there's been a few times lately when things have slowed down or got a little static for the team, and you've been the one that's pushed the pace, get the rebounds out, get in transition, and I'm wondering, how important is pace to you for this team, and what is it that makes you sense when it's time to start driving that? DRAYMOND GREEN: Well, I think, you know, when you're playing against a set defense every time, it's tough, and so you know, for me, even when I -- it's not necessarily to push it to score every time. It's just to kind of get the pace where we want to get the defense on their heels and then allow him [Klay] and Steph to do what they do. But you can kind of feel, when our offense is kind of getting bogged down, or another team is starting to make a run, I like to push it more when they are starting to make their run, because then the guys start to get excited, they hit a shot and they relax and you just push it back and I think that helps change the momentum. Our coaching staff and all my teammates been preaching to go me this whole series about getting the ball and pushing it, getting the ball out and pushing it. Just try to bring that to the game and tonight it was successful for us. Q. After Jordan [Bell] missed that dunk, that could have been a turning point or a momentum changer. Coach Kerr stuck with him. You had some words for him. Just what did you have to say to Jordan and how key was it for Steve to stick with him in that moment? DRAYMOND GREEN: I think it was very big for Steve to stick with him. He played great, and he missed the dunk. Like I told him, Klay missed shots tonight, I missed some and Steph as well. Just because you missed a dunk, still missed a shot. James Laughlin, our video coordinator, he came up to me right before this series started and he said, "Hey," he said, "you've helped me a lot in growing since I've been here. And this series, we're going to need our bench a lot and it's important that you stick with them and continue to give them confidence." And so for a second, I caught myself, like, man, we could have cut that to six, and then we fouled them. Just like that, it just came up on me to stick with him and give him some confidence, and sure enough, he had a dunk the next play and he had a block. So I think that was an important moment, and it's -- you know, we always talk about the strength in numbers. That's coming from a video coordinator. Usually don't get that from a video coordinator but that paid dividends for us tonight. Q. Wanted to ask both you guys, two-part. No. 1, the degree of difficulty of these wins the last five games, how much more satisfying does that make things? And Draymond, in the third quarter, after you made the run to go up by one, I saw you had a short conversation with Steph, who you know very well. Could you share the nature of the conversations? DRAYMOND GREEN: You want to answer the first part? KLAY THOMPSON: The playoffs are extremely hard. Our record might be great the last four or five years but it's really hard. Like Draymond said, the game gets bogged down and gets way more physical and we are just grateful to be here and we don't try to take any games off at this point in the year because we know one slip-up can cost you a series. Just because we're up 3-0 the mission is far from finished. We still have 48 minutes of basketball to play and get to a fifth straight Finals, which just gets me excited thinking about it. DRAYMOND GREEN: Steph came to me and asked me how I was feeling. He said, "When will you be ready to go back in"? I said, "Give me a couple minutes. I'll be ready to go." And I saw him go back to talk to Steve and I was expecting to probably go back in at like the 10-minute mark and then our bench picked it up. They took the lead from what was it, one point or two points, to eight. You know, that was a huge moment in the game, because I'm not going to lie, after that third quarter, I was a little gassed and those extra couple minutes of sitting there, it really paid dividends to close out that fourth quarter for us. The bench was huge tonight, and that's what that moment was about. Q. Jordan said that in the first half when everything was kind of sputtering, you were the one that put them on their back and everybody followed your lead, especially for a guy like Jordan, who you picked him up after the dunk, where do you see your role as someone when things are not going well to, say, I'm going to put you all on my back and get you into a mentality to win this game? DRAYMOND GREEN: It wasn't necessarily a put them on my back type of mindset, more so than let's just try to get something going, going into the half. You know, as far as, I mean, obviously I'm one of the leaders of this team, in those situations, you either go one of two ways: You're either going to do your job and lift everybody up or you're going to go the opposite way. My teammates always tell me, "We follow your body language." So in that moment, I just wanted to make sure my body language stayed positive because, I know no matter what, we down 20 points at the half, we can still win the game. We went into the half down 13 after I thought they had played an amazing half and we said, heck that's a two-minute stretch for us if we lock in. I just wanted to try to get a little more momentum going into the half and we were able to do that and then we came out swinging in the third quarter and changed the game. Q. With all the defensive pressure you've put on Dame, do you get a sense he's fatigued or tired? DRAYMOND GREEN: I don't think he's necessarily fatigued. I just think we're throwing multiple bodies at him. They have had an incredible run thus far. They went seven last series. They had OKC the first series who is a tough team to play against. We just want to try to wear guys down over the course of 48 minutes. It's not necessarily that he's going to start the game gassed but if you can just wear him down over the course of 48 minutes, that makes those shots as the game goes on a little bit tougher. You know, that's been our plan and we've done a pretty good job. Like Klay said, we've got one more game to win and we know Damian can get hot and change an entire series. We just have to stay locked in because we know he's more than capable. Q. First to Klay and then to Draymond. We know Draymond has always been the heartbeat of this team. As you said, he brings the energy and emotion, but also his ability to anticipate and envision and see ahead; how much have you seen him improve over the past year or two in what he's able to do in that regard? And follow-up for you, Draymond. Could you have done what you are doing now, or is it just a culmination now of just being with this group for so long? KLAY THOMPSON: Well, I think he has the most triple-doubles in Warrior history, especially in the postseason. I don't think he's really improved. I just think he's been doing what he is been doing since he was at Michigan State, just being an all-around player. See him continue to do this, for hopefully another ten years. Yeah, I'm just proud of him and everybody else on this team, man, especially the bench. The bench, incredible. Especially you know, everyone is saying it's thin this year and all this, but they come to work every day. They follow our leaders, and it's a strength-in-numbers thing. DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, I hope I was capable of doing it last year. But you know, I feel great, and just trying to bring whatever I've got to bring to the table to help this team win, to help DeMarcus [Cousins] and Kevin get back out there on the floor. That's may minute objective to win as many games right now as we possibly can to get those guys back. When we have Steph, Klay, KD, DeMarcus, I don't need to play like that. As crazy as it sounds, like somebody has to give up something when you have that many guys who are capable of doing what they are doing. You know, I take it upon myself to be the guy to give that up. I think I'm playing great right now but I'm not the scorer that neither one of those four guys are, and so I can take the mindset of, so what, who's out here, I'm going to go score the ball. I think that's very stupid in my opinion to -- because you know, if I'm wide open and Klay is half open, I think it's still a better shot if I give the ball to Klay. That's just my mindset where we got all our guys on the floor but when they are not, I have to have a different mind-set to step up for the team, as everyone has stepped up their game a notch. Q. Steve pointed out that at this point you're not letting anything bother you: Turnovers, missed shots and especially the officiating. Are you aware that you're not dealing with the officiating, and do you think that that helps the team when you're able to avoid those kind of confrontations? DRAYMOND GREEN: I think so. I think it definitely helps the energy of guys. I still like to pick and choose my spots. Sometimes I may take a tech, but that's more mindful than just getting a tech. Sometimes I know like, all right, I need an energy burst; maybe I'll take one. But sometimes I'm not mindful, and I'll get a tech and that will just kill the energy of our team. I've really been focused and locked in on that and I realized I got to a point where I was doing more crying than playing. I'm sure it was disgusting to watch because I felt disgusting playing that way, and I just wanted to lock back in on the game. I understand that officials aren't perfect and I still have conversations with them now, when they miss a call, but it's a completely different conversations. You know, my mom has been really big. My fiancée has been really big of just talking to me about that and just telling me to stay locked in on the game. I also have some little ones at the house that's enjoying watching me play. I don't necessarily want them to see that. So just try to be more mindful of it. Q. For either one of you guys, this organization has been proactive regarding rest in the regular season. Are you guys feeling the positive effects of load management at this juncture? DRAYMOND GREEN: I think so. You know, like you said, Steve and our entire organization has been on board, making sure our guys get as much rest as you possibly can through a rigorous season. It's a rigorous schedule, and especially right now with Kevin out. Those rest days back during the year, they make a difference for us. So that's been good and sometimes it may cost you a game or two during the regular season but it's more important to be healthy at this time of the year. I understand that. We're trying to play into late, mid June every year. It's good to be healthy so I think it's making a difference for us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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