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NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORSMay 29, 2019DeMarcus CousinsToronto, Ontario - Practice Day Q. How is it feeling? Where do you feel physically? Are you going to be able to do some active practice with your teammates? DeMARCUS COUSINS: I feel good. It's healed for the most part. I'm still working things into shape, building the muscle endurance to play at a high level, but everything's coming along well for me. Q. Is it up to you would you play in Game 1? DeMARCUS COUSINS: That's the thing, it's never really up to me. We'll put our heads together and come up with the best plan moving forward. Q. Is this something that you look forward to, personally to say "I'm ready"? DeMARCUS COUSINS: Well, that's hard to determine with most athletes. We're stubborn, we're bullheaded, we feel like we can fight through anything, and that's not always the best case for the individual. So obviously we'll come together and figure out the best plan for me. Q. Starting out this series on the road, what's it going to take to get Game 1 here? DeMARCUS COUSINS: Coming out and playing Warriors basketball. Playing the right way. Playing good defense on the screens, moving the ball, making it hard for the opponent to guard us and just playing our style of ball. So if we do those things, we got a great chance. Q. We talked to you during the year about what playing in the playoffs would mean to you. What about the NBA Finals, would that be a big personal step for you? And does that make you more determined to try to get on the court? DeMARCUS COUSINS: I believe this is the stage that every basketball player as a kid growing up dreams of. To be here is a huge honor and it's an incredible feeling, so I'm extremely excited about it and it makes me that much more -- it makes me that much more antsy to get on the floor and help my team. If that opportunity is presented to me, I plan on taking full advantage of it. Q. How difficult has this injury been for you? And in the time off did you learn anything about yourself? DeMARCUS COUSINS: It's been difficult, it's tough. You work so hard at something, and then you think you've overcome that rough patch and then something else happens. It's the nature of the beast. I'm not the first and I won't be the last, but all I can do is control what I can control and put the effort in every day and better myself, my craft, my body, my skill, whatever the case may be, and like I said, if the opportunity's presented to me, just try to take full advantage of it, which I plan on doing. Q. On starting the series on the road. DeMARCUS COUSINS: It's obvious it's always tough to play on the road. If we come out and do our game plan and play the style of basketball that we know we can play, we'll take care of our business, we'll have a great chance. Q. On trying to contain Kawhi Leonard. DeMARCUS COUSINS: Well, Kawhi's a special player, so to say take him out, I mean that's a big task. Like I said, he's a special player. We'll have our schemes and we'll have our game plans and come out and try to contain everybody on the floor and figure out the best game plan to help us win the game. So that being said, we'll figure something out and hopefully it goes in our favor. Q. Even though you're not out there physically, you've been really big in Damian Jones' development this year and then you see how Kevon has come on. What's the keys for those guys? DeMARCUS COUSINS: Just growing every day, asyoung players a lot is thrown at them early on and I think they handled it great. Kevon has grown tremendously throughout this season. I felt DJ was growing at a rapid pace before he went down with his injury, but they're special talents. One thing about those young guys is they love to listen. They're like sponges and any information you give them, they take it in. So with that being said, it's easy to work with a young guy that's like that. So they're special talents and they have grown a lot but they've handled everything well this year. Q. Fairness doesn't have anything to do with any injury ever, but as hard as you worked to come back from the Achilles, was it hard when you had the second injury, the quad injury, not to think, why me? Why is this happening to me? And just like the unfairness of it? DeMARCUS COUSINS: Like you said, fairness doesn't really play a part in this sport. Fairness doesn't really play a part in life, honestly, but these are the cards I was dealt and all I can do is deal with it however it comes. So I'll make the best of the situation, which I've tried to do. Yes, it was tough dealing with the Achilles injury and then over coming that and then, boom, coming back with another one, but that's just the cards I was dealt. So I would be lying to say like when it happened I wasn't thinking to myself, why me or why now or whatever the case may be, but I'm a firm believer in everything happens for a reason. God's got a plan for me. So I got to be patient and my turn will come around. So just got to be patient. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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