	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS

June 2, 2019

Draymond Green

Toronto, Ontario - Postgame 2

Golden State - 109, Toronto - 104

Q. In Game 1 you talked about how you were going to take personal responsibility on Siakam to make sure that he didn't kind of blow up like he did in Game 1. Can you talk about the job that you did on him tonight and how you were able to slow him down?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Yeah, just tried to be more aggressive. I wanted to set a tone on him and not let him get in rhythm early. In saying that I didn't box-and-one him or chase him around the floor, like Richard Sherman does, some guys like. That's a complete team effort. I tried to do my job when I was on him and everybody else stepped in and did their job as well. I think getting back in transition was huge, but overall we threw several different bodies at him.

So I can't be up here like, yeah, I took him out of the game. That's garbage. That was a complete team effort.

Q. Steph scored 12 points in the last four minutes of the half, you guys get it within five at the break. Then you go on that tear. What happened in that sequence of time, in that five minutes before and five minutes after the half, that allowed you guys to take over?
DRAYMOND GREEN: We got stops. We took away their transition buckets and we got transition buckets. We always say we're at our best when we're -- that's our best offense when we're getting stops and we're pushing the ball.

Obviously Steph was great in closing out that half for us, and I think we should have been down by a lot more than five points, but when you're going in, you know, into the half down five, we know we can cover that in ten seconds.

So our mindset was great coming out of the half, and DeMarcus was big at the start of the half, and everybody was just moving without the ball, and we pushed the ball in transition and it was big for us.

Q. Picking up on that point on DeMarcus, I'm wondering when you found out he was going to be starting tonight, what were you thinking about how that might change the way you guys are able to move on offense. And then what did you see from him as the game progressed? Did it seem like he sort of got into rhythm got going as the game went along.
DRAYMOND GREEN: He did. Once again, DeMarcus hasn't played much basketball over the course of the last 18 months. So the more he plays, the better feel he gets. Tonight he was huge for us. Putting him in the starting lineup I think it was big. Obviously they want to attack him on the defensive end, but you watch the film, he didn't give up much on the defensive end in Game 1. Similar to tonight, he was great on both ends as well. So it allowed us to play through him some in the post. They got to honor that or we know what he's capable of if they don't.

Q. Steph after the game said it was disrespectful of the Raptors to leave Andre wide open for that shot, given his pedigree. What did you think of that last possession, the way and Andre shot the ball with that much time left on the clock and the fact the Raptors didn't get a foul?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Well, I didn't think they were going to foul. They were trying to get a steal. They were trapping Steph. Steph outlet the ball with me, they came with the trap. But I think that as big as Andre's shot was, we have come to expect on Andre to hit big shots. Since he's been here I've seen him hit several game winners. I've seen him put the icing on the cake at several wins.

But the way Shaun Livingston met that pass, I think that no one will write about that. We all got to joke amongst us of bad receivers and good receivers. I always call Kevin a bad receiver, I always call Shaun a bad receiver. He turned into a Megatron tonight for that pass, it was big for us.

Q. What would be the Warriors' next game plan to avoid some of the mistakes that were made on defense and offense?
DRAYMOND GREEN: We're always going to make mistakes. That's just the nature of the game we play. You're playing against a great team. They're in the NBA Finals for a reason, they're going to force you to make some mistakes. It's about the effort that you put out there on the floor to overcome those mistakes. I think we did that tonight.

We're never going to play a mistake-free game. None of us are expecting that, but you try and minimize the mistakes and take advantage of the opposite team's mistakes. Opposing team mistakes, that was bad.

Q. You took a lot of personal responsibility after Game 1 and I think we could see early in the game you stepping up. Yet near halftime you guys were still down 10. What's going through your mind?
DRAYMOND GREEN: We were down five at half.

Q. I said "near half."
DRAYMOND GREEN: Oh yeah, yeah.

Q. When they got it to 10. What's going through your mind at that point? Are you trying to do even more or do you figure if you keep this up, it will turn around?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I thought if we kept it up, it would turn around because when they went on their run, I think they went up 12, we had three or four possessions where we got great shots and we just missed them. I have faith in our team that if we continue to -- we always talk about just getting a shot every time. We're good enough to where if we get a shot every time, we're going to give ourselves a chance to win.

So we weren't turning the ball over. We were getting good shots and you live with those results. Obviously we got a good swing there to close out the half and the third quarter we really dominated that quarter.

Q. In a game like this where you have so many opportunities to guard so many different types of players, how much do you enjoy that challenge?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I enjoy it a lot. Guarding Kawhi's different than guarding Pascal, and guarding Pascal is different than guarding Kyle Lowry. But as a defender, as a competitor I relish those opportunities to make an impact on the game, on the defensive side of the basketball. I understand how important that side of the basketball is and no matter who I'm on, I try to make sure I have a big impact on that side.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Draymond.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297