	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 4, 2019

Shaun Livingston

Oakland, California - Practice Day

Q. The team seems to be at its best when the bench is really contributing in meaningful ways. How do you make sure that stays consistent throughout the rest of the series?
SHAUN LIVINGSTON: Just staying ready. There's going to be opportunity with guys going down. That's just the way it shakes out. And that's what happens in professional sports, period. So just guys being ready, playing with a lot of confidence, knowing that we're going to get that opportunity and coming in and make plays.

Q. What have you said to some of the younger guys to try to help them understand how you've had success in that department in the past?
SHAUN LIVINGSTON: Just knowing that it's okay to make mistakes. We're faced with all this pressure, all these cameras, all the media, everybody is watching in the world -- but it's basketball. It's a game we have been playing our whole lives.

Just trying to re-shift the perspective for guys that haven't been in that experience before. Just to kind of let everything go and just play through mistakes, continuing to play knowing that opportunities will keep coming.

Q. Turnovers have been a little bit of a trouble spot in the first two games. Any concerns going to Game 3?
SHAUN LIVINGSTON: Well, it's always a concern. Taking care of the basketball is a concern for us. So the possession game is huge. For us to be successful throughout this series, I think that's going to be a big key.

Q. Game 1, you guys were pretty unfamiliar with them. You guys were honest about that. You hadn't seen them. You got a lot more of those back cuts and things like that in Game 2. Was that mostly getting used to what they were doing, or were they doing something in Game 2 that you were able to react to?
SHAUN LIVINGSTON: It's our guards, our shooters being heady, knowing that they're not really going to leave their body. So setting screens, you get guys open. It frees up myself, it frees up Andre, Draymond, other guys. And then we can make plays. We can see those back cuts. So it's just kind of playing, taking what the defense gives us.

Q. You're back home. What makes this place special, different?
SHAUN LIVINGSTON: It's home. It's our home floor. It's a place that we're very familiar with. It's a place we won championships at. We get our crowd behind us, gain some momentum, and we're tough to stop.

Q. Is the crowd different here than other places you played?
SHAUN LIVINGSTON: Yeah, definitely when I first got here, for sure. I think that just comes with the nature of the unpredictable. And as the years gone on, everybody expects you to win. So maybe it's not as loud as it was when I first got here, but I fully expect it to be loud come tomorrow.

Q. How are you feeling right now health-wise?
SHAUN LIVINGSTON: Okay. We're okay. It's The Finals. So at this point in the year, everybody's playing through some type of injury.

Q. These are going to be the last games at Oracle. How do you feel about that?
SHAUN LIVINGSTON: Yeah, it's bittersweet. It's tough. At the end, it's a lot of history here, tradition, very prideful players. We play for our fans here, all the support they gave us throughout the years, even before I got here. So it means a lot to be able to play in front of this city.

Q. After Game 2 Bogut was talking about all the roles he's played in his career and his roles with this team. What's this version of Andrew Bogut like to play with?
SHAUN LIVINGSTON: This version is fun. It's fun. It really just feels like he's enjoying the moment. It's so clichÃ© to say, but at this stage in our careers, coming in 14, 15 years ago, kind of gone through the highs and low, so you appreciate where you're at. He's been out of the league. Now to be at this stage in the league with a team, organization he's familiar with, it's great to be around.

Q. Do DeMarcus' perimeter skills help with clearing out some of the rim protectors down low? Because they were playing him pretty high last game.
SHAUN LIVINGSTON: Definitely. Anytime you bring a big outside and can be a threat out there on the perimeter, it's going to bring your shot blockers outside and create more space for back cuts, create more space just for the offense in general.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297