	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 5, 2019

Draymond Green

Oakland, California - Postgame 3

Raptors - 123, Warriors - 109

Q. A lot of the conversation coming out of this one will be that you guys maybe sacrificed tonight in some sense to be healthy for the next four games if it goes that far. Do you view it that way, one, and how comfortable are you having to win three of the next four, assuming you guys do get healthier own Friday night?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I don't view it as sacrificing. We went out there and played hard and we lost. We didn't go into this game thinking we're not going to play Klay or Kevin or Loon or anybody else, and we're just going to give this game away should they play well. They knocked down I think 17 threes. You got to give them credit.

But we didn't sacrifice. You don't sacrifice a Finals game to be healthy for the next one, because anything can happen. But at the same time you do have to be smart. We would much rather have Klay for the rest of the series than putting him out there and losing him and then nothing. So no one sacrificed the game.

Q. Kyle Lowry really kind of seemed to turn it on to a new gear tonight. What kind of tone do you think he set for the team, and how different was his performance in this game than earlier in the series?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think he made more shots than he's made. Obviously he was way more aggressive than he's been, but he made shots.

Q. Can you talk about how you guys combat their size and length advantage; that it seemed to impact the game tonight?
DRAYMOND GREEN: We got to be more solid with the ball. And it starts with me. I've had a bunch of turnovers in I think every game this series. So just take -- be more cautious with our passes. I think they do have a lot of length, but we got to play in more space and not play in a crowd.

Q. Just how depleted does this situation become when Klay's out, when Looney is out, when KD's out, when DeMarcus is banged up? Just how difficult is it without everybody?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, it's more difficult than with them. I think that goes without saying, but nonetheless we got guys that can step up, and we just didn't play well enough tonight. So it is what it is.

Q. Obviously the absence of Klay and obviously Durant have been played up a lot. But how big was missing Kevon Looney as well, he kind of threw off the center rotations a little bit, you guys played Andrew Bogut over 20 minutes tonight. How big was not having Kevon out there?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think Bogut played great in his minutes, but obviously Loon has been great for us all year, so not having him out there definitely makes a difference. Not having anyone makes a difference because everyone -- when you assemble a team, everyone brings something different. But no one cares if guys are hurt. Everybody wants to see us lose. So I'm sure people are happy they're hurt. We just got to continue to battle and win the next game, go back to Toronto, win Game 5, come back to Oracle, win Game 6 and then celebrate. Fun times ahead.

Q. How has this Finals been challenging despite the injuries?
DRAYMOND GREEN: It's a great team. Any time you make it to the NBA Finals, you're playing against another great team. So it's always going to be challenging. We can sit and talk about the injuries until we're blue in the face, it's not going to change how Kevin's calf feels or how Looney -- what's it called? Yeah, no it was like some costal cartilage fracture, something like that, it's not going to make that feel better. And it ain't going to make Klay's hamstring feel better either.

So it is what it is, with the guys we got out there, we got to roll with it. We fought tonight. We lost. We're going to fight again. I don't really see us losing too many more, though, but we're going to fight again. So it is what it is.

Q. Even though he was a focal point of the Raptors defense, Steph still set a playoff -- personal playoff record for himself, and Steve said he does things that he doesn't think anyone in history has ever done. What did you think about his performance tonight?
DRAYMOND GREEN: He was amazing. I got to play better and offer him more help. I think if I played better with the night that he had, we would have won. So we need him to continue to be aggressive like he's been, and all of us got to continue to fill in and be better.

And like I said, that starts with me. If I was better, we probably would have won that game. But he was amazing tonight. Not that he's not amazing pretty often, but tonight was a special performance for him, and he definitely does stuff that I don't think we have ever seen anyone ever do, and we probably won't see anyone ever do it again.

Q. If ever there was a night to use a box-and-one, this would seem to be it. Regarding Steph. So with the Toronto defense focusing on him, did you see him have to do more than usual, and what sort of things were they doing to try to stop him?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think they were throwing bodies at him. I think y'all might have talked Nick Nurse off the box-and-one. He folded under pressure a little bit I think -- I'm just playing. But they definitely threw bodies at him, and we got to do a better job of when they're throwing two and three guys at him of converting.

I don't think we did a great job of that tonight, and we usually take advantage of those situations. We didn't. When we're better doing that, you make them play -- I mean make them pay for the way they were playing against Steph. So we got to do a better job of that and get our floor space because I don't think it was great tonight.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297