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NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS

June 10, 2019

Klay Thompson

Toronto, Ontario - Postgame 5

Golden State - 106, Toronto - 105

Q. Are you able to describe your range of emotions between the win and Kevin and Kevon's injury? Steve was having trouble doing that, are you able to?
KLAY THOMPSON: It's tough. Really it sucks, man. I feel so bad for those two, especially Kevin. I don't know the extent of his injury, but that's never fun, man. For him to put his health on the line to come back and compete at the highest level, he's one of the best to ever do it, and we were trying to win this for him.

We miss him, we just wish him a speedy recovery. That's our brother and it's honestly, to be honest, it kind of -- it's very deflating. It's hard to even celebrate this win.

Q. You mentioned how deflating it is. How do you guys press on from here emotionally?
KLAY THOMPSON: We do it for Kevin. We do it for K. We know -- I can tell you this, he wants us to compete at the highest level, and we'll think of him every time we step on the hardwood.

Q. Coming back from your own injury, when you saw Kevin go down there, did you think about your own status, the risks that you had been taking in this series?
KLAY THOMPSON: No, I just keep pressing on. You can't be out on the court thinking of, I hope I don't get injured. That's when you get injured. So for me I just try to refocus, man, but that was very deflating.

Q. Can you talk about the resilience that you guys showed tonight.
KLAY THOMPSON: I knew we would come out and compete. Obviously having Kevin helped so much, especially on the offensive end. You saw it there for the first quarter, his shooting was dearly missed. DeMarcus Cousins, what a game, he came in, affected the game on both sides of the ball. Steph with those timely threes and just his ability to keep shooting. Even when he sees a lot of misses, he doesn't care. He's the best shooter ever, so he's never going to lose confidence.

But I'm very proud of the way everyone fought tonight. Even going down six with three minutes left, their ball, we didn't panic, we just do what we do.

Q. When Kevin goes down in a game like that, what impact does it have on you on the floor as you try to win a game for him?
KLAY THOMPSON: It obviously inspires you to play harder knowing your best player can't be out there. You think of him every time you dive for a loose ball or go for a rebound, because I know him and I know how bad he wants to be out there, that's why he was out there.

It sucks. I feel so bad for him, his camp. He's going to come back stronger though. That's the kind of fighter he is and I'm going to miss him, man. It's not the same being out there without him.

Q. For you and Steph, 57 points combined. Really kind of taking the offensive load, with Kevin going down. Did you feel that you and Steph had to, with Durant going down, had to carry the load offensively, as you have many times before? And then just what did you think of the way you two were working out together and the screens down low to get open and get the looks that you were getting?
KLAY THOMPSON: We have been doing this for years, so it's natural. It's not that we think we have to take on the scoring load, but when Kevin's not out there we -- the ball's going to find us a little bit more because obviously you know what he can do, averaging 35 a game in this post-season run.

But, no, we just play our game. We don't put any extra pressure on ourselves to carry the team.

Q. You guys went on that 9-0 run after the Raptors called timeout. You're down six. Were you a little surprised that they called the timeout, and what did you guys talk about? How did you guys gather yourself in that timeout?
KLAY THOMPSON: Well, we have been down big before, we have been down fourth quarters, late in games, and Coach Kerr drew up a couple great sets and me and Steph just got clean looks and you don't want to give us too many of those because they will go in most of the time.

Q. You guys outscored them 9-2 over those final three minutes or so. How much in that stretch are you thinking stops as opposed to shots? And that building was ready to boil over, do you take some motivation or satisfaction in just hushing things up?
KLAY THOMPSON: Yeah, our goal was to get them back on the plane, get them back to Oakland. We owe our fans one more game in Oracle.

And I'm sorry what was the first part of the question?

Q. The stops versus shots.
KLAY THOMPSON: I mean, when you're on the defensive end, all you are thinking is press up on your offensive player and crash the boards as hard as possible. We're not even thinking about scoring when you're on that side of the ball. You just got to take it one play at a time.

But when we got back on the other side of the ball, we just wanted to get Steph into a pick-and-roll, and if they doubled him, just find the open man and luckily we found each other.

Q. Kevin used to say people wanted to separate him and you guys and he always got hit and then he always got targeted. Do you think today he finally showed that you guys actually are together as a team?
KLAY THOMPSON: I don't think today showed it. If anyone watched the last three years of basketball, you saw this man was the Finals MVP back to back. So all that, those talking heads who say we're better without him, that's just ludicrous. Like that's crazy. This is the best player in the world. You could put him on the 30th best team in the league, and that team will make the playoffs. That's how talented he is.

So we don't even pay any of that no mind because with him we are really one, I believe, one of the greatest teams to ever play. Without him we're a really good team, but it's you throw Kevin Durant out there, like I said before, one of the greatest ever.

So we don't pay that any attention because that's just stupid. Stupid. Because he's a warrior. You saw what he did tonight, he sacrificed his health for us and we dearly miss him. It was very deflating to see him go out. I'm just going to pray for the guy, and I know he'll be back even stronger.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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