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NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS

June 12, 2019

Kyle Lowry

Oakland, California - Practice Day

Q. For lack of a better word, all I can think of when I think of Kawhi Leonard is this guy's a beast. Discuss.
KYLE LOWRY: That's a good one. I think he's been able to show his full repertoire this whole season. The playoffs has made it even more of a bigger stage. Through the regular season, he's had big games like this before, but he hasn't played the minutes. So you give him more minutes, you give him more shots, you give him more touches, you give him more time to be on the floor. I think he's the best two-way basketball player in the NBA. He just goes. I've seen some stuff from him this year that just you say, Wow. You appreciate the work that's put in. He works extremely hard at his game and works extremely hard on his body. And he loves this basketball thing. He loves it.

Q. What are some of the things that made you say wow?
KYLE LOWRY: I didn't know like he was such a great shooter. I didn't know he was such a great -- this year alone, you say wow because he's gotten even better as a playmaker. Early in the year, but then throughout the season, he's become a better playmaker. He'll have games where 12 rebounds, 15 rebounds -- I think it was one game, I don't know if it was in the playoffs, it was like 30 (points) and 15 rebounds or something like that. I mean you just say, God, Jesus, that's a crazy stat line for a guy like that. He just does it on both ends.

Q. You're still in control of the series. You're still up 3-2. You still have two more chances at this thing. What has the mood been like the last 48 hours and how quickly did it take or how long did it take to get over that you were right there, that you had a shot of it the other night?
KYLE LOWRY: We stayed in the moment. We didn't finish the game out. We all sat back, we watched it and watched the film today. Got out here, got better. Now we're going to go out here and get a little practice in, talk to you guys and prepare for the next game. We understand that the moment is the moment, but we still are staying in it. We're not too up, we're not too down. We're just one game, hey, we lost it, now we got to move on to the next one.

Q. Road teams are 4-1 in The Finals. When you look at the splits for both Toronto and Golden State, they're shooting better overall, they're markedly shooting better from three, and they have more assists on the road than at home. Is that just the way things happen? Is there anything behind it that can you explain to us?
KYLE LOWRY: Got two really good teams. Two really good basketball groups. Poised groups. For us, we just go out there and try to play our game the same way no matter home or on the road. We understand on the road we got to be even better because of the situation. But for us as a group we just go in there, we stay focused and stay locked in on that moment of being on the road and being together.

Q. I want you to talk about the mental part of the game because there's a lot of talk about strategies from back and forth. But mentally, especially when the moments switch sometimes, especially in the Game 5 that you guys had the opportunity to win at home, and then that switched, plus the KD brings a little spirit to the Warriors. Can you talk about how you prepare mentally to overcome the spirit of the Warriors?
KYLE LOWRY: Just go out there and do our job. We're a professional basketball team. We have been in the same situation. We have been the same team all year. We don't get too up. We don't get too down. We live in the moment. We understand that today is today and tomorrow will be another test of who our group will be on the road. We'll be against a team that will be ready to go, but we'll be ready to play too.

Q. Obviously the ultimate goal is to win a championship, but how satisfying would it be to be able to win a championship and close down their building at the same time?
KYLE LOWRY: Get there when we get there. Right now, we're just focusing on how we continue to get better. Tomorrow will be a tough task, and we'll be ready to go. We'll be ready to play basketball. 48 minutes on that hardwood and we'll go out there and do our jobs and play extremely hard.

Q. The last game Steph and Klay got up combined 27 threes. A lot of them were open looks, too. I think they made about 12. What can you guys do tomorrow night to make sure it's more difficult for them?
KYLE LOWRY: Stay locked in. I think they got loose last game. Those guys are going to get off shots. They're going to get up their attempts. They're going to make shots. But you got to make them a little bit tougher sometimes. They got a couple of loose ball offensive rebounds, transition breakdowns.

Listen, you're not going to stop them from shooting threes, but you can make them a little bit tougher and try to contest them better. There's a lot of things that we learned from that film that we feel like we could do a better job of.

Q. You recently spoke to the chemistry of the team and how Nick Nurse maybe yelled at you guys maybe twice all year. Have you had a coach quite like him, with that calmness, and what do you think that's done for the team?
KYLE LOWRY: I have. Rick Adelman. Very similar. Never yelled. Never really talked too. (Laughing.) Great coach. I think what Nick has done is kind of keep the mentality of our team the same. He doesn't get too up, he doesn't get too down. He yelled at us, literally, I think twice this year. Kind of just attests to his confidence in who he is as a coach, who we are as a team, how he believes in us. We are all grown men, and he talks to us as grown men. We do our jobs and come in and work, and we're ready to go.

Q. When you're guarding Klay or Steph or getting in an action where you're going to have to pick up Klay or Steph down the stretch like in Game 5, is the approach a little different because it's them? How much more of an awareness do you have to take because of the guys who have the ball?
KYLE LOWRY: It's all game. It ain't just down the stretch. You got to be aware. When they're on the floor, you got to be aware of them. They're probably two of the top, whatever, all-time shooters in the game of basketball. So when they step on the floor first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter, you got to be aware of them at all times.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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