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NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORSJune 12, 2019Fred VanVleetOakland, California - Practice Day Q. What is the most important thing to focus when your opponent is the Warriors? FRED VANVLEET: Just try to just stay locked in and be mentally strong and probably just not have any lapses. Those guys are so dangerous that once you slip up and make mistakes they will make you pay. So just got to stay locked into the game plan and really perform at a high level. And takes a lot to beat them and you got to play really well to get the job done and we know that going forward. Q. What have you found about, like, you've gone through your own kind of shooting troubles through the playoffs, and you've made some of the biggest shots of your career at this point. What have you learned about what it takes to make those shots as the pressure escalates, kind of game to game, to places you guys have never been to this level of pressure before. FRED VANVLEET: Probably just another higher level of focus. I think that I found another step up of just trusting yourself and trusting your shot and not getting swayed by the moment and not changing your technique and not getting down when you miss a couple or changing anything and don't do anything drastic. Just trust the work and the work is the only thing that will stay constant and remain steady the whole time. And the same form that you shoot with when you practice is the same one you got to go out there and shoot with when there's a championship on the line. And just trusting that, and that there's another level of like mental focus and locked in where can you kind of find that groove and that rhythm, and I think that's helped us. Q. How is your confidence at this point heading into Game 6? FRED VANVLEET: High. Q. You were so close last game. How do you bounce back from that tonight? FRED VANVLEET: Just got to go play another game. This is the Finals. It's not a one-game series, it's not the end of the world when you lose, and it's not the greatest thing when you win. It will be now, obviously, we're at three. But trying to get four is tough. And we had an opportunity to close them out, and we didn't do that. Give those guys a lot of credit, they made some big plays late, and we just didn't do enough to win. So we got another chance here tomorrow, and we got to go out there and play well and try to close it out. Q. Do you remember what was going through your mind when you had the ball in the final seconds then? FRED VANVLEET: Yeah. Everybody in the gym probably knew Kawhi was going to be doubled, no matter where it came from. I kind of knew what was on my left, so when I caught it, Shaun closed out to me, and I had Kyle and Marc versus Draymond. So just didn't do a great job of exploiting that two on one there. Marc was trying to pin him in and just couldn't quite get there. So hindsight's 20/20. We could have all done something differently. But if Draymond doesn't get a finger tip on it and Kyle makes that three, then it's the greatest play ever. So we got to understand that. And if we're in that position again, we'll try to execute a little bit better and get off a cleaner look and learn from it. Q. In hindsight should there have been a timeout there do you think? FRED VANVLEET: No, I don't think that matters. I think whatever play we would have ran or came up with, maybe the spacing could have been better. But whatever plan we would have came up probably would have resulted in the same thing, Kawhi getting double-teamed, would have had to make a play out of it. So it's not rocket science there. And we lost and we didn't make the right plays. So whatever we did was wrong. And if we would have won, it would have been genius not to call a timeout. So I don't try to get caught up in playing revisionist history. Q. Can you describe what goes into staying fresh at this time of year as an athlete, with the coast to coast travel, different time zones, all that? FRED VANVLEET: Yeah, it's tough, man, it's tough. It takes a lot of dedication and discipline. And as much as people see us on the court and playing and playing at a high level, the rest of the 99 percent of the time it's probably dedicated to making sure we're able to perform at a high level. So eating right, drinking right, trying to sleep as much as possible. These two cities are not close by any stretch of the imagination, so the flights. And just staying hydrated and getting treatment and still trying to find time to get your work in, that's what it takes to be a professional and to play at a high level. So we have been at this thing, for us, like for young guys, I've been -- I don't have an offseason, so this time last year I was probably working out. So to be still playing now is great, and you just got to continue to try to stay fresh and give yourself the best chance to go out there and play at a high level. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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