NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS: LAKERS vs WARRIORS

May 2, 2023

D'Angelo Russell

Media Conference

Lakers 117, Warriors 112

Q. This is the second straight series you guys have won the first game. What is allowing you to do that on the road?

D'ANGELO RUSSELL: Locking into the game plan. Obviously getting off to a good start matters in the Playoffs. Even in the regular season when you get off to a good start, you give yourself a chance to hold it down throughout the game.

Honestly we just locked into the game plan and everybody was committed to it, everybody from the bench to the starting unit, there was no letup. We were locked in for 48 minutes and it allowed us to get the win.

Q. With the noise in this arena, how difficult was it to communicate on the high picks at the three-point line to make sure you were not surrendering uncontested three-point shots?

D'ANGELO RUSSELL: I mean, it's not really that loud. For our group, it's all about the game plan. We know we got to be up. That's things that we know.

As far as yelling and screaming, losing your voice trying to do it, it's kind of irrelevant. We know what we got to do. Nobody needs to be told it, honestly.

Q. How impressed have you been with A.D.?

D'ANGELO RUSSELL: Big, huge, huge performance. He's been dominating the Playoffs. Gets a lot of hate from the media throughout the year. I wasn't a part of it.

But I don't know what you can say about the guy. He's on the court for almost the whole game. Last series he dominated when he was out there. Never asks for a sub, never asks for a break. If he can play, he'll dominate the game. If he can't play, he can't play.

Q. Just wondering your familiarity with Golden State, how they defend the shots you're trying to get your shots in, how different that is from the Memphis series?

D'ANGELO RUSSELL: They're a good team, defensive unit. They do a good job of selling out through their rotations, activating their scrambles. They might run a guy off, the next guy is there in the rotation. They've been doing it for a while.

I don't know. You just got to trust the pass against those guys. They make you go through your second and third option throughout the game. You trust the pass, it could be a good night for anybody. If you go against it, it's kind of tough.

Q. There's been a couple games where there were spurts in scoring. What kind of gets you going and what did you see in that third quarter?

D'ANGELO RUSSELL: I mean, I don't know, it's an opportunity to be ready. You know, they're a good third quarter team. We all knew that. For us to get out to a good third quarter start, everybody was kind of coming out ready to be aggressive. The game just allowed me to be the one to kind of take advantage of it at the time.

They're a good third quarter team. We know that. We just wanted to handle that, be locked in as a group.

Q. When they cut it from a 14-point deficit, obviously you were able to prevail, but what do you think you learned as a group from that sequence?

D'ANGELO RUSSELL: We were just locked in for 48 minutes, from the start to the finish. That team's dangerous. They shoot a lot of threes. A lot of threes can get you back in the game when you're down by a few possessions.

Knowing they can explode at any time and get theirselves back within one point or one possession, whatever it may be, knowing every possession matters.

Vando, Reaves, Dennis, all those guys were huge. Troy Brown. All those guys were huge. Things you don't see on the stat sheet. When you watch the game, they impact it to the fullest.

Q. They're coming off a seven-game series. You played a physical Memphis team. Do you sense any advantage as far as perhaps stamina is concerned?

D'ANGELO RUSSELL: I mean, if you rebound the ball, I think both teams are dangerous. We get out in transition, we get dunks and threes. They gut out in transition, they get a lot of threes. I think if we can limit that, that's our advantage. Not really the previous series and things like that.

Obviously series can prepare you for the next one as far as physicality and things like that. But as far as the resting, the time off and all that extra, I don't think that really matters.

I just think we locked in, locked in for 48 minutes. Whatever we got to do, whoever is out there, everybody's ready to impact winning.