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NBA FINALS: HEAT v THUNDERJune 13, 2012Kevin DurantOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA: Practice Day Q. Kevin, LeBron James seems to play with a lot of weight of responsibility on his shoulders, and so far in your career you haven't really had to go through that. How have you tried to keep that off of you to have the weight of an entire franchise or whatever you want to call it on your shoulders? How have you been able to sort of keep that off of your career so far? KEVIN DURANT: Just not think about it. Just play. Pride myself on working hard and learning and being coachable. I have faith in all those things that I do day in and day out, coming in, working hard, believing in myself and my teammates, and believing in the system. Whatever happens after that, it happens, as long as I know that I come in and give it my all every single day. I can't worry about what other people say or expectations they put on me. It's just all about how I view myself and how my teammates view me, and we'll go from there. Q. LeBron is older than you and been in the league longer. More is expected from terms of the career value. If you get four or five years deeper into your career and haven't won a title, could you see where this is starting to build where I need to win a championship? KEVIN DURANT: I'm just all about getting better and all about believing, man. If that stuff comes along, then it does. I have faith that if I keep doing what I'm doing and continue to just learn every single year, anything can happen. Q. It seems like a lot of people who watch you guys, maybe not regularly, feel like you should take every shot, that there's nobody else on the team, and even last night, the middle two quarters some people made a big deal about that, you only taking two shot attempts in the middle two quarters. What's your mindset when you're not getting the shot attempts that maybe people feel like you deserve? Are you pacing yourself, and how does that help you in the fourth quarter to help you have big quarters like you did last night? KEVIN DURANT: I don't want to sound like a jerk or anything, but I really don't care what people say outside the locker room, outside of this organization what I need to do or what I didn't do. I really don't care. You know, I'm a guy that lets the game come to me but is also aggressive at the same time. I know when to take shots, when to make the right play. People can say this and that. I learn to just tune it out and just play my game. Q. Regardless of what people say, what's your mindset during those moments when you're not getting the shot attempts, and how do you feel like that helps you down the stretch in games? KEVIN DURANT: I just know it's going to come back around. Q. You were the MVP in the All‑Star Game, you got a great shot to win the title here, you've got the Olympics after that, if you play like you did in the World two years, you're going to be the best player on that team. I mean, this is all set up for you to be the clear‑cut guy right now at the end of this year, and yet you don't seem remotely interested. Why is that? KEVIN DURANT: I'm just taking it a day at a time. It's just a blessing to be here, not just in The Finals but being in the NBA, having this opportunity to do something I love to do, and just take it slow, take it a day at a time, keep working every single day, and at the end we'll see where I'm at. But I can't think too far down the line. Just got to be ready for the next day and prepare myself right for whatever happens. We'll see. I love to do everything you just said, but I've just got to take it slow, and we'll see. Q. How surprised were you when they came out and Shane Battier was on you? KEVIN DURANT: I kind of figured they would mix it up a lot, throw different defenders. They did a great job of‑‑ since Chris Bosh was out a few series back, they did a great job of just playing a lot of guys that can defend different positions. LeBron can defend one through five and Shane Battier can do the same, and Haslem is good at defending some perimeter guys, as well. They're just mixing it up, and we've just got to find a way to kind of offset that. It just goes down to playing hard and make the right basketball play. Q. Do you expect LeBron to be on you more tomorrow night? KEVIN DURANT: Yeah, I think, like I said, they're going to mix it up a lot. I've just got to be patient and be aggressive, and I just really can't worry about who's defending me, I've just got to play within the concept of the team and play my hardest. Q. A lot of people here are debating whether you're the best player in the game, but back home they have a more serious topic, are you the best player ever to come out of Washington, D.C., and I wonder how that makes you feel that people are putting you in the conversation with Elgin Baylor and Adrian Dantley, and does that mean something to you? KEVIN DURANT: That means a lot. My goal as a kid was to be the best player ever in my area. That was my first goal before even thinking about going to college or the NBA.  So that means a lot to me. But I don't think I'm up there with those guys. Elgin Baylor and Dave Bing and Adrian Dantley and guys like that yet. But I've got to keep working and hopefully I get there. That's always been a goal of mine, and hopefully I achieve it. Q. Do you expect the Heat to be more physical with you tomorrow night, and were you surprised at how they defended you on the screen and roll? You mentioned after last night's game you expected to have a better game. Can you give us some specifics? KEVIN DURANT: Everybody has been physical with me since I got into the league at 19. I don't expect it to be any different. Those guys bump me, pushed me, confronted me and denied me the ball, and I expected it to be the same. But me, I've got to start the ball off better on the defensive end and the offensive end, just being stronger and trying to get the ball and making the right plays. I turned over the ball a few times I shouldn't have turned it over, but I've just got to be stronger.  I expect them to be a lot more physical, so I'll be ready for it. Q. You guys came out and held Miami to 40 points in the second half, seemed like they got anything they wanted in the first half. It's got to be something more than just coming out and being aggressive in the second half. What did you guys do different? KEVIN DURANT: Only adjustment we made was playing harder. I can tell you guys Xs and Os and the schemes, but it just comes down to playing harder. Those guys got open threes, open lay‑ups. That's not what we pride ourselves on. We can't do that to a championship‑caliber team, can't give those guys open shots. So we just tried to step it up on the defensive end and know that they're going to be aggressive and make shots, but we can't get discouraged, we've got to continue to play our game. And we just tried to step it up a little bit, get our karma behind us some, as well, and kind of push us over the top. Q. After the game last night, Scott said that Russ had a great game, that he controlled the ball, he controlled the game, but he always seems to have so many critics, whether they're talking about him taking too many shots, keeping his emotions in check. Why do you think Russ is such a lightning rod? KEVIN DURANT: He has a chip on his shoulder, and he wants to be the best. That's the best part about our team, we have guys that want to be the best. I don't know how many points he had, but he had eight rebounds and I think 11 assists. I don't know if you can talk too much about a guy who does that, who can do that night in and night out. He had great shots last game, missed a few lay‑ins and a few easy jumpers that I think he can make. We're not worried about what people are saying on the outside, we're just worried about coming together as a group, and he did a great job of controlling everything last night. Q. What do you remember about that night at Rucker Park when you had the 66 points and the fans jumped onto the court? KEVIN DURANT: Only thing I remember was that everybody ran on the court. That's probably one of the best moments I've had so far in my life, playing at the mecca of basketball in New York City, and I hit a few shots then. It felt like everybody just swarmed me so quickly, man, and it was just a fun moment for me and something I'm always going to remember. Q. Whether it's you throwing a little dump off pass to Nick for that dunk or everybody being tied on a string on defense, how much during this whole playoff run have you grown as a team in terms of just making the right basketball play? KEVIN DURANT: That's something we've been preaching for a while, always just staying together. And teams win, you know, individuals don't win basketball games. You may win a few here or there but you don't get to where you want to go by just one guy, so we've got to do it together. We know that. We don't care who takes the shots, we don't care who gets the rebounds or assists, as long as we do it together. We just believe in each other. We trust in each other, and we've got to continue to keep building that if we want to get to where we want to get to. We've just got to keep doing it. Q. Shane Battier has always been known as a pesky defender. He does this one thing where he shields your eyes on a jump shot. Is that ever effective, or is that just a gimmick? KEVIN DURANT: I absolutely hate it. But I've gotten used to it over the years playing Shane, ever since he was in Houston. Last year in the Playoffs against Memphis. He does it a lot. You've just got to be disciplined on your shot, and I think shooting so many shots, you know once you kind of let loose, you know where it's going to go. Got to free myself up from him. He is a good defender. But it's something that you can't control him doing, he's going to do it whenever he plays. I've just got to be confident in myself and in my shot. Q. Is that more annoying than a contest, or is that‑‑ some people poke in the stomach and he just goes straight up at the eyes? KEVIN DURANT: He's probably the only guy that does that, so I'm used to guys contesting the shot, but putting a hand in your face is a little different. I've just got to play through it. Q. A lot was made of the fact that you guys hadn't been to The Finals before and you finally have experienced your first game. I was just wondering, does it compare, is it even bigger than any other playoff game? You didn't seem to be intimidated at all. Talk a little bit about you fit right in. Did it seem to be a regular type of game? KEVIN DURANT: I tried to approach it as a regular game. I think all the stuff before the game kind of made me a little nervous, the intros and all the media here, so many people here. I never seen this many people here in Oklahoma City before at a basketball game. So it's a little different. But you got used to it once the ball is tipped. It goes back to when you're a kid playing a game, just playing. All that stuff is out of the way. We've just got to be focused on Game 2 and be ready to play. None of that stuff is going to change. All we're worried about is basketball. Q. Russ was just in here talking about the balancing act of the shot attempts, divvying up the shot attempts between you two. Talk about when you guys really learned that balancing act and how it helped‑‑ how it has helped you guys develop and have chemistry? KEVIN DURANT: Well, it took us some time. I think we're both willing passers, but we do know when we have to be aggressive. Russ is great at knowing when we're down, he has to be aggressive. When we're down, I have to be aggressive. But when we have a good flow in the game, that's when everybody is touching the ball, we're moving it, we're finding a good shot, finding a great shot. But it's kind of weird, but I think it just kind of clicks for you when you know you have to shoot the ball and when you have to pass it. We've got to continue to watch film and see if we can get better in that area, and hopefully we do. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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