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NBA FINALS: SPURS v HEATJune 11, 2013Danny GreenSAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: Game Three Miami Heat - 77 Q.  When this series started, do you think about the idea of went through your mind you're going to be the leading scorer for the Spurs in the NBA Finals? And what does it take for you to have this kind of performance so far? DANNY GREEN: No, I never thought that. Luckily I've been open. I hit some shots. Some dropped for me. My teammates done a good job of finding me and encouraging me to shoot every time when I'm open. Pop does a great job telling us let it fly. I think the biggest thing is to stay active defensively in order to stay in the rhythm offensively. Q. Danny, you had a good rhythm tonight. Can you just talk a little about what was working for you. DANNY GREEN: Like I said, I was trying to be active defensively. That's the biggest thing for me. And Kawhi on our team, helping each other getting hands on passes, loose balls, 50‑50 balls, and then giving ourselves a chance to run. When I'm active defensively, it helps stay in a rhythm offensively. And Tony is penetrating and finding guys. Especially when we're knocking down shots, it makes us pretty dangerous. Q. Danny, 29 assists tonight after 16 in the first two games. The extra pass, that's really the identity of this team. What does that do for you guys on the perimeter to be able to make it so much fun out there? DANNY GREEN: It makes the game a lot easier for us. When we're moving the ball like that, trusting each other to knock down shots, make plays, it makes the defense work. It makes them move, rotate. The more you make a defense move, the more they're liable to make mistakes. So we just continue to move it and trust each other. Luckily some of them dropped for us tonight. Q. Danny, can you talk about, I guess, Neal's performance and two questions in one, what is the feeling when you do know that the shots are going to go down no matter who is taking it, like yourself or Neal? DANNY GREEN: He played great tonight. We knew he was due for a big game at some point. Gary is a scorer. He's been here for a couple of years now. He's been known to make big shots for us. Put up some big numbers for us on offense and knocking down some shots. And your second question was again? What was that? Q. What is the feeling when things are just going so right for the team, knowing the shots are going to fall no matter who is taking them? DANNY GREEN: When we're knocking down shots, it makes it easier to play offense. Our focus for the team is defensively. We know we're making shots, but we have to do it on the defensive end, too, to win the game. We can't just keep going back and forth taking turns who is going to score more. When shots are falling, we have to think defense. Q. Danny, is it possible for you guys to play any better on LeBron than you're doing right now defensively? And why are you guys having so much success at doing something no one else has been able to do so far? DANNY GREEN: I think we've done a great job helping each other, team defense. But obviously we know what kind of a player LeBron is. We know he's not at his best right now. He missed a lot of shots that he normally makes. We're sure Game 4 he's going to come out a lot different. They all did. That was difference. We made shots that they didn't. We moved the ball. We didn't turn it over as much. We know they thrive in fast break transition baskets. So it was hard for them to get into a rhythm. But LeBron is not just us stopping him. He's kind of stopped himself out there and we're getting a little lucky. Q. Two questions: One, you said it's not just us stopping him, he's stopping himself, I guess. In what way is he stopping himself? DANNY GREEN: It's a little bit of both. Obviously we're making it tough for him. But you guys have seen him all year at his best, and how he can perform. Obviously he's not doing that right now. I don't know what it is. I'm hoping that it doesn't come out. But so far we've done a decent job on him defensively, and he's been doing his job, impacting the game in other ways‑‑ rebounding, passing, finding the shooters. They've hurt us a little bit. But tonight they didn't knock as many down as they did in Game 2. Q. And secondly, he did not have a single free‑throw attempt in this game. It's the first time that's happened all year long. What's your reaction to seeing that? DANNY GREEN: It's shocking. You said that's the first time all year?  I think that's the reason he couldn't get into the rhythm. He's used to attacking the basket, getting to the line and making free throws gets you into a rhythm as a scorer. I hope that he continues to miss shots and everybody else continues to miss shots, and hopefully we can continue to trust each other offensively and move the ball and shoot the way we've been shooting, so we can win a couple more games. Q. Have you ever had a game like this? How far back in your memory do you have to go to think of that‑‑ DANNY GREEN: It's been a while since I shot the ball like that. A couple of games in the season I shot it pretty well. But tonight it was totally different level of feeling‑‑ comfort level on the perimeter. But they trusted me. We had a comfortable lead, and I just kept running the floor, trying to get open. When I saw daylight, I would just let it fly. Q. Just want to ask you, do you feel kind of a special kinship with Gary? You guys have kind of a similar story getting to the league. The hardships and the hard knocks. DANNY GREEN: I feel like everybody on this team has a story. Pop and R.C. obviously do a great job of finding guys in weird places. We have a lot of foreigners on the team. Gary has come a long way. Took him a while to get into the league. I'm happy for him. He's playing well. We need him to. The Finals and playoffs you have to play good basketball but also have luck on your side. You need guys to step up. Sometimes it comes from weird places. We expect Gary to play pretty good. He stepped it up and he's doing what we need him to do. Q. Secondly, how many of these postgame Finals press conferences did you watch on TV coming up? And could you imagine you would be the guy sitting there one day? DANNY GREEN: I watched hundreds of them. Growing up as a kid, I was a big basketball fan since I was little. My father put the ball in my hand. I stayed up late. We're on the East Coast, it's a little different. I never thought I would be up here talking to you guys now. Q. When you were LeBron's teammate in Cleveland in 2009 and '10, you had 40 points all season. LeBron had ten games of 40 or more that season. Could you have envisioned that you just a couple of years later would be outscoring LeBron in the NBA Finals? DANNY GREEN: No, never thought in a million years that would happen. Like I said, obviously, I got comfortable, hit a couple of shots, got lucky. My teammates found me. Hopefully we can continue to shoot the ball as well as we did tonight the next games. And play good defense and hopefully they continue to struggle a little bit. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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