I know I said a couple posts ago that Steve Kerr giving Jonathan Kuminga a DNP against the LA Clippers — which subsequently also happened against Memphis — was a “fireable offense” as it pertains to salary cap optionality, but (a) I’m still getting my hands around the sign-and-trade calculus for JK in the off-season — Marc Stein just gave a tidbit on that during the day of Game 1, which is why it’s still a hot topic — and Eric Guilleminault told me today he doesn’t see that happening because an offer from the Brooklyn Nets that contains a big trade kicker seems more likely, and (b) the Warriors with their new “Bat Family” of one Wardell Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green needs Kerr.
As long as he’s game-planning Curry and Green and the rest of the crew the way he did in winning Game 1 at Houston the way he did, even going crazy with the wild turnovers in a bad stretch of the third quarter where the Rockets came back, even blaming himself for playing Butler too much (see practice transcript below), Steve will not and cannot be fired.
Incidentally, here’s the latest podcast that mentions Gary Payton II as one of those wild ones, to the extent that “Coach Dubs”, one of our livestream regulars, calls Gary “Tarzan”:
Again, they need Steve for seven-game series. Draymond’s enthusiasm on his podcast for the film study and game-planning — the team calls it “installs” — seemed to indicate as much.
Of course, the Warriors still need to make a deep playoff run to prove the championship mettle they displayed in Game 1 is translatable, otherwise Joe Lacob could make some big moves, and it’s of course debatable at this early stage whether or not Golden State needs to make the Finals for a significant change to happen, but the trajectory seems to show that Kerr is the right man for this job, this presumably deep playoff run.
After all, only a few coaches have the pedigree to reference Hall-of-Fame names like Tex Winter, John Wooden and Lute Olson during a practice in the middle of the playoffs. By the way, Kerr also referenced Phil Jackson on his weekly interview with 95.7 The Game that followed after practice (re: finding perspective in between urgency and joy so as to thrive at moments in the playoffs).
I actually love it when Steve does that. The old greats hardly ever get mentioned in scrums anymore. I mean, Erik Spoelstra, Tyronn Lue and Gregg Popovich are great, but I don’t know that they have many references to old school basketball in their scrums. So, with Steve’s contract lined up to expire alongside Steph and Dray’s in Summer 2027, let’s not forget to appreciate him. Let’s cherish these as learning opportunities, if not reinforcements of what makes the game great, and appreciate Kerr while he’s still here:
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On Steph dealing with all the grabbing and physicality: “You can’t fight pressure. You have to go away from pressure. It’s an old Tex Winter line. If people are gonna be all over you, you have to make back cuts — not just Steph, everybody — just to loosen up the pressure and then we need to get the ball swung and I thought our spacing in the third quarter broke down.”
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On chasing the ball and getting rebounds: “We outscored them 16-4 or something in transition, so it’s a big, big deal. Like, can we get the ball, but we also can’t be in a hurry. The old John Wooden line: ‘be quick, don’t hurry,’ it really applies because we had a couple of plays where we got a rebound and we made a careless pass or a quick pass that was hurried and rushed and that became a turnover, so you just have to be poised, but we wanna run.”
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On meeting with University of Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson after the Warriors practiced there the day before Game 1: “Coach Sampson told me that Lute Olson was one of his mentors, that he learned about culture and building an identity from Coach Olson and a few other coaches. And so we had that discussion about our old Pac-10 days and that was fun.”
Below are the interviews and transcripts from practice today, in chronological order (i.e., starting with pregame of Game 1 through today’s practice including Kevon Looney and Brandin Podziemski, at the very bottom). I didn’t get around to posting these until now because I’ve changed up my workflow a little bit to focus on resurrecting the podcast (YouTube embed above, Spotify and iTunes links here):
The behind-the-scenes video from Houston Game 1 isn’t quite ready yet, so be sure to check the YouTube channel for that by tomorrow, before Game 2.
00:00 What — when you re-watched the tape of the most recent game, what is it that you feel like they did really well against Steph and just, I guess, team-wide, defensively, against you guys?
00:13 STEVE KERR, PREGAME G1 GSW-HOU: I thought they just played really hard and really put a lot of pressure on us and wasn’t our best game, obviously, so there’s not — I don’t think anything is sort of revealing about it. And so they changed a few of the matchups, but they just played really hard and they’re a good team, really good team, so a game that meant a lot to both teams and we were, I think, coming off three straight really big wins. And so, kind of the natural progression of an NBA season where you just have some nights where you don’t have it and the other team’s really good. That’s about it, for me.
01:06 Ime was talking about the fact he’s got all these guys that have never been here. They talk about experiences from Fred and others. You’ve got guys that have been here a ton. Do you do anything different year to year or is it just roll the ball out and let’s go again.
01:18 Well, we roll the balls out for 82 games ’cause there’s a game every other night. The beauty of the playoffs is you actually have a chance to plot and scheme and prepare and so I think that’s what makes the playoffs so fun, is you can really delve into things and our guys have, especially Steph, Draymond, Jimmy and Loon. I mean, those four guys have just a ton of playoff experience, so I think they really relish this this time of year and the process of getting ready for an opponent. It’s fun.
01:55 You guys saw Houston five times this year and it seemed like they threw a lot at you, strategically. How much more might they have up their sleeve that you’re preparing for?
02:07 Well, I think the most relevant game was the last one, just because they weren’t playing Steven Adams and Sengun together until the last part of the season, but the other one would be right after we got Jimmy, when we came here and played a pretty good game and that was our first look at playing them with Jimmy. And that changes things, obviously, so I think the last two games are the most relevant in terms of our preparation, but we looked at the first three as well and this is, again, this is the beauty of the playoffs. You actually have time to do all this stuff.
02:47 Steve, as you look at the layout of the schedule of this series, is there added emphasis for you guys, specifically, maybe in the first three games of a series, to expand minutes maybe for some of the older players knowing that later on it’s gonna be more compacted? Or do you have to protect against that even early, basically with more rest, do you try to really get those games by extending minutes at the risk of making — ?
03:10 Yeah, I think you take each game for what it is and we’ve had four days of rest since our Memphis game. We got two days in between this one and then Game 2, so yeah, we’ll go into tonight and do everything we can to win and it’s the playoffs, so generally your best players are gonna play extra minutes and I’m not worried about anything other than tonight. And then you sort of figure it out each day after that.
03:43 Steve, you mentioned a lot about your identity is Steph — when Steph’s out there with the free flowing Steph stuff and Jimmy’s out there for iso, obviously, we’ve seen that. What has it been like when they’re together? Is it Jimmy in the free-flowing or is it a little different when Steph and Jimmy are on the court together?
04:01 Well, I think the beauty of Jimmy’s iso’s is that he iso’s to create an advantage and then to pass and so whether it’s running an action for Steph or Jimmy, we’re still getting the ball movement and the flow. It’s just the way we’re starting the possession and so getting the ball to Jimmy is one of our biggest priorities. So we can run our stuff for Steph, but we have a counter now and that is just throw the ball to Jimmy and that’s an incredible luxury, but he’s not a guy who’s just gonna iso to score and that’s why it’s been such a great fit. He iso’s, he draws defenders, then the ball movement kicks in from there, so it’s really a very similar, style to how we’ve played for 10 years. It’s just the beginning action to generate the defensive rotation is different.
04:56 Draymond has been the heart and soul of your team for a very long time. Is there anything that you have to tell him different now, coming into this playoff series, knowing the history that he has with Dillon Brooks and with Steven Adams?
05:07 No, I mean, I think, again, get back to the preparation time that you have in the playoffs, it allows for different thoughts, different ideas during practice. It allows for more mental and emotional preparation for your team, good reminders to guys. I haven’t said anything to Draymond about that stuff. He’s a four-time champion. He knows a big part of this series is staying poised and playing through the physicality and matching the physicality, that Houston’s bringing it, and that’s something he does quite well.
05:52 The Rockets were the No. 1 rebounding team in the league this year. When you’re going up against the team that crashed the boards as much as the Rockets, does that change anything with your game plan as far as, for instance, do you have more people going to the boards instead of getting out on a fast break, or do you stick to what you’ve pretty much been doing all season long?
06:06 Well, it just, it just provides data to add to the film when you’re preparing and you just tell your team the series probably depends on the possession battle. We can’t allow them to have a bunch more possessions than us and expect to win the series, so that means it’s on us to take care of the ball and be relentless when it comes to rebounding and loose balls.
06:35 Do you only expect them to go to that double-big lineup when Steph’s not on the floor?
06:39 Yeah. Yeah, we would expect that.
06:47 Thank you.
06:48 Thank you.
NO TRANSCRIPT FOR IME UDOKA, DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS
00:00 You guys were as physical as you need to be. Did you prepare them for just “time to be as physical as possible”? And what did you think about just the physical nature of this team?
00:08 STEVE KERR, POSTGAME, G1 GSW-HOU: Did I prepare them for — ?
00:09 Did you say this is gonna be physical, so — ?
00:11 No, I didn’t mention it at all. I just, I totally forgot to tell the team that Houston is really physical and great on the glass, but thanks for the reminder and I’m gonna mention it before Game 2.
00:22 You should, you should. How do you rate your guys’ ability to be physical and to try to pry and lose that game?
00:29 Well, I mean, that’s obviously their advantage in the series is the size and athleticism and the offensive rebounding. They had 22 of them. We can be better, for sure, but they’re gonna get offensive rebounds in this series. They just are, so we have to keep playing. The possession doesn’t end until we get the ball, so we gotta keep fighting. I thought there were several loose balls that we didn’t grab with two hands with force, so we will, we’ll look at those, similar to the Clipper game last week, where the ball’s bouncing around. We’re trying to bounce it one time or maybe we get a rebound and we’re so anxious to get in transition, we throw the ball away. We can’t have those, if it’s a half court game. I really think our defense can get the job done in this series, so we can’t be turning it over. We can’t give up a million offensive boards, but they’re gonna get some for sure.
01:30 Gonna kind of ask you about that. I’d say the times you were most upset tonight seemed to be on the — ?
01:34 I’m sorry, I can’t hear you.
01:35 The times you were most upset tonight seemed to be on a few of those kind of silly or turnovers. I mean, is that kind of what you are hammering in this series?
01:42 Yeah.
01:42 (Inaudible) if it’s a clean game, you guys have the advantage?
01:46 Yeah, it is. They’re the best team in the league in the possession game. They got 11 more shots than we did tonight as a result of all those offensive boards. Now, we’re gonna turn them over, too, and our defense is excellent. I mean, we just held a hell of a team to 85 points on their home floor, so our defense is big time and we’re gonna count on that, but we’ve gotta recognize that we don’t need to take chances in this series. We need to be clean with our execution and transition. We don’t need to dribble through traffic. We don’t need to throw lob passes to try to get a dunk. We’ve gotta be rock solid and if we’re smart and tough, then I think we’re gonna be in good shape.
02:33 What’d you think about the way that Steph handled Houston’s defense? Missed his first three shots —
02:37 That was incredible.
02:37 What got him going, you think?
02:38 He was incredible and with that type of pressure on him from Thompson and others, he just made some amazing plays and, obviously, carried us offensively along with Jimmy.
02:56 Brandin, Jimmy and Draymond grabbed offensive rebounds in the last three minutes. What changed or was there something they did differently in those last three minutes or was it just effort?
03:05 No, just effort. BP had one where he snuck in and put it back on the glass and then Draymond ended up with it and laying it in. That was a huge play. We’ve been a really good offensive rebounding team all year, so we’ll get more. We only had six. I think that’s low for us. I think we’ll get more next game. Scott (Ostler)?
03:27 85 points to the No. 2 seed, you guys gave up. If you had to explain that to a complete idiot, how would you break that down, essentially, what you guys did?
03:36 Are you talking about yourself or — ?
03:38 Yes, I am.
03:42 Well, it is — they’re not a typical modern NBA team and I think in terms of spreading you out, playing fast, shooting a million threes, they’re kind of old school, in many ways. They’re in the image of their coach. Ime was, he was a grinder as a player. He was tough and physical and that’s what Houston is. And in this series you can see, they know where their advantage lies and it’s playing Adams a lot, sometimes playing him with Sengun, having everybody crash, so it felt like 1997 out there, to me, completely different NBA game than what we’re used to. And we’ve gotta be ready for that. This is what this series is gonna be.
04:39 Steve, excuse me. I know you felt like you’ve been playing playoff games for a while, but technically this was Jimmy’s first playoff game with the Warriors. Beyond his points, how much did his presence matter? I mean, 23-point lead is down to three or four, but it seemed like he, as you’ve described for the last two months, calmed everybody down.
04:58 He has that impact. Every game, he calms things down. He’s very confident. He’s very poised. He always believes we’re gonna win. Jimmy is, he’s one of the best players in the league and that’s what the best players in the league do. It’s not just about scoring or stats, it’s about settling the game down, having the presence and the nature to compete and win games like this.
05:28 They seemed to be trying to attack Steph a little bit with Jalen Green, some one-on-one matchups. Do you think Steph noticed that and did Steph enjoy it at all when he’s tested defensively in that way?
05:38 One-on-one? Steph one-on-one — ?
05:41 Steph a little bit with Jalen Green, it seemed like. How do you think he handles that?
05:44 Steph’s been dealing with this for his entire career. People try to pick on him. He’s a really good defender, but one of the reasons everyone tries to pick on him is to try to wear him down because he’s so good, obviously, offensively, but he’s not a weak defender at all, so we don’t mind when people go at him. He stays in front. He does a great job and I thought his defense was excellent tonight.
06:11 Steve, I know you touched on the defense, but do you feel with all the talk entering this series about Houston’s defense and what they were gonna do to you guys, that your defense felt like it had something to prove?
06:21 I mean, since we got Jimmy we’re — I don’t know what where we ranked — but Top Five, for sure, maybe even higher. We feel very confident about our defense. We got a lot of smart players Draymond anchors, so we feel really good about our ability to get stops against anybody.
06:44 Hi Coach, congrats for your victory No. 100 in the playoffs. Just in the very beginning, you could imagine to reach those numbers and also — I know that you’ve been focused in this game — but today was the last game of the first two days of playoffs. Just if you could watch something, you found something that surprised to you in the other games.
07:09 Everybody’s good these days. The league is so deep. There’s great teams across the board. I think a lot of it has to do with style of play, the skill of the players. Every team has 10 guys who can make threes, coaching is great. I just feel like the league is deeper than it’s maybe ever been, for me. You watch any one of these games today, yesterday, pretty impressive what you’re watching, but, yeah, I mean, we’re just happy to be here and have an opportunity to play meaningful basketball as Steph talks about. And nothing better than the playoffs. One game. We got lots, lots of good stuff ahead, hopefully, but we know that this is gonna be a very tough series.
08:08 And about your record?
08:10 I’m sorry?
08:10 Your record, 100 playoff wins.
08:12 Yeah, I mean that’s — I’m lucky to coach the guys that I do. I mean, players win games. It’s our job to try to help them along, a little bit here and there. And I’ve coached Steph Curry and Draymond Green for 11 years, so of course we’ve got a lot of playoff wins. Thank you.
00:00 You had a comment after that last Houston game about — that was when you were talking about how much Steph gets fouled. How did you see the way they defended him tonight and how did you see him kind of maybe counter some of the stuff they were doing?
00:11 JIMMY BUTLER, POSTGAME, G2 GSW-HOU: The same way, but I think we made it more of an effort, not turn the ball over for one, and then to set some incredible screens, maybe, 1, 2, 3 of them and get the man open.
00:27 We could see just from watching, though, looked pretty physical. How really physical was this game and what do you think you guys showed to stand up to it and dish out some physicality — ?
00:37 They’re an incredible team, definitely a physical one, but I would like to think that we don’t back down from any challenge anyways. And we met brute force with brute force, maybe a little bit of finesse in there as well, but I think we handled their pressure incredibly well, knowing that coming out the next game is probably gonna be two to three times even more physical.
00:58 Jimmy, this is your first official playoff game with the Warriors. What did it feel like playing with Steph and they showed on the replay, I think when he hit that ridiculous three, you were on the bench, it looked like you were just shaking your head?
01:11 Yeah. I mean, he’s done it time and time again. It’s not just in a playoff game, since I’ve been here. So just the shots that he takes and makes are absolutely incredible. Like, in — for him to know that that ball is going in and for everybody probably in the building, maybe even in the world, to know that that ball is going in, is incredible and I just, I’m a fan as everybody else is. And he just makes big shot after big shot and help us build on these leads.
01:43 Just to steal Game 1 on the road, what is your confidence level just in this series?
01:49 I mean, our confidence hasn’t wavered at all, I would like to think, since I’ve been here. At least we know that we are an extremely good team as long as we don’t turn the ball over and we get shots on goal. We had a job to do, come in here and win one and we got a job to do the — in what, two days or something like that, to win Game 2.
02:10 Steve probably went the craziest on the sideline a few times tonight after bad turnovers.
02:15 Yeah.
02:15 How much has he been hammering that? How much have you helped with him hammering that?
02:20 I mean, he hates it as much as I hate it, as well, but sometimes good things come out of it, come out of this organized chaos that one player, in particular, loves and thrives in. So you gotta take the crooked with the straight. Sometimes it’s not gonna be all good. It’s not gonna be all bad either, but we’re fine.
02:42 Steve just said he had to get used to being okay with the organized chaos, as you said. Are you starting to have to be okay with — ?
02:49 Oh, I’m great in the organized chaos ’cause I know when I can see it coming, let’s get back, just in case. But, I mean, he’s incredible and out of that organized chaos, I think he gets an incredible shot or he makes an incredible shot for himself or he gets it for somebody else.
03:09 Brandin was a plus-17. Moses had two big shots down the stretch. What can that do for a young player’s confidence in the playoffs like this? To me, not much ’cause they already got all the confidence in the world. They’ve been playing at a high level, ever since I’ve been here. I’m pretty sure they’ve been playing at a high level before I got here. They know that they belong on the biggest stage when the lights are the brightest. They show up, they show out, and I know they’re gonna be even better next game.
03:36 Hi Jimmy, you was born and you grew up here in the Houston area. Just curious if it’s something special to play here? I don’t know if when you were a kid you came for games also, or not?
03:49 No, we couldn’t afford games whenever I was a kid, but it’s always special to play here in front of high school friends and people that I know. A couple of them I got to see while I’ve been here. I’ll see plenty more people in the next two to three days, but this is a home away from home for me. Yes, I am from the Tomball area, which is one of these directions and I’m grateful to be able to play against Rockets.
04:15 Jimmy, you mentioned the organized chaos. How much do you view your role as to kind of balance that chaos? And it seemed like as they were cutting into your lead, you guys made a couple turnovers, they made a point of throwing you the ball and clearing the court.
04:27 Yeah, that is one of my many roles here is to get the rebound and then slow the game down or whenever need be, swinging the ball, slow the game down and make sure everybody gets in their spots. And I think everybody’s cool with that. I love the organized chaos. I’m not gonna lie to you because nobody knows what to expect, not even myself, not even Coach. The only person that knows what’s coming out of the organized chaos, is the person that’s creating it.
04:57 But do you feel like you need to change the pace to that chaos sometimes?
05:01 Nah. We living with the — we living or dying with that organized chaos.
05:06 Jimmy, for a lot of those Rockets players, it was their first time, their first playoff experience. When they got out to that early lead, were you all able to just use your experience as far as being in the playoffs to come back, come back against them? And could you tell that some of them had that first game jitter?
05:23 No, I couldn’t tell, but basketball is a game of runs. They’re gonna go on a run and then we went on a run and then they went on a run. It’s all about staying poised, trusting what you’ve been doing over the course of the year, knowing everybody’s tendencies, but they’ve been studying us like we’ve been studying them, so we had a feeling we would be okay.
05:45 You guys held the Rockets to 85 points. What did you see from Draymond going up against Adams and going up against Sengun, guys who were bigger than him and he was still able to hold his own?
05:53 I mean, I’ve seen that from Draymond his entire career, for sure since I’ve been on the Golden State Warriors, and he’s key to the defensive side of what we’re doing, but he’s also key on the other side of the ball, too, ’cause he’s so smart in getting people the ball where they need the ball, getting in the right place every single time. And he has the hardest job. He gotta go down there and battle with the trees and we let him down 22 times tonight, of the guards and the not-so-tall individuals getting there, cleaning up the rebounds.
06:28 Why are those guys so hard to keep off the boards, offensive boards?
06:33 I don’t know. They’re just some oversized human beings that are overly athletic, but we’ll go back to the drawing boards, probably do some box out drills and come back and not give up 22 offensive rebounds.
06:48 Jimmy, as you mentioned, I mean, they are putting out some huge lineups, double-centers, Amen Thompson at point guard, Jabari at small — whatever. They’re big, big. What’s it like to tussle with that? You guys are smaller at almost at every position. What is that like physically? What’s that like mentally?
07:03 Well, I wouldn’t say that we’re smaller. We’re just not as tall, but we got hella fight and you gotta live with that. It is frustrating to not get the ball, but we just gotta stay in the fight, box out, have some technique and stop patting the ball like I be doing and just go grab it with two hands and Buddy, stop trying to dribble the ball. I hate that.
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07:33 Coach, when Steph is hitting those type of shots that he was hitting tonight, how much does that change your defensive approach?
07:40 IME UDOKA, POSTGAME, G2 GSW-HOU: I mean, we guarded some things well. I think he hit some, obviously, some end-of-shot-clock shots that we guarded decent, but we did have some slippage in our connectivity to him. And so giving him that space, especially late in the shot clock, he dips you under the three-point line, gets those off. We gotta know shot clock, game time, score situation and lock in and make him a driver there. So yeah, he hit some tough ones. He does that at times, but he got loose and felt like he hit some big shots to stem the tide for them.
00:00 Draymond, was there any moment or example in the game where they were kind of whittling back the lead and having Jimmy out there sort of stabilized the ship? I mean, you’ve never played in a playoff game with him, I know it’s felt like it, but this was the first one.
00:18 DRAYMOND GREEN, POSTGAME G1 GSW-HOU: Nah, I think there were several moments where they cut the lead to three. One time they cut it to seven and with a chance to push it over, push it further down, but did a great job in getting Jimmy the ball. It always just settles the offense down. Even that last one he hit over Sengun, that’s what we want. And I think we gotta do an even better job of making sure we getting him the ball. But, overall, man, he’s such a huge calming force for us, just calm everything down, get us to our spots, and get us a good look.
00:53 I know you guys have won some tough games, obviously, in the past, but you’re known for threes threes and Steph and other thing. How satisfying is it to win a game that’s basically on toughness? It’s basically on just keeping them as much as you can off the glass as you did tonight.
01:07 It was very satisfying to win any role game, any playoff game in general, but definitely a role playoff win. I think we can play a lot better, that’s the encouraging part about it. I don’t think we played very well at all, but still gotta find a way to win and we did that with our defense, held them to 85 points. So playoffs, it don’t matter how it looks, you just gotta find a way and then get better and come back improved team the next game.
01:38 Steve said it felt like 1997 out there with their style of play and how different it is from kind of the modernized space-and-pace type game. How is it facing them and, I mean, how do you feel coming out of a game like that where you gave up 22 offensive rebounds, but they scored 85 points?
01:58 I said in the post game interview, at times their best offense is the offensive rebound. They are elite at that and so it’s something that we expected. I thought we did a decent job in the first half. We held them to seven, but then second half it was way outta control, so we gotta do a better job there, but that is their style of play. They rough you up. They grab, they hold, they crash the boards. It’s very extremely physical team, you gotta give ’em credit. They do a great job of it, so we just gotta make sure we’re prepared for that coming into every game, but that’s who they are and it is what it is. Every team’s got an M.O. that’s theirs. You gotta do what you gotta do to try to beat it.
02:39 If you had to explain what you guys did tonight to hold them to 85, 50 words or less or whatever, what would you say and also what did Stackhouse say to you that one time on the sidelines?
02:50 I think overall we just flew around. We didn’t give up any easy looks. We followed our defensive game plan, just make them take tough shots and be a lot better off, if we can get some rebounds. You hold ’em to 39% shooting, 34 of those baskets, I mean, they had 34 baskets, what, 10 of ’em was on second-chance points on second opportunities. So we gotta do a better job there, but overall, I think we just did a good job of following the game plan, flying around, not giving up easy buckets and then just reacting to their actions.
03:32 Stackhouse?
03:33 Stackhouse, he just told me, keep doing what I’m doing, I was doing. He said, “You’re doing a great job.” We’re not worried about what’s going on out there, so don’t get so caught up in your emotions during that time. Stay locked in and so he was great for me.
03:50 Draymond, there was a lot of talk entering the series about how good defensively they were and how they were — what they were gonna do to Steph and all the defenders. As a defensive guy, did you guys feel like you guys wanted to show that you guys can play some defense, too? Was that on your minds at all?
04:04 No, we’re not trying to necessarily show that, “Oh man, y’all talking about their defense, but what about ours?” We just want to win the game and we understand that in order to win, you gotta defend at a high level. They’re the No. 2 seed because they defend at a very high level and you gotta get ’em their credit. Amen is an incredible defender, Dillon’s an incredible defender, Tari Eason’s an incredible defender, so you have to get those guys their credit. Fred is — Fred’s a log. Like, you — it is very hard to move him. He’s kind of very low to the ground, strong as hell, so they — and they play to that advantage, but overall, I mean, Steph Curry, he usually finds a way.
04:49 When it comes to all the talk about how they guard Steph, do you think that he blocks the noise out or if he feeds off of it?
04:58 He’s a true pro. I’m sure you hear today’s day and age, it’s impossible to not hear anything. You open your phone up, even if you’re not looking at something, somebody’s gonna send you a DM or somebody’s gonna send you a message of something off Instagram. That’s just the nature of the world we live in, so I think it’s impossible for anybody to not hear anything. But like I said, at the end of the day, we’re not coming out here trying to prove a point. We’ve been at this for a very long time to try to prove a point because someone said X is pointless. We’re trying to win basketball games and in order for us to win basketball games, it requires Steph Curry to be great and he was just that.
05:39 All week we heard you guys talk about the keys, which were limiting turnovers, to keep them in the half court and doing what you can to prevent them from getting offensive rebounds. The way this game played out, how close was that to what you expected?
05:55 Extremely close to what we expected. They’re getting passing lanes, they pressure the ball, try to speed you up, and they crashed the glass. I thought there were — listen, they’re going to get some offensive rebounds. This is not a team we’re probably gonna hold to seven offensive rebounds for a game. It’s hard to do, but in saying that, I thought there were some ones that we can get and the ones that we can for sure get our hand on, we gotta come up with those balls. So I think, Jesus Christ, it’s crazy. Oh my God. Wow. But we’ll watch the film, see where we can be better at it. But overall, it’s the fight in us and we fought to win the game, but we can clean up some of that stuff and I think we will.
06:39 What was that reaction to there?
06:42 No, that reaction was to my words.
06:46 Oh, sorry. Yeah, sorry. Sorry about that. Seemed like they were trying to attack Steph a little bit, pick-and-roll situations offensively. How do you feel like Steph holds up defensively and do you think he likes that kind of challenge?
07:01 Yeah, I’ve been here for 13 years. They’ve been at that for 13 years. I think I’ll be around another three. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, something, whatever it is. I think it’ll go on then, too, so it is what it is. Steph’s a competitor. He know they’re gonna do that. Take the match up, do the best you can, and everybody else fill in as you may.
07:26 Draymond, as you said earlier, it’s clear how much Jimmy calms this team on offense. What has he meant? Why has he made such an impact defensively? You guys are the No. 1-rated defense in the league since he joined.
07:37 Well, he just allows us to match up differently at times. He allows us to take advantage of different things that offenses could be doing because he’s so versatile. You can throw him on bigs at times, you can throw him on point guards, you can kind of move him all over the floor, so when you think about an offensive team, an offensive team that can move spots around and get different people in different situations, usually a great offensive team, you add that to the defensive side of the ball where you can move guys around and switch positions, and that it lifts our defense. So he’s been great on that side of the ball, as well. He’s just been great, overall. That’s why he Jimmy Butler, though.
00:00 What did you feel like you all did to kind of neutralize Jalen Green? And Steve Kerr talked about it, that people like to try you, but you, of course, you hold your own and you held your own today. What did you all do to slow him down, you feel like?
00:17 STEPH CURRY, POSTGAME, G1 GSW-HOU: I mean, you just try to make it tough on everybody, point-of-attack defense, trying to fly around, contest shots, and just stay solid on that end of the floor. Our biggest area of improvement, obviously, is getting offensive rebounds ’cause we felt like we were swarming the ball, flying around, making second, third efforts and we just gave up a little bit too many. Had 22 offensive rebounds, so for us to win a game doing that is great. Jalen’s probably gonna play better in the next game, but you just gotta continue to be relentless and just play with energy, send bodies, and it takes all five guys who are out there on the floor.
01:08 Steph, you’ve played in 150-something playoff games. That’s your first one with Jimmy Butler as your teammate. How different did that feel and how much did that matter in the fourth quarter as your big lead is down to three or four?
01:23 Just a continuation of what it’s been like, since he’s been on our team from February. He has a knack for big moments, even if it’s not him finishing the play. He hit a big shot at the elbow, but just a guy that is composed with the ball, his poise out there, his presence and if they’re gonna swarm and try to take me out of plays — and in the half court, at times — you have a guy that can create a lot of looks and defensively, as well. He plays way bigger than his size, so just, it’s obviously a great addition and it has been since February and we want to continue that.
02:06 I think you made eight straight after the 0-for-3 start. Just what opened up offensively for you guys as a team?
02:14 I think you just gotta feel — we’ve been practicing for a couple days and it’s kind of hard to simulate that playoff intensity and energy and speed and then their physicality, athleticism, so the first three threes I had, I liked them all. Just a little rushed and then started to get to the basket a little bit, taking their pressure and taking what was there. Obviously, I made some tough ones from outside, but you don’t dwell on rough starts. You just stick with it and hope the game turns.
02:45 Did you, in the last few days, did you rewatch your previous game against them at all?
02:52 I watched like three out of the five games, including the last one, yeah.
02:55 Did you rewatch it? Did you learn some counters that — you mentioned it, but it did seem like tonight, you knew getting to the rim would probably loosen it up.
03:08 I just knew, one, we were a little bit fresher than we were that game and, even as bad as we felt like we played that game, it was still like a one-or two-possession game at one point in the fourth, so that gave you a lot of confidence. If we could get off to a better start, if I could get going a little earlier, we’d be able to make our presence felt and that’s kind of how it played out. I didn’t — the first three shots were all threes, so it was kind of counterintuitive to how I saw that game and what adjustments I was making, but then once I got to the lane a little bit, things started to open up.
03:49 Steph, you’ve had a lot of playoff triumphs here, but it’s been quite a while. Did having another big game here against the Rockets in the playoffs feel like old times?
03:58 I mean, we’re familiar with this building, but there’s not really much to kind of — there’s nothing really relevant to this series other than you’re used to the building and the energy here. They’re a different team. We’re a different team. And just the idea of what it was gonna take to beat this particular team tonight was just a grind-it-out type of performance that we had and thankfully we got it done so. I think overall, me, Draymond, Loon, Jimmy in Miami and other places like that, playoff composure and experience in general allows you to kind of withstand the runs a little bit and not get flustered, so we rely on that more than any of the history here.
04:49 Steph, speaking of when you’re talking about the playoff composure and your playoff experience was mentioned earlier, could you tell that some of these guys who were in the playoffs for their first time, could you tell that they had some first-game jitters?
05:01 Nah, you have to ask them. I assume everybody’s gonna play their best game when they come out ’cause the playoffs, you gotta be ready for everything. And then you reset and you gotta do it again on Wednesday.
05:14 I saw you chatting with CJ Stroud postgame. Can you share what you guys discussed?
05:21 Nah, I was just hyping him up ’cause he’s been unbelievable, had an unbelievable start to his career. I saw him in LA before the Draft and wished him luck. The Panthers had a high pick. We got Bryce Young and CJ’s here, so I love watching those two guys and their journey. So just chopping it up like two athletes do.
05:47 So Jimmy just hit a big jumper in the crunch time. So when you see his play, what was your reaction? What makes him so tough in those moment?
05:59 He lives for these opportunities. He’s a gamer. As the stakes rise, his game elevates right there with it, so nothing he does surprises me. It is just all in the spirit of trying to get a win and doing things that seem special in the service, which they really are, but he makes look pretty regular, so it was pretty awesome to have that presence and make that big play. But he did that all game and has been doing it since he’s been here.
06:31 Hi, Steph. I wanna ask you about a specific moment of the game. First quarter, Dillon was guarding you. He pushed you, I think Green did as well. Just before a timeout, I saw you walking to the refs to talk with them. Do you consider that the refs can be a key part of this series because of the physicality that they used to play?
06:53 Nah, you just want consistency on both sides and tonight was pretty solid, I think. And if you’re really allowing the refs to be a talking point or a distraction or something that you’re relying on, you’re kind of thinking about the game wrong. So, I mean, you talk to ’em, you have conversations, you’re trying to figure out how they are gonna call the game and adjust to it and that’s just basketball.
07:22 Steph, what was it about the way that you guys defended their guards, particularly they didn’t have a good shooting tonight. What was it in terms of strategy or execution-wise, defensively against their guards that was effective for y’all tonight?
07:35 I mean, Moses and BP started out on them. GP gets a lot of run at some of their guards and you could have the same game plan. They could shoot the ball better. It’s just trying to be, again, relentless and sound defensively where you’re not having breakdowns. They got a lot of open looks, which I’m sure they probably felt like they should have made. A lot of ’em came off offensive rebounds, so our point-of-attack was great. You can’t assume that they’re gonna miss open looks if you’re giving ’em second, third, fourth opportunities and that’s gonna be a big challenge for us if we wanna win again on Wednesday, so expect them to to play better, but you gotta make it as difficult as possible.
08:22 (Inaudible) Steph, congrats on the win. What would you say you’d have to work on, not just you, but the team in general, work on for the next couple of days to get ready for the game on Wednesday?
08:34 Just look at when they made their runs, what went wrong. I think, again, the offensive rebounds were a big part of it. We got sped up on a couple possessions and quick turnovers. We’ve had this pattern for a while when we played against them throughout the regular season. If we get up to a lead or something, they always kind of crank up thew intensity, the ball pressure. They kind of use their athleticism, so we gotta figure out certain counters when we get into those parts of the game, but yeah, the film is always right in the sense of it’ll show you what you need to work on. So we’ll look at that over the next 48.
00:00 Is this a series where you might think about making some adjustment in between, even after going up one?
00:04 STEVE KERR, PRACTICE, DAY BEFORE G2-GSW-HOU: Oh, yeah. I mean, you always — every series, every game, you make tweaks. I mean, now, when you talk about adjustments, massive adjustments, that usually comes after a loss or something alarming and so I think there will be tweaks, for sure, but we generally feel pretty good about our game plan, about how we’re playing, but we do have some things to clean up for sure.
00:34 It feels notable, when they went two centers, they didn’t obviously get a ton of rebounds, but they didn’t really, they were minus-five, I think, with the two centers. Did you feel like you guys did fine against that alignment?
00:44 Yeah, we did okay, I mean, I thought the theme of the game was that our defense was really good. They missed some shots that they’ll probably make tomorrow. Some of those made shots, ironically, will offset the offensive boards. I mean, there were so many missed shots and long shots, long rebounds, so we know they’re gonna rebound. They’re gonna get some offensive boards. We’ve gotta do a better job in that area, but all in all, it’s about being poised, executing, and keeping them from the easy stuff, free throws, transition, layups, all that stuff.
01:27 Did you guys have a boxing out clinic during practice and stuff?
01:31 No. No, no. It really wasn’t about boxing out. I thought most of the game, we were battling, guys were hitting bodies. I thought there were a few that we will point out that we didn’t grab two hands on. Jimmy talked about it after the game the other night, he tried to tip the ball a couple times to a teammate instead of grabbing it. He had two hands on one where the ball richocheted into the basket, so we will be better on the glass tomorrow for sure, but it’s definitely something we have to be vigilant about throughout the series.
02:12 Steve, you played Quinten and Loon together for the first time. How’d you like the combination of them together?
02:17 Yeah, I mean, they’ve never played together, but playoffs sometimes dictate maybe a minute or two here and we obviously did it, to combat their two bigs. And we like it ’cause Loon’s our best rebounder and Quinten’s one of our best shooters, so we were able to space the floor against ’em with those two big guys and present a little bit more size, actually the most size we possibly can.
02:40 Yeah, I was gonna say, does Quentin’s three-point ability make it more comfortable using two bigs than typically you do?
02:46 Yeah, yeah. I mean, if we’re not gonna do combinations that don’t make sense, that combination actually makes sense. It’s just that we never got around to it in the regular season for a good reason. I mean, we never had to, so it’s not something we’re gonna do for 10, 12 minutes. It would be a minute or two, but we feel fine about that.
03:09 Could the rebounding concerns prompt any tweak in rotation in terms of maybe Gui or Jonathan, guys who are good rebounders?
03:15 Yeah. Gui, I thought Gui came in and I thought where I made a mistake, honestly — we were rolling in that third quarter and I kept Jimmy out there because we were rolling and I thought I played him too much in the second half, so I definitely need to look at the rotations and make sure that we’re getting guys the rest they need, making sure we’re bringing in fresh bodies, like you’re saying, and be able to really play with a lot of intensity.
03:54 What minute total do you want Jimmy?
03:57 Well, I think Jimmy’s fine playing 40, 42 minutes, like, he’s different. There’s a handful of guys in this league who can play 42 minutes and not really affect him, so I think Jimmy’s fine playing 40, 42 minutes.
04:12 Steph at 40 and the entire fourth quarter —
04:15 That’s a little much, a little much. But that’s what I’m talking about. I think by short-cutting the rotation in the third quarter — and then they started going on that run — it forced my hand to start Steph in the fourth. And I think if I had handled the rotation a little better, mid-third, I think, we would’ve been able to give Steph a little more.
04:40 You had to take Jimmy out to start —
04:42 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.
04:44 We’ve heard the term “getting greedy” for a team that takes a Game 1. How tough is that and what type of fight do you expect of the Rockets team coming in?
04:51 Oh, there’s gonna be a fight. We know that. I mean, hopefully not literally, but figuratively, they’re a tough, physical, defensive-minded team, great team. They’re bringing it and we’ve been through this for many years. This will be the most force that we will face in this series, right from the beginning, because we know that they need to win this game.
05:21 What’d you think of the way they defended Steph and how he — I mean, it seemed like he was getting to the rim on back cuts a lot.
05:26 Seemed like he was what?
05:27 Getting to the rim on kind of like back cutting some of their cross-switching —
05:29 Yeah, yeah. Well, we talk about that. You can’t fight pressure. You have to go away from pressure. It’s an old Tex Winter line. If people are gonna be all over you, you have to make back cuts. Not just Steph, everybody, just to loosen up the pressure and then we need to get the ball swung and I thought our spacing in the third quarter broke down. And that was something that we need to do better because if you have spacing, then that opens up those back cuts to loosen up the pressure.
06:02 When they’re attacking the offensive glass like that, is the counter to get in transition the other way, to make them pay for it? Or is it just, we gotta grab the ball?
06:11 Yeah, I mean, if they’re gonna crash five and we can rebound, they’re very vulnerable in transition and I think we outscored them 16-4 or something in transition, so it’s a big, big deal. Like, can we get the ball — but we also can’t be in a hurry. The old John Wooden line: “be quick, don’t hurry,” it really applies, ’cause we had a couple of plays where we got a rebound and we made a careless pass or a quick pass that was hurried and rushed and that became a turnover, so you just have to be poised, but we wanna run. I mean, I think we’re fine in the half court, but we want to run and get easy baskets if we can.
06:52 What is the — like you just said, you held them to four fast break points last game. What was kind of the key to keeping them out of the open court?
06:59 11 live — or 11 turnovers, three shot clock violations. Those are almost not even turnovers, when you’re talking about trying to keep them from scoring easy buckets, so 11 is a great number against a great defensive team. So that’s why this whole series really to me is about the possession game. They’re gonna attack the glass, but if we can win the turnover battle, it gives us a good chance.
07:29 On a separate note, I was told that Kelvin Sampson dropped by they other day.
07:32 I’m sorry?
07:33 On a separate note, I was told Kelvin Sampson from the Cougars dropped by the other day. What’s your relationship with him and just how impressive has he done here at U. of H.?
07:41 Well, Kelvin was the coach at Washington State when I was playing at Arizona. He was 31 years old and a young coach and so I’ve met him several times over the years. We’ve practiced at University of Houston many times over the years and so we’ve run into each other, a lot of mutual respect. I just am so impressed with the culture he’s built at Houston. That team has an identity. They’ve had so much success and Coach Sampson told me that Lute Olson was one of his mentors that he learned about culture and building an identity from Coach Olson and a few other coaches. And so we had that discussion about our old Pac-10 days and that was fun, but yeah, huge respect for coming.
08:33 You mentioned Jimmy sort of built for playing 40. Do you know after that is he okay today? At practice he looked strong as ever?
08:39 Yeah. Just freak of nature.
08:42 Yeah.
08:42 You know?
00:00 How do you sort of view the rebound disparity? I mean, obviously, you guys won, so it wasn’t something you couldn’t overcome, but it’s obviously an issue to get out rebounded as much as you did.
00:11 KEVON LOONEY, PRACTICE, DAY BEFORE G2-GSW-HOU: Yeah, for sure. We gotta be better. I think we’ve been a pretty great rebound team all season, so I think they kind of beat us all out of the 50-50 balls. So they got a lot of athletic guys, a lot of big guys. They missed a lot of shots, too, so we just gotta be better at winning the small battles. It might be a series where they might out rebound us, but we gotta make sure we make it a little bit more closer. They can’t have 22 — whatever they had — offensive rebounds like they did last game, but–
00:40 26.
00:40 Yeah, so I think we gotta do a better job. I think we’re a really great offensive rebounding team. If we can offensive rebounds as well and even out the possessions, that’d be good too.
00:49 You and Quinten played together for the first time together, ever, last game. How’d you feel comfort-wise being on the floor with him?
00:55 I felt good. My job out there doesn’t change when he’s out there. He spaces the floor. He draws attention because he’s a great shooter, so I don’t know if we’re gonna go back to it, but we play together in practice all the time. So it was funny it got done in a real game.
01:10 Is it weird, though, that someone’s taller than you?
01:12 Nah. Nah, it is not. It’s a — when I first came into the league, I actually played with a lot of — I played the forward next to JaVale sometimes and next to DeMarcus. Sometimes that’s been fun, so it’s been a long time. So it was fun to get out there. Another big makes my job easier, actually.
01:26 Are you more the 5 then when he’s on the floor and he’s more than 4 or how does that work, I guess?
01:30 I’m more the 5, I think, when Quentin’s out there, for the most part. Even when he’s out there with Draymond, he kind of plays more of the 4 just because he shoots the ball so well and he spaces the floor so well, so I think neither one of our jobs changed that much when we were out there together.
01:41 Who’s the toughest guy in the Rockets?
01:43 Toughest guy?
01:45 Yeah.
01:45 I don’t know. They got a — I don’t know. They got some tough guys out there, so I don’t know.
01:51 Have you ever seen anybody with better hands than Adams, though? I mean, Jimmy’s got amazing hands and it seemed like a couple times Adams just ripped the ball away like nobody else could get.
02:01 Adams is a strong guy. He has great hands. Having great hands kind of goes to a lot of different things, so I’ll probably say Steph has the best hands. He can catch, shoot, all the different things like that, but strength-wise, yes. Steven has been one of the strongest guys in the league and he been having that reputation since I’ve been — since I came to the league, so he’s somebody that you gotta prepare for and be prepared physically for.
02:25 When it comes to slowing down Jalen Green, how important is Steph’s ability to hold up just on an island?
02:32 It’s important for that, but he’s one of our — he’s our best scorer, so it’s gonna take a group effort and not just putting one guy on him or say you gotta take that match up, but we are all there to help. Steph has shown that he’s a proven defender. He used to guys trying to iso him, so he’s done did it against, a lot of players, a lot of Hall-of-Famers. He always usually stands up, so we have the ultimate confidence in Steph that he can get a stop when we need it and he can take on any defensive matchup.
03:00 Obviously, Rockets being in a 1-0 hole, it would seem like they’re gonna come out with even more force or urgency or desperation, whatever word you wanna use.
03:09 Yeah.
03:09 How do you expect — what do you expect from them tomorrow, given the situation, given they’re down 1-0 at home and falling behind 2-0 at home will pretty much be it?
03:19 We expect them to come out with even more force, play even harder. We expect the crowd to be even louder. Like you said — he said, “Who was the toughest guy?” They have a lot of tough guys, so we expect them to come and try to punch us in the mouth, try to push us around, but we gotta meet their force to meet their intensity. I feel like we’re capable of it. Should be a great game and we’re excited for the next one.
03:39 How often do you wear the Klay shoes? I know you had them for Easter, too.
03:42 I wear them all the time, all season. That’s my guy. I’m with Anta. He the one that kind of got me the deal and kind of been one of my OGs in the league, so I always try to support.
03:52 So playoffs is physical games. How much do you enjoying the playoffs?
03:57 I love it. That’s — I love the — that’s what I kinda hang my hat on, is being the physical guy, being a rebounder, bringing my my hard hat to the games, and this is the time of year, this is where they kinda let you play a little bit more and be a little bit more physical, so it’s a lot of fun out there.
—
04:10 What are some ways you’re anticipating them adjusting after Game 1?
04:17 BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: I think they’ll just be a little bit more physical. They’ll play more desperate. They know they gotta win one before we go back home. There’ll be little adjustments that they make, but I think they’ll try to figure things out offensively for themselves, what actions they like, so it’ll be cool to see one to two adjustments, both sides.
04:35 Steve compared — on Sunday, he compared that game to 1997 basketball. Do you like that style of play, physical, grind-it-out type of play?
04:43 Oh, yeah. I like to be physical. It kind of fits our play, but I think we can play any way. We can play the modern game, we can play, like he said, 1997, but I think it fits us either way.
04:58 Do you go back and watch 1997, six years away from your birth year?
05:01 Yeah, nah, I don’t watch nothing before I was born.
05:06 First playoff game feel any different for you?
05:08 Nah. All the games since April 1st and Memphis have kind of felt the same, so just another test. The crowd is more into it, but that’s pretty much it.
05:16 You obviously always include rebounding as part of your sort of mindset, but I know you had eight the other night. Given the disparity, how much more is that even more of a priority for you, given the circumstances?
05:29 Yeah, I think so. Obviously, my assignment’s Van Vleet, he doesn’t crash as much, so as much as I can help Draymond, Jimmy, when they got Adams and Sengun in there and just try to get as many as I can and help them out.
05:43 Speaking of Jimmy, I know Playoff Jimmy takes it to another level, right? Did you see it in Game 1 or do you feel like he’s been doing that since he’s gotten to your team?
05:50 I think he’s been doing it since he’s got to our team. He chooses, picks and chooses games where he wants to score where he wants to pass and he’s very capable of doing both at a high level, so whatever Jimmy we get, I think guys like me and Moses know how to play off that really well and so, he’s one of those players that’s just gonna do whatever it takes to win.
06:10 Defensively, I feel like you were able to force a lot of turnovers for them. You’d force them into spots that they didn’t necessarily wanna be in taking shots. How do you feel, defensively as a team, you guys did in Game 1 to kinda get them off their rhythm?
06:23 I mean, 85 points and giving up 22 offensive rebounds, yeah, you don’t see that in NBA, so I think our first-shot defense was really good and even on some of the possessions where they got second and third chances, we were able to scramble around and do our thing, but I think it starts with Moses and me with Van Vleet and Green and just forcing them into shots that they don’t like necessarily ’cause everybody else kind of feeds off their their play-making and their ability to score the ball.
06:50 Is it possible for them to play more physical than they did in Game 1, if you’re anticipating that’s how they can play?
06:57 More physical, I don’t think so. I think the refs were allowing things to go both sides, which is nice, so I don’t think — I think they’ll grab and hold like usual, but the physicality, I don’t think there’s anything different Game 2.
07:11 Did you watch any of Clippers-Nuggets?
07:13 Kawhi was crazy last night.
07:15 Well, not only that, but to your point about they seemed like they were letting both teams grab and hold and do all that.
07:20 Yeah, I think watching that game and seeing teams being up to do that and watching New York, Detroit and the little things are getting called fouls, it’s kind of crazy disparity, but I’m all for the playoff hard-nosed grabbing. The best team gonna win.
07:35 The way they hug Steph, we see the videos of just him running and like three guys are hugging him, not allowing him to run, do other teams do that with him or does this team stand out as far as how they do that?
07:47 I think this team just stands out a little bit more because they have a bunch of guys that do it. You saw when Amen Thompson came out, they either put Brooks or Tari Eason on him and they’re grabbing and holding him. Obviously, when we get Jalen Green switched on him, he’s so — he doesn’t want Steph to touch the ball, so he can do anything he can. I think most teams just have one or two guys that do it and so it’s not as evident, but with this team, it’s everybody that has a chance to guard him is playing like that. And that’s how their coach played. Ime, he played, he was physical guy, tough hardnosed guy and so he’s preaching toughness to them and you can see it.
08:18 Is there anything more you guys can do to help free up Steph a little bit more?
08:22 Yeah, there is things. I think a lot of what we did offensively, especially in that stretch, 12-minute stretch where we scored only 10 points, I think we were just super-heavy on hunting a matchup instead of just kind of flowing into the offense, and then the matchup will kind of come out the wash. And so I think 36 out of the 48 minutes we did that, but in that little stretch where we couldn’t score, we were just trying to hunt out matchups and it’s easy for them to kind of load their defense when plays stops and we trying to hunt it up.
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