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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND TWO: GRIZZLIES v WARRIORS


May 3, 2015


David Joerger


OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Game One

Warriors – 101
Grizzlies - 86


DAVID JOERGER:  Good game.  I thought our defense was pretty good, although they were shooting a high percentage.  They got too many easy baskets.  I thought our offense really struggled tonight and put our defense in a bad way.  You know, we missed, I think, eight lay‑ups throughout the course of the game.  We had 16 turnovers.  We've done a really good job of keeping our turnovers down in the last series, and you just can't keep giving those guys shots at you, and I thought that's what happened.
The second half they got too many loose balls, offensive rebounds, second chances, kick‑outs and getting extra looks.  Draymond came out and hit three of his first four threes, which was a good start for them, got them going, but we've just got to keep doing what we do and we've got to get a third scorer, especially from the perimeter to try to find a way to get Courtney Lee free to get some more looks.

Q.  What does Mike Conley give you that you didn't have today?
DAVID JOERGER:  He's a real pick‑and‑roll threat, he's a threat in transition to go end to end.  He also shoots a high percentage from three, especially as a catch‑and‑shoot guy.  They had a lot of guys in the lane.  They're very athletic, they are very long across at the wings, so it was very jammed up there for Marc.  I think he had eight shot attempts coming down the stretch.  He got a couple more, ended up with 10.  He did a good job of getting to the foul line, but there's a lot of people in there.  We're going to have to keep cutting, we're going to have to knock down some shots from the perimeter.

Q.  Can you guard Curry effectively without Conley?
DAVID JOERGER:  It's pretty tough, but a lot of our guys were very engaged and tried to make it tough on him.  I thought he made some tough shots.  Makes tough shots, then he hit a couple on just about everybody, hit one on Courtney, hit a couple on Nick, hit one on Jeff Green where Jeff, I thought, blocked the shot from behind.  He makes tough shots and you've got to keep your head up and keep pushing forward.

Q.  How key was the stretch when both their starting bigs were out with foul trouble and you weren't able to push really far back into the game with Zach or Gasol?
DAVID JOERGER:  Well, we struggled to start the first six minutes again of the second quarter, and I've got to do a better job of making sure that Marc and Zach are on the floor at all times.  I didn't have either one of our two guys on there, I know that's not the stretch you're talking about, but we settled for a lot of jump shots tonight.  We shot a lot of jump shots off the dribble.  We did not create shots for each other except for our bigs.  Our bigs did a nice job of hitting cutters and kicking out when they had the opportunity.  Just kind of kept pushing us back in a hole.  We've got to move the basketball and screen a lot harder and then get it inside into a deeper spot when we can.

Q.  What was the process like of Mike?  He said he met with you before the game and you said you don't think he should go tonight and he agreed.  Was that essentially it?  What was the assessment like?
DAVID JOERGER:  Yeah, I'm no doctor, and he wasn't comfortable playing, and I wasn't comfortable saying you should play.  I know your head is throbbing like the top of a thermometer that gets too hot.  But I think it was the right decision for him.

Q.  Looks like you had a stretch there where you didn't play a point guard, and how sustained was it using little lineups?
DAVID JOERGER:  It was really good.  The numbers may not bear it out because we haven't done it a lot.  We just did it the last game.  Gives us an opportunity to maybe give them some different looks defensively on Curry and Thompson, and it gives them‑‑ they're playing two rovers on defense.  They're playing three guys man‑to‑man and two guys are roving, so to try to make those guys play on us.  Again, I thought we just over‑dribbled the basketball, whether we split and hit at the elbows or get it in the post, we've got to get the ball moving from side to side which they do a great job of.  A lot of stuff I'm talking about, you've got to give them credit on.  They got the loose balls, they used their athleticism.  They turned us over.  They had high hands, pocket passes and second passes the way they got deflections, and give them credit.  They're a good defensive team, too.

Q.  How consciously were you guys trying to go down low and post‑up when Green had either one of those guys, sending them down when Gasol is out there?
DAVID JOERGER:  That's who we are.  That's what we do, so it's not out of the ordinary.  We're not trying to come down the court and go which one does‑‑ we try to play through our bigs as much as possible anyways, and that's our identity.  That has to be who we are.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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