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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v WARRIORS

May 18, 2016

Draymond Green

Oakland, California: Game Two

Golden State 118 - Oklahoma City 91

Q. Talk about what you got from the bench today. They scored 50 points. How does that impact the starters and allow them to take a break?
DRAYMOND GREEN: That's huge when our bench plays that way, they give us a huge boost. Tonight Andre was phenomenal off the bench. Festus, Shaun, Mo, all those guys, they did a great job off the bench. Andy came in and gave us some good minutes. It was great. It was definitely what we needed. When the bench is clicking like that, we are tough to beat.

Q. A lot have talked about the Thunder's rebounding advantage, but you guys outrebounded them by nine. What did you do to turn that around?
DRAYMOND GREEN: You just got to hit bodies. When the shot goes up, you can't be watching, looking for the rebound. You've got guys like Adams, and Kanter, Russ, always flying in there, trying to get the rebound. So you've got to hit bodies. And even sometimes when those big guys are going for it, it's hard for us to get the rebound. You've got to keep him off and let the guards come clean them up sometimes.

So I think we did a great job of that tonight, team rebounding, and that's something we've got to continue to do throughout the course of this series.

Q. What did you think when you saw Steph go over the front row like that and then stay there? You ran over there, he stayed down for a while. What were you thinking?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I was just hoping he was okay. I mean, flying over seats like that you don't know if it's a leg, if it's an elbow, his head. It's tough. So just hoping that he was okay. Once I got over there I saw he was starting to get up, so it was good. But elbow is definitely a little puffy.

Q. What do you think that third-quarter flurry from Steph, we've seen it before, what do you think triggered that? What got him going there?
DRAYMOND GREEN: When we're moving the ball around like we were, you know, that's the key. That's when we're at our best. I think tonight we did that. You look and the score is all spread out across the score sheet, and that's when we're tough to guard. Most importantly, we got stops. Once we're able to get stops and get out in transition, you're able to get a couple transition threes and all of a sudden those in the half court come a little bit easier. That's what we did tonight. We let our defense lead the offense tonight in the second half, and that's what got us going.

Q. That third quarter when you took control, it almost looked like you guys were playing a makeshift zone, in particular you. Were you just reading and reacting or were you playing in that certain spot?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Just reading and reacting. At the end of the day they've got two guys who you cannot let beat you. They've proven time and time and time again that they can beat you and they can do it easily. So they've got two guys that you really have to focus on. I think we did a better job tonight on those. I mean, KD was 11-for-18. But overall I think we kind of made them slow down a little bit when he had it going, and we did a good job on Russ. But the most important thing was we did a good job on everybody else. You know, look at the score sheet last game and all those guys were getting off. That's when it's tough and they're tough to beat.

It's important that we really lock in on those two guys and make someone else beat you.

Q. How important was the run at the end of the first half capped by your shot there on, I believe, the 9-0 run to set up the third quarter?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I mean, it was great. When you go into halftime with an eight-point lead with the momentum, I mean, that's what you want, leaving off the floor. Then you try to build on that coming out in the second half which we did in the start of the third quarter. It's very important to close out. Our mantra is always close quarters and close out the half. So we did that, and that helped us rolling into that third quarter to really come out and have it going already and trying to build on what we had just finished there in that first half.

Q. Last game you went 9-for-20 with 20 shots. Tonight nine. Was that just the flow of the game or did you come into this one thinking be more of a facilitator?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Little bit of both. I knew coming into this one, I took 20 shots last game, and I don't think many of them were bad shots. A couple of them were bad shots. Tonight I knew that driving in the paint, look to kick out some more. Those guys are really athletic, and they collapsed.

So just trying to take advantage of the situation. I knew also coming into this game that I need to facilitate a little bit more, because that's when we're at our best. So I tried to do a little bit of that and it worked out. But if the game says shoot, I'm going to shoot. If the game says pass, I'm going to pass. I'm a player that plays off feel, and I just went with my feel tonight.

Q. After Game 1 you guys were very calm and poised in here and you were the next day as well. Did it feel like business as usual or was there a little more intensity behind the scenes coming into this game?
DRAYMOND GREEN: No, everybody's loose like we always are. Even when we're loose, it's still business as usual. So we're ourselves. We're not looking at this oh, we're panicking. We need to tighten up. When times get rough, that's when you've got to be yourself more than any time. You can't tense up and try to change it up. We didn't do that. We kept our same approach the way we approach any game. We knew we needed to come out and win this game, but our approach works. So we did that and it worked out.

Q. Draymond, you tied up the series 1-1, now you're about to go on the road. So what's the task at hand? I know you want to get the victory to pull it out in the next arena in Thunder arena, Oklahoma City.
DRAYMOND GREEN: Yeah, they did their job. They came and won one. When you're going on the road in the playoffs your motto is always go win one game, and they did that. Now it's up to us to do our job and go win one game and try to take home-court advantage back. Game 3 will be important. It's not the end all, be all, but it's a game we want to win. When you win by the margin that we won by tonight it makes it a little bit tougher because usually the other team's pissed off and usually the team that won by that amount usually relaxes a little bit. Now being down 1-1, I don't think that affects us that much. But it's something that we have to be conscious of and make sure we come out with the focus level and intensity level it takes to win a road game in the NBA playoffs in the Western Conference Finals.

Q. Draymond, it seems you guys were more active defensively tonight than you were in Game 1. They didn't like like they were very comfortable on offense. Did you get that feeling as well?
DRAYMOND GREEN: I think we were a lot more active. That's what it takes to beat a team like this. They're a very good scoring team. They were right up there with us with the top scoring in the league this year. They've proven over and over again that they can do that. It was important for us to be active, and we did that. Now we need to continue to do that for the rest of the series, because that's the key to us winning, it's the defensive end.

Q. Coach said nothing stood out to him about Steph Curry's flurry in the third quarter. Would you feel the same way, that it was basically back to normal on this offense or do you feel he was set off a little bit after getting fouled by KD?
DRAYMOND GREEN: Oh, no, I don't think that got him going. I thought he already was locked in any way. We got stops and we were able to get out and run. Like I said before, you get a few things in transition, and all of a sudden things get easier. Then you got fouled on the three. You see free throws go in and that always helps out.

It was just we got the ball moving. Once we get the ball moving, it's tough to stop. We've proven that all year the last couple years. So it's important that we continue to do that. But I don't think the foul is what got him going. I think we started and stop started getting stops on defensive end and that created offense for us.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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