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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: THUNDER v WARRIORS

May 20, 2016

Steven Adams

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: Practice Day

Q. You took some knocks in Game 2. What was your off day like?
STEVEN ADAMS: It was painful mate, painful. Just lying there and trying to recover.

Q. Where, what hurt?
STEVEN ADAMS: Everything. I won't name it, but I'm still a man, so that's all that matters. That's all I was concerned about, so that one's fine.

Q. It still seems that you're moving pretty well in practice. Do you feel like you've been dealing with some of these injuries?
STEVEN ADAMS: Yeah, I mean as soon as the adrenaline kicks in, it's fine. You don't feel a thing. But it's not like I'm conscious of every single bump or anything like that. It ain't like that. That would be annoying if that was the case.

Q. You missed a couple games because of a sore back before and [Festus] Ezeli landed on your back. Did that retweak anything?
STEVEN ADAMS: No, fortunately not. What was good is it's actually progressed from the weight room. They've actually made my core really, really strong. What was good about that play is I collapsed straight out of it. I didn't try to push back. If that was the case, then that would have been totally different. Yeah, I got out of it quick. It was just like a quick little spasm, and good to go.

Q. Has it gotten more physical in the playoffs? Do you sense that? Has it gotten more as it's gone on?
STEVEN ADAMS: Yeah, definitely has. Right from the start Dallas was, and it just ramped up from then on. Obviously, Golden State is coming in, especially with their bigs, they're making a conscious effort of coming after us and bumping all our cutters and trying to get us out of rhythm, and doing a good job of it.

Q. Draymond [Green] talks a lot during the game. Does that get tiring to be in the middle of all the time?
STEVEN ADAMS: No, no. It's, again, I can't really hear him. I hear that he talks a lot. I see him on the bench, but like in the game, no. It's quite hard because it is like -- I can't really understand. If it's the accent or something, I don't know.

Q. His accent?
STEVEN ADAMS: Yeah, is it? No, because the pronunciation is a lot different, right? So I don't know. I don't really understand him a lot of the time.

Q. It sounds a lot different?
STEVEN ADAMS: Yeah, it's different from what I normally hear around the team.

Q. We saw Steph go into the second row of fans in the last game.
STEVEN ADAMS: Oh, yeah.

Q. I was wondering have you gone into fans like that at any point in your career? I was trying to remember?
STEVEN ADAMS: Have I jumped into fans? No, no. There was one time I was about to, but it was like an old couple and I was like oh, no, no, no, no. No, that's bad.

Q. So you were actually able to stop yourself?
STEVEN ADAMS: Yeah, if they were like 20, I'd go flying in with knees and stuff (laughing). No, not that one.

Q. Is there an expectation if I do go into the crowd, I hope they catch me? I hope they get away from me. What is going through your mind?
STEVEN ADAMS: Just if there are any fragile humans around, babies and stuff, as long as they're out of the way and they're adults who can take a blow and still live, then, yeah. That's fine.

Q. Defensively, are they more creative than other teams in schemes and different things they try?
STEVEN ADAMS: Yes. They have different players. They have players that can guard pretty much 1 through 5, and their team is comfortable with that. They're trying to force different things. So they're really creative in that sense.

They have the right weapons on their team, so, yeah, they're doing a good job with that. They caught us off guard a couple of them. I don't know if you've seen the box and one, and stuff like that. Yeah, just got to make some adjustments, get used to that type of thing.

Q. Do you think that's more of the personnel they have with the coaches that are willing to do kind of different?
STEVEN ADAMS: It's definitely kudos to their coach for seeing it. Understanding and taking that risk to let that happen and have trust in the players. That's a huge aspect of it.

Q. Does that make Draymond more annoying because he's pesky and he can get that freedom to move around?
STEVEN ADAMS: Yeah, I mean, I think he's peaked. It's annoying, you know what I mean? So, yeah, it's fine.

Q. With those two bigs with Draymond and Bogut in the lane, how does that change the way you're playing?
STEVEN ADAMS: With who?

Q. When Bogut and Draymond are kind of camped out in the lane, how does that change the way you play offensively and you attack off the roles?
STEVEN ADAMS: That's why they're doing it. They're trying to force like a skip pass to some other player, just pretty much get KD and Russ out of attacking position and taking the [indiscernible] out of the play, which kind of stalls everything. Once the rhythm is out of the play, it's kind of hard to kind of finish that play off and you struggle on offense.

Q. What can you do to adjust to that if they keep with that strategy?
STEVEN ADAMS: We've got some stuff today, some stuff today. Yeah, I've still got to learn it, so can't really tell you guys about it, honest. I'll let you guys know.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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