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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS v WARRIORS

June 13, 2016

Steve Kerr

Oakland, California: Game Five

Q. First, I'll presume this is not the day you'll change your mind and reveal a strategy.
COACH KERR: No, not today.

Q. Good presumption?
COACH KERR: After this series I may change my --

Q. Okay, good, good. Let us know. With this series being two days between almost every game except for the one in Cleveland, have you noticed your guys at all fresher? Does it change maybe some of the things you can do with minutes, maybe with [Andre] Iguodala or with [Shaun] Livingston? Or is it generally the same thing if you were going every other day?
COACH KERR: I think it's the same. I think 48 hours between games is plenty for these guys, so getting the extra day doesn't hurt. But I don't think it would change the way we'd approach things if we were going every other day.

Q. You mentioned because you found out the news about Draymond [Green] during practice that you would be -- did you have to do a different kind of film session? What is the thought process once you lose a player after a practice and you're going into a Finals game?
COACH KERR: I think the thought process is that we have to make up for his absence collectively. Obviously, there is not one person who can do all of that, but we're going to have to try a lot of different combination and try to find rotations that work.

We haven't played without Draymond much at all the last couple of years, so it will be different. But our guys are ready for it, and we have a lot of people who can help. I think we'll play a lot of them tonight, for sure.

Q. Have you looked at some of your rotations you haven't used very often? Do you go back and say: Oh, we had two minutes of this one, three minutes of this one? Did you do some of that yesterday?
COACH KERR: Yeah, we looked at some of that. Sammy Gelfand, our analytics guy, looked at some of the combinations. But we have a pretty good feel of which players work well with others and that sort of thing, which combinations work.

So we have an idea of what we'll do tonight, but that always changes depending on the flow of the game and foul trouble and all of that. So we'll see how it goes.

Q. Is Ian [Clark] your inactive player? And what's been your message? Shaun was saying you've kind of repeated somewhat everybody be ready to do whatever you have to do.
COACH KERR: Yeah, Ian will be inactive. It's unfortunate. It's a rule I'd like to see the league change, frankly. I guess the point is if you suspend a player that the team should be punished and not have an extra player. But in my mind you should not punish a different player. Ian has been working his entire life on his game and preparing. And here it is the NBA Finals and because Draymond is suspended, I can't suit up Ian. I don't think that's fair. I think that's something that should be addressed, and maybe that's something that we can bring up with the league down the road.

As far as what Shaun said, yes, the message is everybody be ready, we're going to play it literally possession by possession, minute by minute, and bring a ton of energy and a ton of force and ride our crowd and see what happens.

Q. You guys played without Stephen Curry in the postseason, so you know what that's like. Draymond, you haven't had that experience. But it seems a lot runs through Draymond with this team. Can you talk about the difference of how it is to play without a guy who does so much and compare it to what you experienced when you had to play without Steph?
COACH KERR: Well, I think we'll feel it more on the defensive end than the offensive end. As good as Draymond is offensively with his ball handling and passing and three-point shooting, I think we'll find ways to make up for that. Defensively, it's tough to match what he does. And that would be the biggest difference between not having Steph and not having Draymond.

Without Steph, it totally affected our offense, not so much our defense. I think the opposite will be true without Draymond.

Q. You said you were going to try a lot of different rotations. When it comes to that, how quick are you to go to the next one? What are you looking for? Do you have a time limit, or is it just feel?
COACH KERR: It's feel. It's feel, yeah. If you have a lineup that's out there that gets three good shots in a row but the shots don't go in but they've generated good looks and they've defended well, you stay with them. If you see a problem with a matchup or something that's being exposed, then you better fix it right away. So you look for those things and you make those decisions on the fly.

Q. This is an elimination game for the other team, and you just went through three eliminations recently in the last series. What has your team learned over the last couple years about being in this position, and what have you learned in this last series where you were on the other end of that?
COACH KERR: Well, I think what we've learned the last couple of years is that we're a team that sometimes lets down when things are going well, but we're also a team that has responded every single time we've been faced with adversity in the Playoffs the last two years. Never more so than the Oklahoma City series.

We always try to talk big picture with our team. Somebody's got to beat us four times. This is not the NCAA Tournament. You get beat four times, then the other team deserves to win the series.

That's our approach, and it's been our approach, and it's been successful because we have talented players who are very competitive, and they play together.

Q. When you consider your lineup change, how much do you factor the rotations that you normally like to have; namely, loving to have Iguodala in that second unit as opposed to putting him in the first unit?
COACH KERR: Well, yeah, I mean, Andre has been playing 38, 40 minutes anytime we have a close game in the Playoffs anyway. So whether he starts or not, he's still going to play huge minutes. It's really more about who is around him and who is around others. He's one of our lead players. He's one of our captains.

So when you talk about role players, you generally want to put role players in a position to succeed. You don't think about putting Andre in a position to succeed or Steph or Klay. They just succeed. Some other guys, they need the right help around them, the right combination.

As it pertains to Andre, he'll just be out there a lot.

Q. You just mentioned in talking about elimination games that sometimes the team could relax a little bit. Do you feel that the fact that Draymond has been suspended, it seemed like they're really focused and maybe a little bit angry and ready to come out to play so you don't have to worry about that in this game?
COACH KERR: Yeah, I mean, I'd be disappointed if we had to worry about that anyway. It's a close-out game in the NBA Finals. Who can't be ready for that?

But, yeah, we're definitely ready to roll. And if there was any edge missing, it's definitely there now.

Q. Just to follow up on the previous question, how much time did you take to take the temperature of this team to understand what their mindset was after the announcement of the suspension? Or do you just quickly move on from there?
COACH KERR: There really wasn't any time. I mean, we got the news near the end of practice. We practiced for 15 more minutes, and then we had media and everybody went home. I don't think there was a whole lot to discuss. Everybody knows the situation and what we have to do, and our guys are ready to do it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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