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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WARRIORS VS SPURSMay 14, 2017Stephen CurryKevin DurantOakland, California - Postgame Warriors - 113, Spurs - 111 Q. Steph, you guys have won a lot of different ways, but it's been a while since you've had a game like this. Can you appreciate a victory a little bit more because of what it took to get there? STEPHEN CURRY: It's the Playoffs. You've got to expect everything. Obviously we wouldn't call it smooth sailing at all. We've actually had to execute to get to this point. But they came out and challenged us heavy and put a nice little run together. Took us a minute to figure it out to get up to that game speed after this little break. It was definitely a nice way to win Game 1. We've got to capitalize off that and start Game 2 a lot better. Q. In your minds, what went wrong in the first half and early on? What did it take to get back to where you guys wanted to get to in the second half? What did you guys do then? STEPHEN CURRY: The things we talked about going into the series. Protecting the glass, limiting one shot on every possession as best we can. Turnovers. Obviously we didn't make many shots, but we just did some things that were kind of out of the ordinary for us and we were beating ourselves pretty much most of the time. So just had to settle in, really. Q. Kevin, your response to that? In your mind, what did you see in the first half and second half and what was the difference there? KEVIN DURANT: As Steph said, I think we came out just a bit too relaxed to start the game. And they hit us in the mouth early. It's a game we need to witness up a bit. We know what this team is about. No matter who is on the court, they're going to play hard every possession and keep possessions alive. I think in the first half, offensive rebounds killed us. We were down 12, 14 points, you can't let a team get more possessions than you. So we tried to win the possession game. I think we did a better job of that in the second half. But all in all this wasn't a really good game for us, but we won the game, and we played better in the second half. Q. Twitter is blowing up a little bit about whether that was a dirty play by Zaza not to give Kawhi a landing spot. How do you respond to that idea? KEVIN DURANT: Zaza's not a dirty player. You've got to time that perfectly if you want to hurt somebody. I mean, we're not that type of team. Kawhi's an unbelievable player and we have nothing but respect for him. We wish that he gets healthy, but we were just trying to contest a shot. Our guys were playing hard. It was an unfortunate situation. I wish it didn't happen. But I don't think it was intentional. You can't listen to people on Twitter. They're irrational, so, I don't know. But hopefully he plays next game and his ankle gets better, but it wasn't intentional at all. Q. I guess both of you or maybe Steph, as much as you guys talk about strength in numbers and your depth, how much do you two feel a responsibility to carry the scoring load when a team is struggling like that? And separately, Steve talking to you guys at halftime, how much impact did that have? STEPHEN CURRY: It's always great to hear Coach Kerr's voice and give his perspective. It's actually a fresh perspective from somebody who is watching the game, so he sees a lot of different angles and he sees how things are developing from a broader perspective, so that's obviously huge for us. The other question, yeah, we have our identity predicated on the collective, the ball movement, player movement, using everybody's talents on the floor to create great shots. When you're in situations where there isn't any flow and you have to make plays, you know, that's what we're expected to do. We have confidence to do it ourselves, and you've got to be ready for those moments when they arrive. So, you know, you can't shy away from it. That was big tonight for us to get going. But we can't do what we do without, obviously, the collective on the court, whoever is out there to do their job as well. Q. Kevin, that three you hit with 7:53 left and then you scored 10 in a row there in the fourth, what kind of ignited you there, and it seemed like you were feeling it and that turns things around? KEVIN DURANT: That goes back to the previous question. When things stall out a bit, we usually try to find a mismatch and go to work and try to get good shots. Just be aggressive, you know. Not worry about the score. Just play the game and find the good shot. That's what I was doing, trying to find the best shot for me, get to my spot. Steph got us going in the third. I tried to do my part in the fourth, and we finished it off. So that's a pretty sweet thing about our team. We can move the ball, get everybody involved. When our stars are out, we've got guys that can score off the dribble and create off the dribble. So I just try to finish, get shots and make them. It's simple. Q. Threes were hard to come by early, and they were really playing tough. Was there an adjustment, was it the flow, was it the ball movement? What shook you loose there in that third? STEPHEN CURRY: I think we were more assertive, but we just simplified things a little bit. Like K said, when you kind of isolate certain situations that should work to our favor, certain matchups, certain screen and rolls at the top of the key, kind of your basic basketball play, then you'll be able to play make and create out of those situations. Open it up a little bit early in the third. Then after that, you soften up the defense with that initial attack, and then the ball can hop a little bit better. A little smoother around the floor. Guys step right up to the line and knocked them down. When we miss shots, we don't ever lose confidence, but like you said, we have to just be aggressive through there to create those shots. Q. When do you guys feel the rust starting to wear off, and what was the plan after Kawhi went out? KEVIN DURANT: Man, you're down 25 points, if you don't wake up then, then something's wrong with you. We didn't come back to the bench and say, look, Kawhi's out, let's change up what we've been doing. Obviously you've seen what this team did in Game 6 of the last series, so we knew that they weren't going to just lay down. They tend to do the same thing they always do. Move the ball, find mismatches, offensive rebound. So we knew that, but we didn't come back to the bench all excited because Kawhi wasn't out there. We knew we had to go try to take this game no matter what. But we knew that was one less ball handler. But Manu came in and he did a great job for him as well. They've got weapons and a deep team, and they play together. They've got a really, really good system, so we just tried to stick with it every possession. We battled it out and were able to get it done. Q. There was a possession late where you ended up hitting the three that tied the game. It was after you missed the three, after Kevin missed the three, and after another offensive rebound you got the ball back. Any feeling that that sort of symbolized the day for this team; that even though there were a lot of things that had gone wrong today, you still find a way to make it happen? STEPHEN CURRY: You could say that, for sure. All three of them were great shots. Obviously the hustle plays to get the offensive rebound and give ourselves another opportunity, I mean, it's obviously a timely bucket. But those are shots that we normally take, we normally make. When it's crunch time it was nice to get that feeling where we kind of overcame some rough patches and found a way to get it done. So, obviously, a confidence boost that we want to take into Game 2. Q. Regardless how it played out, you guys won the game, but you've got to come back here Tuesday. What's it going to take to try to get that second game? Plus, the fans came alive for you guys tonight too. STEPHEN CURRY: It's going to take a much better start, a much more focused start, and just get to who we are in those first three minutes on both ends of the floor. Tonight that didn't happen, and they took advantage of it. So obviously we don't want to try to give them any life early and keep this momentum up. I think you can carry that from one game to the next, for sure. Rely on our home crowd and the energy that they brought. It was crazy, especially in that second half when we were making our run. They could feel it. We could feel it that we were just trying to get over the hump and give ourselves a chance to win it down the stretch. An electric atmosphere, for sure, and we needed every bit of it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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