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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WARRIORS VS SPURS

May 15, 2017

Pau Gasol

Oakland, California - Practice Day

Q. Pau, Pop was very animated, very upset about what happened with Kawhi yesterday. You guys as a group, are you all upset about what happened?
PAU GASOL: I mean, we're upset that we won't have our best player on the floor with us for Game 2. I don't know farther than that. But I don't know the gravity of his injury. I just know he couldn't keep playing, and that affected us, clearly.

It's an unfortunate situation. It is upsetting, but from a player's standpoint, you can't do much about it. You've got to just keep going out there, competing and do your best and try to pick up the slack. You know, just be who we are.

Q. Have you seen the play?
PAU GASOL: I haven't seen the replay, no. I haven't seen the replay. But I'm assuming it opens discussion. But, again, nothing we can do now from a player's standpoint.

Q. Do you have any history with Zaza? Do you think he's cheap or chippy or dirty or anything?
PAU GASOL: I think he has a history on getting away with plays, and sometimes getting away with plays a couple of years ago. I think in the Playoffs with Milwaukee [against Chicago], also got tangled up with [Nikola] Mirotic and injured him. He missed a game or two in that series as well.

But, again, I don't have anything personal with the guy.

Q. Is there more the league can do to protect jump shooters on that sort of play or are they doing what they can?
PAU GASOL: I'm not sure. That's not my position to be -- the league has to do whatever they need to protect the game, and I think they try to do that as much as they can, right?

So, again, it's an unfortunate play that happened because even if it was intentional, you just don't know what's going to happen with those type of plays. It's just hard because one of our main players got hurt by it, and we're in the Conference Finals, and we're trying to get to the next level and trying to win a championship. It's a lot harder without Kawhi.

Q. What is the confidence level of this team, though? Pop said most likely he won't play in Game 2. Do you guys feel like you can still get it done without him?
PAU GASOL: That's kind of how we felt in Game 6 against the Rockets, right? We regrouped and went out there and competed and played as hard as we could with the players that we have. So that's what we'll continue to do.

I understand the Warriors are a very talented team, so we're going to have to be really sharp tomorrow. We've got to limit our mistakes because those guys really make you pay. They have so many weapons that the game could swing in a heartbeat, as we experienced. So we've just got to do things right from the beginning to the end to give ourselves the best possible chance.

Q. Is ball movement almost like you've got to make sure that that's a part of it, because you don't have your creator out there?
PAU GASOL: For sure. We've got to make the ball move, swing side, to the floor, put it inside, get it back out, drive closeouts. They switch a lot, and we've got to make them pay.

If the ball gets stuck, then we kind of play into their hands. So they say ball movement is always important against anyone. It was against Memphis, it was against Houston. It's probably more so against the Warriors.

Q. We listened to Patty Mills, you'd think you're the favorite. His confidence never seems to waver. Can you talk about his leadership and stepping up since Tony's gone down and how he has that optimism?
PAU GASOL: He has the competitive edge and great spirit. Overall he goes out there and just competes. He's a hard out, and I think a great player to have on your team because his spirits are always high, no matter what, and he's always going to give you his best. He's always going to be out there giving you the best he's got. So we're all on board with Patty.

Q. Losing Tony once and then Kawhi twice, do you have to fight against letting it wear you down mentally?
PAU GASOL: I mean, it is what it is. You can't control those things, right? They're a part of the game. They happen, and it's harder when they happen to you against -- especially in this type of situation and this time of the year. We've just got to pull it together and keep fighting through it until the very end.

We just can't control that two of our main players got hurt. But I think I have a lot of good faith in our team that we reacted really well, and we haven't allowed this situation to stop us or limit us or wear us out or take something emotionally from us.

So let's see how we come back tomorrow and what kind of game we play, and I think that's going to be indicative of who we are and I think we've done well in those situations.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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