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NBA FINALS: CLEVELAND VS GOLDEN STATE

June 1, 2017

Mike Brown

Oakland, California: Pregame

Q. Just to make it official, you are coaching Game 1 for sure?
COACH BROWN: I have not talked to Steve yet, but I think so.

(Laughter.)

Q. Is it your assumption that you're coaching both these games, two home games, that you haven't heard yet or...
COACH BROWN: Yeah, you know, I feel like I'm pretty easy, I can adapt and adjust. I've been in this thing a long time, and so I'm just -- I imagine I'm going to coach until Steve tells me he's ready, and that's kind of how I look at it.

But I know that he wanted to, if he could, to try to coach Game 1 tonight, and but I literally haven't spoken to him yet. He was in I think with Adam Silver, it looked like, and I think he might have been a little bit more important than me, so I waited.

Q. You used to coach the Cavs two times. You know LeBron James very well, including his personality and his tendencies, you know Kyrie Irving a little bit, so how much will that experience help you guys prepare for this year's Final?
COACH BROWN: I'm sorry, you said how much what? Appearance?

Q. How much will this experience help you?
COACH BROWN: Oh, I mean, at this point in the year, everybody knows everybody, and they know Kevin Durant very well, they know Stephen Curry very well, they know Klay Thompson, Draymond Green. So they know. There's no secrets out there at this point in the year. And at the end of the day, the better team's going to win, no matter what you know or what you tell your guys.

Not only that, a guy like LeBron, a guy like Kyrie, they're so good, it's easy for me to go say, hey, go stop them, you know, but to actually go do it, it's something else, especially with the guys, the rest of the guys that they have on their team.

So they know all about us; we know all about them. And at the end of the day it's just going to come down to who is the better team and who wants it more and who limits mistakes.

Q. You've been around the league for a very long time. You've seen some great shooters, seen shooters go through hot streaks and cold streaks. Klay Thompson has been a little up and down in the postseason. What is it about his demeanor or his preparation that you believe that he can snap out of this and just kind of fire them in?
COACH BROWN: First of all, in order to be a great shooter, you can't have a conscience, and when it comes to shooting the basketball, I don't think he does. I've been around some great ones like Reggie Miller, and he can miss five in a row, which very seldom happened. He just knew that next one was going to go in.

Klay is similar. He knows he's a great shooter, if not the greatest in the world, and so with him, with knowing that he's not even thinking twice about it, he's going to let it go. That gives me the confidence that it's always going to go in. He's been doing so many other things for us that we need him on the floor. I mean, he's defended well, dribble, drove and kicked very well. And at the end of the day, he needs to be guarded. So that creates space, just with him being out on the floor, for others to be able make plays.

Q. You were there when he scored 60 points in 29 minutes. What was that like seeing that, and can you imagine another instance of a guy catching fire that much?
COACH BROWN: I remember it. He scored 60 points in 29 minutes. I don't think I was here. I could have been here. I don't have a great memory. But, I mean, he just -- it's just a guy that's unbelievable when it comes to shooting the ball.

And, again, I go back to he doesn't have a conscience. And if you shoot five or six in a row, especially right away, sometimes without other guys touching the ball, you have to have a belief and a confidence in yourself to know that, hey, I'm big and bad enough to know that I may miss these next three in a row, and I know I got other great players on the floor, but I know that they want me to shoot it, so I'm going to let it fly. And that confidence carries a lot of great shooters through any sort of, quote/unquote, slump that they may be in. That's why, again, I don't worry about Klay.

Q. Curious, Steve Kerr's always talked about how the Warriors play this game with a sense of joy. What does that mean to you and how does that make the Warriors so much different than a lot of other teams?
COACH BROWN: He wants guys to -- the game of basketball is fun. Like, we all played it growing up, and we played it because we enjoy it. And we enjoy the competition, we enjoy making shots, we enjoy making certain passes, sometimes we enjoy stopping the guy in front of you, getting steals, whatever it may be. It was fun, go play with your buddies on the playground.

And he does not want to deviate from that at all. Yes, it's our job, but we all know if your work environment is enjoyable, you're going to bring that much more to the table. It's a way of thinking like I guess Google maybe. Google has the big campus that's basically a playground. People love to go to work at Google. At lunchtime they know they can shoot, go to the playground and jump on the jungle gym or something like that.

So it's no different for the message that Steve wants to get across to our guys. Yes, it's our job, yes, let's take it serious, yes, we want to win, but at the end of the day, let's enjoy being around each other and let's enjoy a kids game, because at the end of the day that's what it is.

Q. You are used to seeing half of your butterflies when the Final comes. What's your emotion right now, and what kind of speech do you want to deliver right before the game starts?
COACH BROWN: I have. I felt it a little last night and feeling it today, and it's good. This team is the champion when you're talking about the Cleveland Cavaliers. And in order for us to go take it, we're going to have to be at our best because we know that they will. So it should be a fun series, fun game, and I'm looking forward to it.

What we have been telling our guys, and I thought we would reiterate it right before the game starts, is, hey, we got to play every possession like it's our last. We can't take a possession off, we can't play with the game, we have to be locked in defensively, and then offensively we have to keep it as simple as possible. And if we do, we're going to give ourselves a good chance to win.

Q. There's been so much talk about of course the Warriors in the offseason having acquired Kevin Durant and now with the Cavaliers trying to defend the title and this being the rubber match of the three Finals between the two teams. Is there pressure on your team or theirs more?
COACH BROWN: I don't think so. At least I don't look at it that way. I think there's pressure to win period. I don't care if you're trying to win a regular season game or you're trying to get out of the first round or second round, but it's pressure that if you want to be a champion, it's pressure that you welcome and we probably put more pressure on ourselves than probably anybody else. So it's more than welcomed and I'm sure they feel the same.

Q. How close is your team to a hundred percent physically right now? And I'm thinking specifically Iguodala and Pachulia?
COACH BROWN: Those guys are ready to go, they had a week or two weeks, a month off, whatever it is, so they're ready to go.

Q. I assume you watched all the games from last years series on video. What was striking about that Game 7 in the last minutes is how many great players took shots and missed them. Why does that happen in a series that matches two good teams like this? What causes that? Some guys to go through streaks and miss so many?
COACH BROWN: Obviously the pressure of the moment. It's a lot different than a regular season game, it's a lot different than a first round game. Not only pressure of the moment but when you get to the Finals, it's probably the two best teams. And those teams are laying it on the line on both ends of the floor to try to get the win. And so the closeouts are harder, the sense of urgency is there, the physicality is more evident. All those types of things are heightened and everybody's human, and so even the best shooters in the world at times may miss shots during clutch moments, but when it comes down to it, those same guys are the ones that you know at the end of the day are going to win you the games.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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