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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: CLIPPERS vs WARRIORS

April 24, 2019

Steve Kerr

Oakland, California: Game Five

Clippers - 129, Warriors - 121

Q. Talk about your defensive effort tonight.
COACH KERR: Not good.

Q. Steve, did you see any of this coming as you led up to the game today?
COACH KERR: Well, I spent a year where things haven't gone exactly smoothly all the time. So I'm not surprised by anything. But I expected to come out and play better and to win the game, but it's the NBA playoffs. This is a seven-game series and you've got to play. You've got to defend with some urgency.

And we gave up 129 points on our home floor. And they shot 54 percent. And we weren't right from the very beginning -- 37 points we gave up in the first quarter.

Everything we did in L.A. we did not do tonight. We sort of seemed to take it for granted that we were going to be okay. But I said it before the game, this Clipper team has been scrapping and clawing all year. And you knew they weren't going to go down without a fight.

And I thought Patrick Beverley came in, just kicked our butts right away. He got, like, three offensive rebounds and he came out with more energy than we had. And that set a tone.

Q. Do you chalk this to focus, or was it something physical that maybe some of your guys just didn't feel it today?
COACH KERR: Usually if it's focus for us we have a lot of turnovers. We had eight turnovers -- we had 31 assists and eight turnovers. So offensively we were fine.

It's just defense. We just did not defend. And the playoffs are all about defense. And we had two great efforts down in L.A. I just think we let our guard down. I just think I didn't have them ready to fight, obviously, because we didn't fight.

Q. You were getting in -- at the end of the third quarter seemed like you were within five and you took Kevin out, put in McKinney in. What was the reason for that because they went on a bit of a run after that happened?
COACH KERR: We had played Kevin heavy minutes in the first half. We only gave him, I think, four minutes' rest. So we decided to we were going to start him in the fourth quarter, and we had to rest him at some point. So we gave him a couple minutes' rest right there.

Q. You bottled up Lou Williams in Los Angeles. He obviously got going again tonight. What changed?
COACH KERR: Everything we did in L.A. we did not do defensively. And I'm not going to go into detail about what we didn't do. But you can watch the tape. It's pretty obvious. We were not aggressive. We were not flying around. The game came way too easily for him.

Q. Everybody seemed to be a step slow when they got inside and just reaching out and trying to grab people. Somebody mentioned, physically, the team tired at all? Or was it just mental, just not there?
COACH KERR: We just didn't have it, for whatever reason. We're coming off two days' rest. So there's no reason to be tired. But I didn't like the sense of urgency or the lack thereof, from the very beginning of the game, you know. Beverley was running past us for offensive boards. We let Gallinari out of the box.

We gave him a couple of wide-open shots for no apparent reason. We just didn't have the urgency to pick him up. And the same as in Game 2, you know it's hard to stop a team once they get loose.

So while I liked our energy in the second half, it was a little late. And I didn't particularly like our execution. We played harder but we didn't play smarter. And that's what we've got to do. And I'm very confident that we'll do that on Friday.

Q. What was your view on Draymond's technical in the third?
COACH KERR: I have no idea what happened. It's hard to comment when I didn't even see what was going on. So I won't comment on that.

Q. Montrezl Harrell has been incredibly consistent in this series. What's been so hard to contain for you guys defensively, to kind of contain his game? Like, what's been the issue on that?
COACH KERR: He's a good player. He's a really good player. He's powerful. He's got a nice touch in the paint. And they did a good job of getting him the ball tonight. We did a good job in Games 3 and 4 of keeping him out of his comfort zone and he got right to the front of the rim tonight.

Q. How has their starting lineup changed, kind of changed the equation this series?
COACH KERR: Well, they've got a little floor spacing now with JaMychal Green. He made three 3s tonight. So they're able to space us out a little bit better. So they've done a nice job making some adjustments, but they made that adjustment last game, too, and we handled it. So we'll watch the tape and figure out what we've got to do better.

Q. You spoke to the inconsistency of your team defensively in this series. After 87 games this year, what would you say the identity of your club is?
COACH KERR: What's the identity of our club? Back-to-back champions.

Q. I'm saying for this particular season.
COACH KERR: I don't know. Like, we're really good. I mean, we're hanging banners. What's our identity? We play fast. We play defense. I don't know. Maybe we should do an instructional video later and we'll send it to you.

Q. Steph never really seemed to get a rhythm tonight. Is it something they were doing, or was he just a little bit off his game?
COACH KERR: He was a little off tonight. He got going a little bit. And he shot the ball well. But he had that early foul on Shamet, which was kind of a strange play. It was a shot clock violation, or very close to it.

And I didn't feel like he was locked in. So he got off to a slow start and could never really get himself going. And I give them credit. They did a good job defensively on him, too. But we've got to do a better job of finding ways to free him up as well.

Q. The Clippers, are they playing like an eighth-place, I mean an eight-seed team? What's your assessment of this team?
COACH KERR: The Clippers are a hell of a team. They won 48 games. The West is amazingly deep this year. So 5 through 8 went down to the last day, or couple days.

So they have our respect, for sure. They outplayed us tonight and they've got a hell of a team. So we've got to bring it if we're going to beat them.

Q. There were points in the third quarter, Steve, the three missed 3s in a row, four missed 3s in the fourth quarter and another string of shots. They seem to be good looks, open shots. What were your takes on some of the open misses tonight?
COACH KERR: I thought we were in a rush in the second half. I thought we were a little anxious because we were behind. And even when there was plenty of time left I felt like we were rushing things.

So you can't play that way. You've got to play with confidence, but you've got to play with poise and execution. And I felt like we were in a rush.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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