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NBA FINALS: HEAT v THUNDERJune 20, 2012Kevin DurantMIAMI, FLORIDA: Practice Day Q.  Your team seems to be healthy. You guys are running like always and having some energy on. How do you deal with not hitting the three‑pointers, maybe taking some bad shots at the end, and you as the leader, how do you deal with that and confront tomorrow that it should be a Game 7 for you guys? It is for Miami, also, but it should be for you guys? KEVIN DURANT: I mean, we've just got to play the right way. We've got to find each other. James missed three wide open threes that looked good. I missed a few wide open ones. We had some good looks unfortunately they didn't fall. That game is over with. It's a new game. We've got another crack at it, and we've got to come out with a lot of energy like we did last game and try to sustain it. Q. Can you tell me a little bit how you make guys like Ibaka produce more or Perkins to repeat the game he had here in Miami in Game 3? KEVIN DURANT: Just got to do it. I mean, I think they're going to come out, play better. Hopefully we all play better and go from there. We'll see what happens. Q. You guys need a comeback in this situation. Do you have a favorite comeback memory, whether it's at Montrose or Oak Hill or Texas or any time in the NBA, a favorite comeback memory that you've been a part of? KEVIN DURANT: I've been down 0‑2 against San Antonio and everybody said it was over then, and we won. But it's over with. That's old. It's a new series. We've got to be ready to come out here and try to get this Game 5 tomorrow. We'll see what happens. We're not going to give up. We're going to keep fighting to the end, and hopefully we can take this thing back to the crib. Q. What's it going to take to get this thing done, three more? KEVIN DURANT: We've just got to pay attention to details. We've got to do the smart things. We'll be fine. Q. Every time during the regular season Coach Brooks asked you to step up your rebounding, you always seemed to come through and you had some monster games. Is it to that point yet? How challenging has it been having to defend Chalmers and still yet be the leading rebounder, those kind of things? KEVIN DURANT: Being out on the perimeter it's kind of tough to go in there and get rebounds, but I have to do it. I've got to do it. There's no excuse for it. I just got to go in there and get them. You know, I'm going to try my hardest to get them next game. Q. Obviously you said going into this series it was not the one‑on‑one match‑up, it's team versus team. But when you see LeBron's guys every night seems like somebody is doing something, Battier, Chalmers, whatever, and your guys are not, does it feel like you like you've almost got to do more, the help is not there for you like you need? KEVIN DURANT: I am going to keep playing basketball the right way. I've got to be more aggressive, whether it's score or make a play. I believe in my teammates. If we miss a few shots, so what; we're going to keep going back to them. That's what teammates do. But I'm going to keep being me. If I see a shot, I'm going to take it, and I'm going to keep trying to go at these guys. But I have faith in my teammates no matter what. I think it's never too late. We've got a good chance to try to get one tomorrow. It's going to be tough, as always, but we're looking forward to that challenge. Q. You've talked about just continuing to believe, and there have been times over the last four years that people have doubted you all. What is it about this group that keeps you guys together and keeps you guys believing in each other? KEVIN DURANT: Well, this is a big‑time stage of basketball. We all enjoy this moment. We didn't get here just to make it here and say we did. We made it to The Finals. We want to come in here and we want to try to get a title. It's all about keep competing until that last buzzer sounds, and that's what we're going to do. That's the type of city we play for, a city that never gives up. That's the type of team we are. We're going to keep fighting, keep fighting, and we'll see what happens tomorrow. Q. Can you talk about the mood or the mindset, if it's any different than it was, say, in Game 1 of this series? Is it the same, or do you say, hey, our backs are to the wall? KEVIN DURANT: Well, everybody in the world knows our backs are against the wall right now. That's all you guys write. But we're down 3‑1. We're down 3‑1 with a chance to try to take it back to Oklahoma City tomorrow. We can't win three games in a row here in Miami. We can't win the series by next game. We've got to take it a possession at a time, a game at a time and go from there. You know, tomorrow, of course, is a do or die, and we've got to come out and perform. Q. Have you ever seen Russell play a better game than he played last night? And why do you think things were opening up for him that maybe weren't so open in the previous games in this series? KEVIN DURANT: Well, he's just being more aggressive and he's making shots. He's making shots, getting to the cup and finishing. He had it going since the beginning. We were just trying to feed off of him. He got me a few open looks and gave me some lanes to get to the rim and make some shots. You know, we just need that from everybody. We need everybody to be aggressive on both ends of the floor and play hard, and hopefully we get this game tomorrow. Q. What are you exactly seeing defensively in the fourth quarter the last two games? KEVIN DURANT:  They're just loading up. You know, they're loading up, they're fronting, and they've got somebody sitting in my lap when I'm trying to catch the ball, and there's a lot of people around me. Sometimes I've just got to get a ball up and hopefully it opens up for me. I'm going to keep being aggressive. Russell had it going in the fourth. He had it going. He hit like eight or nine in a row for us, and then I hit a shot to put us up two, and then after that it kind of went downhill. Q. How do you balance the act of continuing to be aggressive versusand risking a bad play versus sort of being a playmaker? KEVIN DURANT: You're saying pass to my teammates? Q. I'm saying in those situations where they are loading up, how do you balance being aggressive and trying to make plays versus almost making plays for other people instead of scoring? KEVIN DURANT: I've just got to know, pick and choose where I'm going to shoot and where I'm going to pass, try to get to the rim, try to get to the free‑throw line. You know, but I believe in my teammates, and if they're open I've got to pass them the ball. I've also got to be aggressive. It's tough. It's tough, especially to lose the way we did the last three games. But I'm not going to give up at all. That's the type of person I am. I'm going to fight until it's over with, and we'll see what happens. Q. What have you learned through these Finals games about playing on this level that maybe you didn't know when you walked into this? KEVIN DURANT: It's basketball at the end of the day. That's what it is. Everybody else brings the hype around it, all these people here, all these cameras, media. But at the end of the day, it's basketball. That's all I learned. I'll just go out there and be me. I worked hard since I was eight years old to make it to this spot. It's just basketball, and that's what I'm going to play. No matter if I shoot well, if I don't have a good game, it's basketball at the end of the day, and I'm going to keep working, keep pushing hard, and we'll see what happens. Q. And what do you think about the challenge and pressure of this moment knowing that Miami is at home and the celebration they could potentially have and what you've got at home potentially waiting for you if you guys win this? KEVIN DURANT: Yeah, I don't really care too much about if they celebrate or anything like that. I'm just worried about possession after possession of us playing hard basketball. At the end of the game, if we play extremely hard, play together, move the basketball, then we'll see. We'll see. We've just got to try to get back home and see what we can do from there. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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