Steph, Klay, Draymond, Coach Kerr Postgame | Warriors/Thunder | Jan 30, 2023

What did you think about what happened in that second half? You guys were up by 21, and then it got really close in the fourth. Yeah, they played really well. They're scrappy. There's a reason they are right in the thick of things. Gilgis Alexander is really, really tough to stop. He got going. I thought we fouled a little bit too much in the third quarter. But they're a good team on their home floor, so you know a run's coming. So I was really happy with the way the guys responded down the stretch. We closed the game really well. A lot of guys came in and made big plays. So, yeah, it was a really good night overall. It seemed like in the second half, the Thunder were getting loose for a lot of threes. Was that just something they were doing to exploit the coverage that you guys were doing? Or was it more of them just making shots? You know, they made shots, 11 for 24. Jalen Williams made a couple. You know, they stepped up and made shots, and it's 20-23. I'm actually happy when somebody only makes 11 threes against us. So they shot a high percentage. But, you know, again, you've got to play the full 48. The start that we got off to, though, set the tone for the game. You know, we just played a great first quarter. And they had to swim upstream the entire final three quarters. And even though they got close, you know, we were able to hold them off. Do you think this was Andrew's best game since his 15-game absence? Yeah, I thought Andrew looked great, you know, athletically, energy-wise. He just looked like himself. I think, you know, he's had a rough go, you know, just between the injury and then being sick a couple of times. You know, he lost some conditioning, lost some rhythm, and had a great practice yesterday. You could see this coming just from the way he was moving and how aggressive he was. And I love the way he played tonight. Steph, at 38, I know after the last game, you said you kind of feel his pop back. I mean, to you, was this kind of an extension of that? Yeah, yeah. He looked just as fast and twitchy tonight as he did the other night. You know, just really smooth with the ball, running off the ball, off screens, playing good defense, you know, rebounding. You know, he was just quick to the ball and looked fantastic out there. Reece, do you at all with the 2016, them hitting big threes in this building? I didn't think about that tonight. You know, it's been a while since that night happened. There is a lot of history in this building for our older guys. But, you know, it's a different era, a totally different team that the Thunder have put together. They're a really impressive young group. And, you know, so we're just trying to take care of this year. We're not worried about anything that happened in the past. What stands out most to you about Chase right now? He just gets any shot he wants in the midrange. You know, he's so good with the ball. He's so strong. You can't speed him up. He just gets to his spots and then calmly, you know, rises up and shoots that little 12-footer, 10-footer, 14-footer. He's a very unique player. You know, most guys these days are shooting a ton of threes or trying to get to the rim. He can do both, but he really feasts on the midrange, and he's tough to handle. How do you view just kind of the challenging nature of these next two back-to-back cold-weather cities on the left? Yeah, I mean, this was really a key game for us on the trip. You know, to start out with a win puts us in a good position to get some rest tomorrow, prepare for Minnesota, and then go attack that game and see what happens. And then obviously the back-to-back with Denver will be difficult with the travel and everything. So we needed this one tonight, and the guys did a great job going and getting it. Now we've got to get greedy and go get the next one. I can't remember what game it was, but there was a few games where we talked about late-game execution. And we've had a few close games over the last two weeks, but do you feel like you guys are kind of figuring out your identity for those late-game situations? Yeah, I think we're doing better. You know, we've won four of our last six on the road, according to Raymond Ritter and Elias. I trust Elias a little bit more than Raymond. But, you know, you have to execute on the road down the stretch to win. You have to. You have no choice. And I just think that, you know, we're getting some key buckets at key times. Draymond made some brilliant plays down the stretch. Obviously Steph and Clay made big shots. Jordan made a big shot late, corner three, I thought was maybe the biggest shot of the game. And we got some stops. We got enough stops. And so really a really good effort from the guys. Thanks. How important was tonight's start, considering how tight the game was, proving to be down the stretch? I mean, you know, teams are always going to go on and run. So I don't, you know, we kind of held that run off the entire first half. But at some point, you know, they're going to go on and run. I thought our start was great. You know, we got the pace of the game where we wanted it at the beginning of the game. Did a good job of defending without fouling and got some easy bucks in transition. Was able to get the game, had a flow of the game that we liked to have. We've asked you this at several points of the season. But, I mean, does it feel like momentum could be coming? We'll see. Every time we talk about that, it goes out of the way. So, just got to keep putting it one game at a time, putting them together. Do you feel like the signals in some of your recent play indicates, I mean, like, you know, 15 first quarter assists tonight, it looks a little bit more. I think it's definitely starting to look more like our brand of basketball. You know, guys are starting to figure out their spots and roles and rotations and different things. I think we're definitely starting to figure it out. But, like I said, game at a time. This is your first time getting back-to-back road wins this season. Is it crazy to think that it took this long? Dang. Yeah, that's tough. But we got them now, so no more firsts. So, it's cool. But just got to build where we are. The pass is what it is. Start to the road record is what it is. Just got to win from here. The standings are so jumbled. Like, how important was it to get this one when you guys are going to Minnesota and then Denver next in a back-to-back set? It's a tough back-to-back. But I think they're two winnable games. You know, we go, we play our brand of basketball, give ourselves a chance to win. So, I don't make too much of, oh, we're going here or there. You know, a win is a win. And it's important. But, you know, now we got to go and play our brand of basketball and give ourselves a chance to win the next one. Wiggins had a pretty nice night. Just how much have you missed kind of the two-way version of him since, you know, season kind of got derailed? He had a – definitely had a pretty good night. I think it was good to just see him back aggressive. You know, when he first came back, seemed a little timid, which is usually the case when people come off a long layoff, you know. And it's not necessarily – I don't know if timid's the right word. But, you know, you're just kind of trying to find your legs and find your rhythm and find your footing and find your spots and different things. And so, it was good to see him aggressive tonight. And, you know, he was that way on both sides of the ball. The Thunder's organization, some pretty high stakes games over your career. But this new iteration of this team, what are your impressions of where they are right now and, you know, what they may be in years to come? They got some good young players. You know, still obviously putting it all together. But, you know, Shea is a great player in this league. You know, Josh has gotten better. Both Jalen's, you know, are starting to put it together. So, they got some good young players. And, you know, you just got to keep watching and see the growth. But, I mean, they're 24 and 26. They're riding the thick of all the stuff that's going on in the Western Conference. So, you got to give them some credit. A change in something they were doing, or are you guys going to just simply leave it? Man, that's a good question. I think it was a combination of both. I mean, Muscala's three there at the end of the quarter gave them a lot of momentum. Their big fellow Williams was hitting some good threes. And at times when you have such a dynamic player like Gilgis Alexander, you over help. And those guys just made shots there towards the end. I mean, they shot a great percentage. Luckily, the volume wasn't as much as we did. Yeah. Oh, that first quarter was beautiful. I think the ball was humming around. We were just cutting hard, running out in transition. And, I mean, when you look at the shooting splits from our night, it's 51% and 43% is special. So, on 37 assists. I can read, right? That's really nice. Wait, wait, wait. Say that one more time. Well, man, hopefully we can make it three in a row in Minneapolis. That would be nice. I still think we have magic in us to be the Ward Warden. It's huge. I mean, we're only two games ahead of this team, and there's so much parity between slots three through nine. So, this was very big for us. I mean, I'm impressed. Yeah, I think so. We're whole. And I absolutely believe that the big nights are on the horizon. Are there specific parts of how you guys are playing lately that maybe signals that to you? The assist to turnover ratio was special tonight, so that could be an indicator. And Steph going for 38-12 and passing Wilt Chamberlain in most franchise field goals made, that's what a legendary accomplishment. I mean, Wilt Chamberlain is one of the greatest athletes to ever walk this earth. So, the fact that Steph was able to do that and a foot shorter than him, it's special. Nice. How important was tonight's start considering how tight the game got lately? How what? How important was tonight's start considering how tight the game got lately? I mean, we've been on the other side of that where we get down by double digits in the first quarter, basically a polar opposite where we fight our way back and don't have enough to get over the hump. But we came out with some focus tonight, defensively especially. Held them to 20 points in the first quarter. So, you know, you give yourself a big cushion. We lost a little focus in the third, beginning of the fourth with too much fouling and slowed the game down, gave them easy points. But, you know, I think we learned a little bit about maintaining our composure a little bit down the stretch and executing, especially on offense, and made enough plays to get it done. When you say kind of maintaining your composure late, I mean, we still had a couple turnovers, but it was more about just getting good shots. I think the start of defensively, we made them take a couple contested twos. They made a couple. They missed a couple. We got in transition. There was two plays, I think, where they got to the basket. We didn't foul. They missed. Then we turned that into, you know, offense on our side. JP hit a big three in the corner. Clay hit one. You know, I got one. Wiggs made some big buckets at the basket. Lone got that dunk. So, like, we just connected the game on both sides. And the four quarters, we haven't necessarily done that very well, so it was big. You guys had 15 assists in the first quarter and 37 on the night after having 40 in the last game. I mean, do you feel like, we've talked a lot about momentum, but do you feel like this is kind of a turning point where you guys are playing more your brand? Yeah, but sample size is still small. You want to obviously maintain the positive vibes that we've been creating, but we know we have a lot more work to do. So, the way that we started with, obviously, our Wiggs back and our starting line that we've had, you know, since the Boston game, we understand how to create good offense. And then when you have a mindfulness of how we're going to defend, knowing that we're small, we can use it to our advantage. So, the assists and stuff come from a great space. Obviously, guys finishing possessions, but it's a fun way to play when you put it all together. You talk about the defensive stops that y'all did getting that fourth, especially when they got to, I think, one possession. Just talk about how important that defense was that y'all were able to put, be able to slow them down, pretty much shut them down the last couple of minutes. I mean, they had some big threes early in the fourth, got their crowd into it on top of how they finished in the third quarter. But, yeah, we just try to, again, keep them off the free-throw line as much as possible because that slows the game down, lets them set the defense. And then when you get stops, like, because the lineups are heavy small ball, there's a lot of cross-matching, and nobody knows who they're guarding, so it creates some confusion on that end, especially when we get in transition. And that's where we're at our best. What do you think of Shea's game and just what he's trying to do? He's always been a tough scorer ever since we got our first experience with him in the Clippers playoff series. He's shifty. He plays at his own pace. Nobody can rush him. He's tall enough to shoot over you. He's good at drawing fouls. We knew coming into the game he was going to make tough shots. That's what he does. And he ended up with 31 after having two in the first quarter, so he's a scorer. But you just got to make a tough one and make him work. One of those guys is probably going to get his numbers no matter how you guard him. It's just how it looks and how he gets them. How different is it playing them this season compared to the last few? I mean, do you feel them kind of forming, I guess, you know, on this later stage of their rebuild? Yeah, I mean, they're probably playing above what people predicted in the sense of having a young team that's new to each other, but they have a lot of talent. And they're obviously in the mix for a reason because they play hard every night. They use their athleticism. Shade's been playing amazing all year, so you have to pay attention to them. And they won a lot of close games too because they have that youthful energy about them. And they're a tough team to beat regardless of the experience that they have. What was it like getting to hang out with Taylor? Oh, it was great. The timing is crazy just knowing she just broke the record this week. And we're coming through town, and she had a night off. I think she plays tomorrow, but pretty cool to see her, celebrate her accomplishment. She made eight threes in her first college game, and I made eight tonight, so it's kind of a cool connection right there. Any stuff you did for your jersey after you signed up for it? Did you have anything to say to her afterwards or any message you left her with? Finish the year strong. I think the number was 498 or something like that. Yeah, so I said she's got a lot more to hit before her career's over with and probably push the record to something that won't be touched for a while. I'm rocking with Cam Brink and AZ Foot all day, but the Oklahomans probably got a good shot to have a nice tournament run, so we'll see how it goes. How important was it to get a win today and move you guys into the fifth spot? It's interesting because we moved up and we didn't even play yesterday, so it's just one of those things where you can't get too wrapped up into that. It's just about how can you focus on yourself. For us, play well on the road and start building momentum. That's more important because the standings will work itself out as you go. If you take care of your business, you kind of solidify yourself towards the top of that bunch group, but you can't really obsess over the swings because you're one loss away, two losses away from being 10th. It's just how the standings are. They usually campaign to play every game. That's the misconception about load management and how it goes. It's never the player that's usually saying, hey, I want to sit. For all those people that are worried about that part of our league, it's usually not the player that's going to the training staff and saying, hey, I don't have it tonight. It's usually the other way around. There's a lot of science involved, so yes, I will campaign to play, but we'll see how it goes. Do you anticipate the success? I do, actually. I do, so we'll see.