Game plan vs. Kawhi: “Attack him,” says Melton
[videos/interviews/transcripts]
Good to hear De’Anthony Melton talk about the game plan process, as well as Steve Kerr saying Draymond Green is excited, plus Kristaps Porzingis mention that he didn’t want to give away too many of the details while acknowledging Kawhi Leonard is liable to pull up from deep, which is an added wrinkle to his game that the Clippers’ superstar has added this year.
The gathering of the scrum with beat writers midday on the road, it sure feels like the NBA Playoffs, if not for a day or two or three, although it’s just a one-game playoff because, well, it’s the Play-in “Tournament”.
Going into Wednesday’s matchup, my most intriguing thoughts included:
Would the rotation be squeezed à la 2021 to just eight players? UPDATE: Danny Emerman of the SF Standard tweeted on Tuesday that Kerr said in today’s practice he could go 10-11 deep. This sounds plausible considering some of the old guys are on a minutes restriction roughly classified by Steve as “we’re not playing him 40 minutes”.
How will the actions look, especially as we even saw a double-big pick set for one Wardell Stephen Curry by both Porzingis and Al Horford in the meaningless 82nd regular season game the other night, see timestamps:
And will the defense play better? Will the Clippers not be as fast (i.e., John Collins not have multiple fast break dunks) with Kawhi the focal point, which would be a silver lining to our old guys? Looks like Dray will guard Kawhi, obviously, but Melton said the best way to wear him down is to “attack him,” perhaps suggesting that they either expect Leonard to guard Melt or the offense will target Kawhi. We shall see.
Transcripts from Monday’s practice are below the paywall:
00:00 KRISTAPS PORZINGIS, PRACTICE, 2 DAYS BEFORE GSW-LAC: Okay. Obviously, good team across from us. I saw, even yesterday without them having like some of the best players, they were still a good team, know how to play, a few decent defenders, so it’s gonna be a battle, obviously, you know? So they were close to being the 8th seed. That would’ve changed the picture for them, so I think they’re gonna be hungry and we just have to be hungrier and go for it.
00:32 You’re in a bit of a three-point shooting funk right now for the past few games. You have two days to prepare. What do you do in those two days that might be different than what you would normally do?
00:41 Nothing. Nothing, honestly. I’m gonna still shoot it and I believe the next — I always believe the next shot is gonna go in. You have to have that belief, you know? Even if the shot is not feeling perfect or the wrist, or this or that, I can still make shots. I know it. So hopefully the timing will line up perfectly and I can have a good shooting game, next one.
01:06 How did it feel starting next to Al again, last game?
01:09 It was good it was good to, yeah, I mean, Al was super experienced, helps me a lot. I always learn from him, ultimate professional, so to have him out there with me, both of us can shoot. It only helps.
01:25 Could you see you Al and Draymond all sharing the floor with Draymond being obviously on Kawhi and you guys being that behind defense, too?
01:34 I don’t know. I don’t know. Not that I’m saying — I’m not saying, oh yeah, this is the perfect — you know? I don’t know. This is a little bit to the coaching staff. For sure, we can play together, of course. Draymond can guard anybody, so but I don’t know what makes the most sense. That, I’ll leave it to the coaching staff.
01:51 What do you think your presence in the paint can do to help Draymond on defense?
01:56 Yeah, I mean, of course. I have levels still to get to, like, defensively. Obviously, I haven’t been — not near my best, like, mobility-wise, in this like last — this season, in total. So but for sure I’m looking forward to doing what I can on Wednesday. And yeah, I mean, my length is still there, you know? My length is still there, just anticipating things, making the right reads, being there for my teammates, all those things I can do.
02:28 How do you feel like your offensive rhythm with Steph has kind of come along?
02:32 Yeah, I think each game’s a little bit better. Obviously, it’s not perfect from the get go, but also we barely got any time together. It’s just hard to develop some crazy plays playing 14 minutes together, so it’s a process and I’m learning stuff and picking up on these things. And I’m talking to him and to let him know what I like and this and that and yeah, I wish we had more time. I wish we had more time. Maybe we can make more time, you know? So it’s in our hands, but we have to go for it, figure that out, like, on the fly, in the Play-in game, for sure. I mean, not that I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me. It’s not like, oh, okay, we go from zero to a hundred, but for sure we can make some progress, even in this game. Like, we had yesterday a little bit of time together. We had good talks and stuff and a guy like Steph, like honestly, he draws so much attention that he can make me look good without me even doing anything, just being out there, you know? So it’s a blessing for me.
03:34 To follow up on that, how much of a benefit is it to have these two days of practice?
03:39 Of course, of course. More time, more preparation, more video, more talking, everything, so but it’s also for them, so it’s an even playing field. It’s not like we’re getting some extra time, so just getting fresh and ready for the game.
03:51 What do you feel like has affected your mobility on defense?
03:55 My weight. My weight, my rhythm. Like, I haven’t really played and I’m relatively healthy, I would say, aside maybe from the wrist and this, so yeah, I just need to lose a couple pounds, honestly. Like, I need to, you know? But and I know it sounds weird because all my career, everybody, oh, you gotta put on weight, you gotta — I’ve tried that. It doesn’t help my mobility and when I’m lighter, like how I was in Boston, it’s when I move the best, when I’m the most effective.
04:25 (Inaudible) Kawhi’s been averaging career-highs on threes, scoring. His three-point rate’s the highest it’s ever been, so how do you guys prepare, begin to prepare for a guy like Kawhi?
04:33 Yeah, he’s gonna shoot. He’s gonna shoot more. He’s gonna shoot in transition, so not to give away too much, but a big challenge on our hands, one of the best players in the world. And let’s see if we can stop him a little bit. Cool?
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04:50 DE’ANTHONY MELTON: Because we feel like we’re better than our record given, I mean, the year that we had, so I mean, we got a game Wednesday to win another game, you know what I mean? — the following day, so I think that’s how we looking at it. And we feel like we can compete with any team, so we just gotta just take it quarter by quarter, man.
05:09 How much of an advantage is it to be able to stay here for, now, five days in a row?
05:13 Oh, most definitely, most definitely. I mean, not having to travel and not having to pack everything up, you know what I mean? — get on a plane, do all that stuff, I mean, it’s huge for us just to be able to just relax. It’s great weather, great weather out here, so just do what you want and just get ready for Wednesday.
05:31 Steve said that Draymond was very enthusiastic during film session today. What do you see as from his focus, from his mindset in this one game do-or-die kind of situation?
05:41 It’s different. It’s my first time being on the same side as them, so to see they game plan discipline, how they attack everything and how they think is huge because they’ve had a lot of success. They’ve been to the top of the top, you know what I mean? So just to see how they handle things, I mean, is important for me just to take for my career, but and having vocal leaders is important for us.
06:10 You’re an LA guy. Have you played many high stakes games in the city before?
06:14 Something like that, so but I don’t know if stakes have been this high, you know what I mean? — given what’s going on, so gotta just keep working.
06:26 How do you look back on your season, personally?
06:29 Ups and downs, but I think at the same time, I mean, I be trying to give myself grace sometimes and I think everybody else be trying to tell me, give myself grace because I want it so bad, but that’s what happens with the season that I have. That’s what happens with an injury like mine, so. It was fun and I think that’s all that matters. And right now, I mean, game Wednesday is the most important thing of the season, so that’s all I’m trying to worry about.
06:56 Kawhi had career-highs this year in scoring, three-point rate especially. How do you guys begin to game plan for a guy like him, especially when he’s been so aggressive offensively?
07:05 Attack him. Attack him, attack his dribble, attack him all around the floor. Just make it uncomfortable. Make it uncomfortable. Sometimes great players, they gonna get theirs and get their numbers and do what they gotta do. At the end of the day, you can make it tough. You can wear them down you can be physical with them and you can frustrate them, so roll around fourth quarter, see how they’re feeling around then. But dude like that, you gotta just keep attacking them.
07:35 I imagine you’ll spend some time defending Garland. What do you think about that matchup? What challenges does he pose?
07:42 Quickness. I mean quickness and I mean, he got a crazy hesi, so I just gotta make sure I don’t jump at none of that stuff, but he’s just so quick and he crafty when it gets to pick-and-roll and around the rim, so just gotta be disciplined. And I think the biggest thing for all of us and just all those guys really is just don’t foul them, like, you know what I mean? You see last four minutes of the game, we just giving team the little swipe seven times in a row, almost, so like that’s the type of stuff is just, we just can’t foul, can’t give up and-ones and yeah.
08:16 Do you feel like your quickness is fully back after the knee surgery?
08:21 Yeah, I feel like I can keep up with pretty much all the quick guards out here, but sometimes craftiness and quickness is tough to handle, so it’s a fun matchup for me. I like to guard dudes like that, you know? I feel like it tests my capabilities, so we gonna see.
08:38 To kind of follow on that, from a team perspective, what are the margins that you guys have to manage when you are playing, I guess, bigger, faster teams, more athletic teams?
08:47 Discipline. Discipline and turnovers. I mean, we’re the Warriors, so we always gotta watch our turnovers, but yeah, that type of stuff, you can’t let them dudes get out in transition, you know? They got some young dudes that attack the paint and that type of stuff. We just gotta play into our own hands, you know what I mean? Play our game.
09:08 When a guy has that kind of range though, I mean, you said discipline. When he has that range, he can shoot from 27, 28 feet, how much difficult is it in that moment to not react to a quick move here where he gets to step back on you, that he gets to where he beats you?
09:18 That’s why we pros, right? That’s why we pros. You gotta figure that stuff out, you know what I mean? Sometimes guarding deep bomb threes, you know what I mean? — sometimes you should guard them, but sometimes, I mean, it’s just a great shot, like, you know what I mean? It’s a tough one, so you gotta just be a pro. Just be a pro and see what happens.
09:40 As an on-ball defender, what can a combination of Draymond, Al and KP do for you, like, behind you?
09:47 Allows me to pressure the ball more. Allows me to be more aggressive. It allows me just to kind of be myself out there because they have so much help behind me. And, I mean, they so smart with how they handle defending the rim and switching out and being who they are that, like, it allows me to have a little more of a leeway room with try to attack the ball and try to frustrate people up there.
10:11 Going to battle with a guy like Steph Curry, I think Podz has said, like, just feels like you guys can beat anybody. When you have Steph, what kind of confidence does that give the team and everything?
10:20 Like you said, we could beat anybody when we have that man over there and I think he shows the ultimate confidence. And I think that’s what kind of resonates through the team for us, just how confident he is in us, you know what I mean? — as a team, as a group, even given injuries. And I mean, as you see, how he fought to get back. I mean, we gotta, we could just do our best and just play hard for him, like, you know what I mean? Just put our bodies on the line because he was definitely doing it for us.
10:48 How do you think he kind of looks right now, given that he’s only had like a week to kind of ramp up?
10:52 I mean, he look good. Every day is always better than the last, so I think that’s important, too, but I mean, we got the most utmost confidence in him, no matter what.
00:00 What was — what’s kind of like, I don’t know, the scripted practice, is what you’re trying to get done?
00:06 STEVE KERR, PRACTICE, TWO DAYS BEFORE GSW-LAC: We just went through a good chunk of our game plan, walked through stuff. With the game last night, we didn’t do anything live. Guys are getting shots up now, but good film session, start to lay out our game plan, but we have another day tomorrow to add to that and so we didn’t throw everything at them today.
00:27 Go more live tomorrow?
00:29 A little bit, yeah. Yeah, more drill work tomorrow and more active preparation.
00:34 Are you pretty confident injury-wise that everyone should be good to go?
00:38 Yeah.
00:39 I know you said last night Steph won’t play 40. How much do you think you can stretch him, minute-wise?
00:45 I think he’s had four games now. He stretched almost up to 30 last night, so with the two days off he should be able to get at least that and then hopefully some more.
00:59 You didn’t know for sure that it would be the Clippers in this Play-in round, but there was kind of, it was kind of trending that way. How much advanced prep were you guys able to do before this week?
01:08 Well, we have our advanced scout Scott Vaughan, who’s watched both of them pretty carefully over the last couple weeks. He was at the Portland-Clipper game the other night in Portland. He’s working with our individual coaches who have their respective scouts. This is Seth Cooper’s scout, so Seth has been tracking the Clippers the last couple weeks. Khalid Robinson has been tracking Portland, so we have a system in place so that we were ready for either team.
01:46 Kawhi is the first player to average career highs in his 14th season. Kawhi Leonard career-highs in points, three points, three-point rate is a lot higher this year. How do you begin to prepare for a guy like that? Are there things different with how aggressive he’s been offensively this year?
02:00 Well, he’s always been a great player, so I’m not sure how much you’d change now compared to when we saw him in the Finals in ‘19, for example. He’s just gotten better and better, but he’s still doing the same things. He’s just doing them at a high level, so the game plan doesn’t change but you have to recognize just how good he is, how much they depend on him. And we’ll watch everything in terms of what they’re running for him, his favorite spots to be in. We’ll have some rules for our guys that we’ve had in regular season games, too, in terms of not letting him do certain things. He’s gonna really try to get fouled. He’s going to do the NBA thing, which lots of guys are doing. BP does it for us, try to use the rules against the other team and get to the foul line, so we have to be prepared for all of that, just like they do with BP.
03:05 De’Anthony’s had a few rough shooting games lately. I’m wondering what have you seen from him over the last — ?
03:09 Well, he shot it better over the last week. He had the big game, last game. I can’t remember now who we played, but, I guess, Sacramento. He had the big second quarter. He had a good game at home before that. Shooting is up and down for everybody. It’s just part of the game, but I’m very confident. De’Anthony’s had a really good season and I’m confident in the body of work and the experience, playoff experience he has. I think he’s gonna come out and play great tomorrow or Wednesday.
03:42 What did you like or didn’t like about the two-big combination between Al and Kristaps last game?
03:46 I like it. I mean, it gives us a different look. Obviously, both guys are really good scorers we can play through. Either one of them gives us protection in the paint defensively, so I like the combination.
04:00 How does things change between them, though, having Dray on the court, too, though?
04:04 Well, we didn’t do that last night, but you’re saying if we play all three of them together? Yeah.
04:10 All three together or just having all three available.
04:12 Yeah. I mean, we’ll — It’s something we might do. It would be based on how the game is going, but it doesn’t change too much. What it does is, it forces you to make lineup decisions, who’s gonna start or who’s gonna guard the 5? Is the 5 a shooting big like Lopez? Can you have one of them on a wing? I mean, those are all the decisions that go into it.
04:43 What are the pros and cons of using Draymond as the primary defender on Kawhi compared to when you have a more free safety?
04:50 Well, the pros are that he’s the best defensive player on our team. He’s one of the very best in the league. You can put him on anybody, doesn’t matter, point guard, center, wing. And he’s gonna do a good job on those people, so and the negative is that he doesn’t play center field. He’s not there to clean other things up at the rim. He’s more out on the perimeter. And so some of that may be based on combinations, whether he guards him or not, so we have to prepare for everything.
05:24 Is that the benefit of this roster’s construction, potentially, that — ?
05:28 Yeah, having a little more size behind Draymond with Kristaps and Al, for sure we’re more capable of putting him on a perimeter player than we would’ve been before we got these two guys.
05:40 Steve, to that, Draymond doesn’t exactly back away from any challenge. Do you think he wants Kawhi for most of the game?
05:49 I wouldn’t say that. I think Draymond just wants to win, whatever that looks like. And but you’re right, he embraces every challenge, but the Clippers pose a lot of threats. Obviously, you’ve got Lopez on the pick-and-pop. He’s been shooting the ball really well. Garland has changed their look and their feel, added more speed, so we’ve gotta be cautious of giving him too much space and so there’s a lot that goes into this, not just guarding Kawhi.
06:23 Do you see any similarities in Steph and maybe Darius, to a lesser extent, in their game, the ability to stretch the floor out, be able to move a lot off the ball? Do you see any similarities there at all?
06:31 Say that again?
06:31 Darius Garland and Steph Curry.
06:32 Darius and Steph?
06:33 Yeah, do you see any kind of similarities in their game at all with the ability to extend the range, the ball movement, that kind of stuff?
06:40 Yeah. I mean, he’s a guard who can really light it up from three and penetrate and get into the paint, so guys like that are always really difficult to guard.
06:49 Draymond kind of said that, a couple games ago, like, he’s not exactly excited for this game. He, like, he’s gonna come and compete and everything, but he’s not exactly excited for this Play-in game. I guess, what’s the vibe around the team right now? Is there like a fiery sense of excitement?
07:02 That was last week. That was last week. Draymond’s very excited. Yeah, I mean, I can tell you just from going through our scout, our scouting report, he was extremely engaged and it’s basically a playoff game even though it doesn’t count. And I always wonder by the way, what if somebody gets, like, what’s the all-time playoff scoring record for one game?
07:21 It doesn’t count. (Inaudible) you mean? Playoff?
07:23 Playoff.
07:24 Jordan.
07:24 Jordan, 63? So if Steph or Kawhi gets 64 Wednesday, does it just vanish? Just disappears?
07:32 I guess we’ll see.
07:33 I guess we will. Hopefully, it’s Steph, not Kawhi.
07:36 Steve, does that one come up at the meetings at all? Like, can we count these stats for these games?
07:41 No, no, but we just chuckle about it, mainly.
07:45 You mentioned earlier with BP and his foul drawing, I think he had a play last night and maybe also the game before where he feels the contact, puts it up and it goes in, but they don’t give him the free throw. What’s the right continuation call, as you understand it right now?
08:01 The right one meaning — ?
08:03 The right way to call continuation.
08:04 Meaning the league rule?
08:06 Yeah.
08:07 As I understand it, if you’re within the gather, then it’s continuation. If you haven’t gathered yet and the foul happens before that, then it’s no free throws.
08:20 Has the way he been approaching those specific plays been the right way, or do you want to see him do something else?
08:26 It’s the right way, based on the way we officiate in the NBA, so if you can draw a foul, you just draw a foul, even if it’s not a shooting foul. You get — you’re one step closer to the bonus, so BP’s a really smart player. Those plays usually happen as he’s kind of running through the catch, as we say, and the defense is out of position and, in most leagues, college ball, FIBA, they’re not gonna call foul when you basically try to game the system. In the NBA, we reward gaming the system. And so guys have to understand that you got — you’ll see guys do the, as they’re driving and they do the swipe-through underneath. I mean, most of the league is doing that. And so this has been a big theme in the league, the last decade-plus, of understanding that the league is gonna be very black and white with their interpretation of plays. And so guys have learned how to sort of draw a lot of fouls. I think I said that very diplomatically, if I’m not mistaken.
09:43 There’s a documentary coming out about Jerry West and his life.
09:45 Yeah, I’m gonna go tonight, yeah.
09:46 What do you remember most about Jerry and what was his biggest impact on you?
09:52 Well, when I got here and he was with the Warriors, he was somebody I leaned on quite a bit. I would call him about once a month and just check in with him. Say, what are you seeing? What do you think with our guys? He was a big presence with our team. I remember watching him play, growing up here in Los Angeles when he was a Laker — kind of the very end of his career was like the early part of my NBA fandom at seven or eight years old. So I remember watching the Lakers on TV celebrate their championship. West’s one championship. ‘72? Tim (Roye)? I think it was ‘72, but yeah, so a lot of memories of him as a Laker, but more as an executive once he became the GM. And but once I got here, he became a friend and somebody I really leaned on, respected his opinion and he wasn’t shy about giving it, so he was really great to talk to about the game.
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