Quinten Post takes responsibility for Jalen Green going off

[G2-GSW-HOU videos/transcripts]

Quinten Post has gradually become one of my favorites when it comes to guys on the podium. Not only does he have a common-sense approach, most notably when he answers a reporter with, “XYZ, right?”

But also he’s one of the few NBA players who takes responsibility and details what he needs to improve on.

Even though Jalen Green is a wing and dropped 35 on the Warriors in Game 2, Post took the blame, at least during the times he was on the floor with Green. When a reporter prefaced a question about Jalen’s performance with, “I know it’s not your position,” Post replied:

It is also on me because they tried to — whenever I was out there — they tried to put me in the ball screen, so on my job, I gotta be better. I let him get loose in the first half. He split me, got to the rim and then our guards, they need to pressure him more. We need to take away what he wants to do. He was too — it was too easy for him tonight and so it's on everybody, but it's also most definitely on me.

I recall that gorgeous move by Green with 3:34 to go in Q1. Jalen went between the legs to cross Quinten, but it was after a pick by Alperen Sengun on Gary Payton II that got Green downhill, and it looked like Jimmy Butler may have been late on the help. Jalen somehow even finished the move with a dunk. Sheesh!

Overall, to me, the physicality of the Rockets, as orchestrated by Ime Udoka, got one Wardell Stephen Curry out of sorts immediately out of the gate and, with Butler gone by the end of Q1 due to the bad fall, there was no Robin to calm Batman down and the remaining squad that, in Draymond Green’s words, “couldn’t get over the hump,” (transcript below, per usual) reminded me and our livestream audience of the identity we had before the trade for Jimmy. You know, the one that went 25-26 and threw the ball to the other team a lot.

But I’ll get into this later as I rewatch the first quarter. I said on-air last night, I didn’t recognize the game that I’d grown to love because of all the near-football-like physicality, which Udoka is exploiting, and I heavily criticized Adam Silver for allowing this — and other previous egregious errors such as the fouls that were actually called last year, ergo, I see it as a pattern of his tenure — to happen under his watch. Again, I’ll save that for later.

As for Quinten, he actually blamed himself twice. In only the second response on the podium, asked about what he’ll take away from his first two playoff games, he answered:

That the playoffs is very physical and I gotta be better, personally, moving my feet and gotta get more physical boxing out. And, as a team, we'll bounce back. We'll be ready for Game 3.

Post is gonna be a helluva vet someday, with that combination of taking responsibility while exuding confidence. I can picture a cross between Andrew Bogut and Klay Thompson. He’s a keeper.

For anyone wondering about his contract, don’t worry. He’s deeply indebted to Golden State for making him relevant and a potential star, and with the expiring contracts of the Big Three coming in Summer 2027, giving Post a standard 1+1 (the “+1” being a team option) conversion of the previous two-way contract, with the Jonathan Kuminga restricted free agency to be determined and leaving some optionality given being only $37 million under the second apron, that was the right thing to do for both sides.

This is especially true for Post. If the Warriors end up going in a different direction and get constrained by the second apron — speaking of Batman, let me give you the “Christopher Nolan” fairytale-embedded-in-realism scenario: the Milwaukee Bucks get bounced by the Indiana Pacers and Joe Lacob and Mike Dunleavy, Jr. try to pry Giannis Antetokuonmpo away (thanks to our Eric Guilleminault for this “inception”). QP’s agent would want his client to also have optionality to maximize his value.

And with that, I would like to segue to announcing a tweak here at LGW-dot-com:

1. From now on, all the transcripts here that you’ve gotten used to will be behind the paywall for at least two days, but you can always read them asap by going directly to the YouTube channel — although I might change that process as well, we’ll see.

2. Every paid subscriber here on Substack will get access to our Discord server, which is the ultimate aggregator of quality Warriors (and NBA) journalism. I talk about it a lot and even show it in action on every Watch Party. It already has updates, as I write this, on Jimmy’s injury from key NBA insiders. It is like a carefully curated Twitter/X List without all the eyesore outraged replies, and yet our Discord is Xitter on steroids because it draws from multiple platforms including Instagram, where every nearly NBA player and agent has an account, and BlueSky.

3. This deserves its own bullet point: Our Discord server can also organize video in an elite way whereby all other platforms cannot.

4. I will likely increase the price of the Discord server assuming the Warriors continue a deep playoff run (please get healthy, Jimmy 🙏).

5. Soon, subscriptions to the Discord will be primarily not via the manual way of also being a paid subscriber here on Substack. But this Substack will continue on in its present form as always. If you like Substack and you like supporting me (thank you, it’s needed, believe me 🙏), just stay here and I can add you onto our Discord server as needed. It’s just that people who already love Discord don’t want to have to come here just to signup, so I’m gonna be making it easy for them to do that.

6. All of the above is dependent on my available time. Sometimes I get really busy uploading videos and, now, editing podcasts — or in today’s case, rewatching and analyzing/clipping Q1 of G2.

7. If you are a paid sub on here and want to activate your Discord server access, just email me at rich@letsgowarriors.com.

I will always embed the videos which, again, have the whole transcript anyways in the Comments, and then the transcripts for each one will be behind the timed paywall that disappears two to three days later.

So here we go with the first transition of LGW-dot-com, in reverse chronological order from yesterday: postgame with Steph, then Draymond, then Steve Kerr, Kerr pregame, and finally views from morning shootaround plus interviews with Buddy Hield and, actually, another one with Quinten that reinforces my feelings about him above…

00:00 Steph, how did you feel like Jimmy Butler, going out of the game in that first quarter, affected the offense? And what did you notice from the Rockets defensively after that?

00:27 STEPH CURRY, POSTGAME G2-GSW-HOU: I mean. It's tough. I haven't seen the play yet, but Jimmy's going for a rebound and comes down. I've had that happen a couple times. You know exactly what it is. It's just a matter of how bad it was and I don't know, but it definitely changed the dynamic of our offense. Him and BP play a combined 21 minutes, so it's kind of, it shuffled all the rotations a little bit and we put up a good fight, but I knew they were selling out again to try to take my like clean looks away and I got a little rushed, certain possessions trying to go with one-on-three or sometimes four and had a couple jump ball turnovers and stuff like that, but I know we'll be able to adjust going home, just to be able to figure out where spacing is, whether Jimmy's out there or not, to get ourselves clean looks. We had a couple runs, second half where we had some life, but they had too much separation. We couldn't get over the hump.

01:34 So did you get a chance to talk to Jimmy either at halftime or right after the game, get a feel for how he's feeling right now?

01:43 Nah, I'm sure 800 people have asked him, so I didn't want to be 801. I know if he can play, he will play and that's what you expect.

01:54 What are the first few days after a contusion like that, that you know the ones that you've dealt with, what do they feel like and can — is it a pain tolerance thing, generally to see if you can play?

02:07 I don't wanna speak on what he's got going on 'cause one of mine was like a hairline fracture and the other one was just a deep contusion, so they're very different and you have to handle them differently. The last one I had was just a contusion and that is just a pain tolerance thing to make sure you don't have — it doesn't change your mechanics or there's not like compensation injuries that could happen if you're not moving right, so yeah, I think, hopefully it's just a contusion 'cause you could play through that, eventually.

02:40 Draymond said he thought it was less physical tonight than Game 1. What did you think of just the overall physicality Houston brought?

02:55 I mean, actually I might agree with that. There's just a couple crashes that happen out there, but it felt like they were — we know what their their MO is and what they're trying to do, use their size, the athleticism there, size advantage at times to try to bully us and we held up a pretty good fight both games. I think we just let Jalen get going a little bit and he got free to space. There's no reason he should get up 18 threes. We gotta figure out a way to control where he is on the floor. It's that those are all momentum threes that kind of kept the separation, so yeah, probably, I mean, as physical as Game 1, but just a different style 'cause we let him get loose.

03:41 Steph, I think you guys have been held under 100 in five of the seven games total this season against them. Is that just how the series is gonna go with their style of play, or how do you guys combat that?

03:54 How many times have they've been under a hundred? That's just the style of this matchup, so I don't care what the score is, as long as we got more points. We gotta get back to that. You always say, "stay ready," even if you're out of the rotation. Jonathan's obviously been out for a while. Did you know he would be ready and did you think he performed like someone who was ready tonight?

04:26 I thought he played aggressive. I know he probably wants to play better and knock the rust off, but as soon as Jimmy went down, I actually saw him on the bench and gave him a little love and knew he was gonna get his number called pretty quickly. And that is the nature of this league. We talk about it all the time. It's just hard to know and predict when it's gonna be, but for him to come out and play with energy and with aggressiveness and just understand he can impact the game and he's gonna have to have a huge part in what we do, I think, whether Jimmy's out there or not, it feels like it could swing a different way. And so that's the challenge and it's always been for him to see the pictures, understand the intensity that's out there, try to be in the right spots defensively, and then when he has the opportunities to be aggressive on the offensive end, take them. We trust him when he has the ball in his hands and however many minutes he's out there and be ready to play.

05:33 Steph, so gang rebounding was a challenge tonight, so — ?

05:37 Say what?

05:38 Rebounding was a challenge tonight. What give you guys confidence that the team can make necessary adjustment next game?

05:47 I thought it was better. They got only 11 offensive rebounds. Obviously, they made more shots, but they only had 11 offensive rebounds, so I don't think that was more the problem. Tonight we, again, let Jalen get loose on some big momentum threes and took advantage of some matchups, so I liked our attention to detail on the offensive end — or, sorry, the offensive rebounding and trying to keep them off the glass, just gotta get more stops.

06:21 Steph, obviously losing Jimmy hurts, but how does it change the way you played tonight — excuse me — or you need to play, if he can't play Game 3. I mean, you've obviously structured a lot of offense and defense around his skillset these last two months. How stylistically, how does the equation change, do you think?

06:41 I don't know. We'll talk. I mean, I don't want to talk too much about it. He could be back next game, so I don't wanna dwell too much on it, but if for whatever reason he is not out there, I'll carry a lot of the lift and the load on trying to create shots and create advantages. We'll have different rotations out there, but yeah, there's a couple plays that we call for him, specifically, but the rest of it is just trying to make the simple play, not turn the ball over, hit the open guy, set solid screens, shoot if you're open. It's normal basketball. It's just a matter of, can we do it consistently enough, make enough shots? I don't think it's too much rocket science. It's just gotta be able to do it.

07:25 Hey Steph, you played in a lot of playoff series and so you've seen all kinds of things happen. Is this what you expect with these two teams? One team makes an adjustment, the other team makes the adjustment, just for the entire series? Is that what you expect?

07:41 I think the goal is when you're on the — when you start on the road, you wanna get one. That's what we did. We wanted to get greedy tonight and try to get another one, but you had to expect that they were gonna come out with some force and you look around the league, evenly matched series are pretty much going that same kind of way, whether road team wins the first game or the second game, it's just you — it's a long series. And we've shown that we have what it takes to put together a 48-minute effort and beat a very good Houston Rockets team. We gotta do it three more times, however. We can get there, so there's gonna be adjustments every game and that's what you love about the playoffs 'cause you're really trying to figure out a team and they're trying to figure out you. And it's a game of runs.

08:34 When you talk about seeing the pictures with Kuminga, what do you mean by that?

08:40 Understanding where help-side defense is, where your driving angles are and not driving into a crowd. If you're open, shoot it, all the decisions that you make pretty quickly. I think when we're at our best as a team — not just him — when we're at our best as a team, either me or Jimmy creates an advantage, we swing the ball, the ball starts hopping, you either get somebody at the basket, you get a clean look from three, you create closeouts that are really hard for teams to have to guard consistently and, yeah, just understanding where your spots are, being aggressive in those opportunities.

09:26 You said if Jimmy can't play, you'll have to carry a lot of the lift and he sort of memorably called himself Robin to your Batman. If he can't play, does Batman have to find another Robin or is it multiple Robins, or how do you view that?

09:39 I love how we're trying to stretch the nickname. I don't know. I'm not too familiar with the comic world to have any other references other than we just gotta find a way to win and it is going to — it's been by committee, maybe not scoring-wise, but in terms of the pieces fitting and connecting the game offensively and defensively, so whoever's out there, still have the confidence that we can win.

10:17 Steph, I think there was a moment when you and Jalen were fighting for ball on the ground and I don't know if y'all were joking or it seemed like y'all came up laughing. What were y'all saying in that moment, if you remember?

10:31 There's a lot of rah-rah stuff in those kind of tussles for the ball and especially on their home crowd. Fred did it Game 1 when he — when I lost it at the free throw line on our side and he tied it up and Jalen did it twice tonight. It's just good basketball. I know Jalen for a long time, so I was just trying to prove I was stronger than him.

10:58 Steph —

10:59 Say, what?

11:00 Are you stronger?

11:03 We'll arm wrestle after the series is over and we'll see.

11:07 Hey, Steph, what would you say has been the biggest challenge for you facing this young Houston Rockets team, first game and second game?

11:18 Just knowing that if even I get by the first defender, there's gonna be another wave of defenders collapsing. They put four different guys on me. First two games, Fred, Amen, Dillon, Eason, so they try to keep a fresh body on you, but they're trying to take away a lot of the off-ball stuff, which we know is our kind of pet actions to get me free if they're gonna trap the ball screens and all that, but I'm seeing a good picture, understanding where some space is, and I'll make the necessary adjustments for Game 3.

12:03 What do you need from your teammates offensively to kind of relieve some of that pressure?

12:10 Just keep the game simple. You don't gotta overthink anything. Just shoot when you're open, pass to the open guy. I'll keep myself out of those traps and tough spots on the court where — I think there was three times a night I ran into two or three different defenders and it was a couple jump balls and I lost the turnover in the third quarter, so I'll try to keep the game simple on my end, too, but if you're open, shoot it. If not, swing it. Run in transition to open space. Again, it's not a complicated game plan, it's just, can we execute and can we make enough shots? And I think we can.

—

00:00 Can you kind of describe the play? What happened on the play where kind of Jimmy got — it seemed like you guys were in a rebound mix and Jimmy obviously got undercut and got hurt.

00:09 DRAYMOND GREEN, POSTGAME G2-GSW-HOU: I don't know. I was trying to box out Thompson and somehow he ended up under Jimmy legs. I don't know. I didn't see it.

00:17 How significant, not only obviously was losing Jimmy, but I guess kind of somewhat the shock of losing him?

00:25 It was significant. Anytime you lose one of your best players, one of your top dogs, it's tough to overcome, but thought we did a good job fighting, giving ourselves a chance, we just couldn't get over the hump.

00:38 How much more physical was this game compared to Game 1 ?

00:41 Thought it was a little less physical than Game 1.

00:54 Draymond, Jimmy's had such a dramatic impact at both ends of the court on this team. How does the way you play have to change if he can't play in Game 3?

01:08 I'm sure we'll have to figure that out. It's no easy task and replacing Jimmy, obviously, we all know what he's meant to this team since he been here and we've kind of tailored our offense a bit around him, so that will have to change a bit, but we'll see. He's tough. We got a couple days off, so we'll take it day by day and see where we get.

01:35 Draymond, steve mentioned how it bothered him that the crowd yelled what it yelled, "F — you," of course. I'm just wondering, did you notice it? Did you let it — how did you feel about that?

01:50 It is not original. Been there before, won a championship while it was happening, so yeah, it's not really an original — can't steal other people's sh-t. That belongs to Boston, so I kind of just kept it pushing.

02:10 What do you think you guys didn't do well? Why did you think you guys lost, say?

02:17 Like I said, I just don't think we were able to get over the hump. We kind of hung around, hung around, hung around, but we just couldn't make that push to get over, what was it? Nine points, 11 points. Cut it to nine again, cut it to 11, just couldn't get over the hump, so watch the film, figure it out, be better on Saturday.

02:37 Were you able to talk to Jimmy and see how he feels?

02:39 Jimmy's only gonna tell you he feel good. Like, "You good?" Like, "Of course." So we'll see.

02:46 Do you believe him?

02:50 He's given me zero reasons to not believe anything he says, so I do believe him.

02:57 What made Jalen Green so tough to defend tonight?

03:02 He made some shots. He got going early, which boosts your confidence after the game he had in Game 1. It was going for him tonight. We will figure out what he did better and come back ready for it in Game 3.

03:20 What happened with you and Fred towards the end there?

03:24 Nothing. We were just talking. Everybody came and surrounded and started pushing, but you know a lot happened if I didn't get attacked. If anything happened, I would get attacked, so nothing happened. We were just standing there, talking.

—

03:45 This Rocket team, their switch-ability on defense, is that something that is giving your offense problems that they can kind of manipulate any kind of screen that you guys are running?

03:55 QUINTEN POST: I mean, they're running some funky matchups where they're guarding — their bigs are guarding some of their wings and, yeah, we just kinda have to adjust, but yeah, they played really good defensively tonight. It was hard for us to score the ball.

04:16 Have you ever been in a series or couple of basketball games as intense as this one? And what is your takeaway from these two games in Houston?

04:24 That the playoffs is very physical and I gotta be better, personally, moving my feet and gotta get more physical boxing out. And, as a team, we'll bounce back. We'll be ready for Game 3.

04:45 Quinten, Jimmy's had such a dramatic impact on this team the last two months. When he goes down like that, what are the emotions like among you guys and basketball-wise, what do you have to do with him out if he can't play in Game 3?

04:57 I mean, he means a lot to us, obviously. I mean, when he went out, he kind of took the wind out of our sails a little bit, but I thought we fought back. We put up a good fight and we'll be ready for Game 3.

05:14 Did you get to check in with him at all after the game?

05:17 Yeah.

05:17 Do you know how he was doing?

05:18 Yeah, I asked him how he was doing. He said he was fine, but we'll see after — we'll see what the diagnosis says after tomorrow.

05:28 When you think about the physicality you mentioned, how would you describe how physical tonight was compared to Game 1?

05:34 I mean, I think you saw a lot more emotions from both sides tonight. Game 1, I don't think there was a big difference. We just couldn't score the ball tonight. Some of their players got loose, made a lot of shots, so yeah, but we know they're a physical team and we just gotta do a better job of matching that.

05:57 You guys have scored under a hundred points, both of these two games. What will it take to get the offense going, how you guys need it to go?

06:09 Let's see. We just can't turn the ball over. We gotta find a rhythm, right? In Game 1, we had Jimmy, today we didn't, so that kind of disturbed our pace. We got sped up a little bit, but we will be fine. We'll find a way to settle us down, get good shots, we'll be fine.

06:32 I know it's not your position, your responsibility, but what do you think led to Jalen Green really getting going like he did for them?

06:38 It is also on me because they tried to, whenever I was out there, they tried to put me in the ball screen, so I just — like, on my job, I gotta be better. I let him get loose in the first half. He split me, got to the rim and then our guards, they need to pressure him more. We need to take away what he wants to do. He was too — it was too easy for him tonight and so it's on everybody, but it's also most definitely on me.

07:07 You mentioned without Jimmy, you guys got kind of got sped up with the pace. Can you sort of articulate the areas of the game that become more difficult without him?

07:17 Yeah, I mean, he was very clearly our second option, right? But behind Stephen and on some nights, he was probably our first option, that one-two punch, so I mean, Steph did his thing and then when Jimmy's not there, then somebody else has to step up and we have to create a form of offense. So, especially when Steph was out, I thought it was hard for us to find an identity on offense and that's hard, when somebody has such an impact throughout, since he came in, and then you just have to find that in other ways. Thank you guys.

—

00:00 Just what were the emotions as you saw — well, Brandin wasn't feeling great and then Jimmy go down, right? Kind of in a real quick succession there. What were you thinking? What was that emotion like?

00:12 There's really no time to even feel any emotion. You just respond and react with what you have to do in terms of making a sub and trying to think about new substitution patterns, who you want to pair together, all that kind of stuff. So obviously I feel terrible for Jimmy. Hopefully he's okay. We'll see. He's gonna get an MRI tomorrow. And BP, really proud of him for making the effort. He's been feeling terrible all day and he tried. He got an IV at halftime. Just didn't have it, so tough night. We'll bounce back.

00:52 Did you talk to Jimmy at all postgame?

00:54 Yeah.

00:55 What — I mean, are you optimistic? Are you just kind of — ?

00:58 I don't — Jimmy always says he's gonna be fine. I mean, but we have to wait to see with the MRI.

01:06 What did you think of the foul or how he went down? Did you think it was — ?

01:11 I haven't seen the replay. I asked our guys behind the bench and they just said it looked like there was some physicality on the rebound and I think Thompson just inadvertently found himself underneath Jimmy, just based on the tug of war that was going on there. So, I mean, we didn't think there was anything wrong with the play. It's just one of those plays.

01:38 What did you generally think of just kind of the physicality and tension that seems to be rising in the series?

01:44 Yeah, Houston played great. They were really physical, just like we expected. They came out with amazing force defensively and, obviously, Green got going and that that loosened our defense up quite a bit. And so it was their night. They played a great game at both ends of the floor and so we just gotta lick our wounds and back to work tomorrow.

02:09 You got, Steve, you got pretty hot in the first quarter, got pretty contentious. What were you talking about there? What was your — ?

02:16 Just the usual stuff. It's playoff time. Everybody's hyped up. I think I was mad 'cause Gary got tripped. Gary had a dunk, clearly got tripped and I thought there should have been a foul called and it wasn't, but stuff happens and I thought that tonight's game was all about Houston just outplaying us.

02:41 Did you say anything to Draymond after that fourth quarter? Seemed like he got a little chippy.

02:46 I haven't talked to Draymond yet, so it's — he's a competitor. He's always gonna be in the mix and so I'll ride with Draymond forever. I mean, the guy's an amazing winner and competitor and it's not ideal when a crowd is chanting, "F— you, Draymond." It's just, I don't know. I mean, they did it in Boston a few years ago in the Finals. It is what it is.

03:22 Is that something that you guys talked about prior?

03:26 I'm sorry?

03:26 Is that something you guys talked to Dray about prior to the game (inaudible)?

03:33 Nah, Draymond, he's been around forever. He's an instigator. He's always gonna be in the mix and because of his career, his championships, his fire. He's gonna be a lightning rod and that's all part of it. I would prefer if fans could use a little more discretion and remember that the guy has kids and it's like there's — I don't know, I just — maybe I'm old school, but I'm all for the fans cheering for their team and if they want to yell at the opponents, great, but I don't know. I just think FU is, it's a little much.

04:19 Steve, after Jimmy went out, did you notice the Warriors maybe key in on Steph a little bit or what did you notice from how they defended you all?

04:28 After Jimmy went out?

04:29 Yeah. Mm-hmm. After Jimmy went out.

04:30 Well, they were keyed on Steph anyway. They're gonna be really aggressive. They're gonna blitz him, so obviously we've gotta be able to counter that. We had too many turnovers against that pressure, so they were blitzing him and they got the ball out of his hands a little bit and we just, we weren't able to counter and generate enough good offense to win the game.

05:00 Obviously, you've always gotta be ready to play even if you're out of the rotation. Did you feel like Jonathan was ready? What did you see from him?

05:06 Yeah, Jonathan was ready. He's been great. He is been preparing every single day, keeping a great attitude. Game 1, he was on the bench cheering the entire time. He's a great young guy. JK is a awesome young guy and his teammates respect him and pull for him and he stayed ready and got some minutes and it's good 'cause we may need him and he needed to develop a little rhythm after missing the last few games.

05:35 Specifically if Jimmy is out or limited, is Kuminga the natural next kind of guy into the rotation?

05:42 Yeah, we'll see how it all plays out. I mean, we have to, if Jimmy's out, we have to rethink everything like rotations and who starts and the best combinations and all that stuff.

05:59 Kind of following up on that, I mean, obviously Jimmy's a great invaluable player, but how does your dynamic change and how will it have to change if he can't play in Game 3?

06:09 I think it's just too early for me to even talk about that. We have to watch the film and we have to figure out what our plan would be. This is the playoffs. This is it. It's an incredibly physical sport. Stuff happens, people get injured and it's all part of it, and there's no time to lament anything. You can feel bad for your player, but you have to move on to what's next and so that's — hopefully, jimmy will be able to play, but if not, then we've gotta, go through our options and put together a plan.

06:47 Without having re-watched the film, what did you think of how they defended Steph?

06:54 Well, they were physical with him, blitzed him quite a bit. He got himself into a couple of spots where he got into trouble with the dribble, but he's Steph Curry. I mean, he's just amazing what he's able to play through, physicality, blitzing, trapping, all that stuff, so he did a great job. It just, we just didn't have enough tonight.

07:18 What did you think of your guys' competitive level? You got Pat Spencer jumping in with nine points.

07:23 He's awesome, yeah.

07:24 Just, do you think there was a fight shown by you guys?

07:26 Oh yeah. No, it was a great, great fight by our guys. I thought Loon came in, gave us really good minutes. For Pat to just come off the bench and give us some offense and generate some good possessions, Quinten post knocking down some threes, I thought our guys really fought and, I mean, it's a 10-point game after the first quarter. That's when they really kind of punched us in the mouth and we hung in there. We didn't make it all the way back, but we competed and we hung in there and proud of the guys.

08:05 How do you feel about splitting the first two on the road? What kind of (inaudible) does that put you guys in?

08:10 Well, we wanted two, but we didn't get two. We got one and they're a hell of a team. They're the 2-seed for a reason and so that's a good trip. Not a great trip, but it's a good trip and excited to get home and play in front of our home crowd.

08:27 Steve, was Gary okay? Because it looked like he was stretching out his back on the sidelines.

08:31 I don't know. Yeah.

—

00:00 You know on Brandin yet?

00:03 STEVE KERR, PREGAME BEFORE G2-GSW-HOU: Don't know yet, so he'll warm up and see how he's feeling.

00:07 Did he participate in shootaaround or — ?

00:09 He did. Wasn't feeling well. Something he ate. He's not contagious, so there's no risk to anybody else if he plays, but just a stomach issue from food, most likely.

00:28 They, obviously, shot very poorly from three-point land in Game 1. What's the key to defending the three-point line?

00:39 I'm under no illusion that it was this amazing defense that forced them to miss all those threes, so they're gonna make more threes for sure and that's fine. The most important thing is, we know our game plan. We gotta follow the game plan, so we're trying to keep certain guys from certain spots that we know they like. You take the three out of transition if you don't turn the ball over. You have to make multiple efforts. When they get an offensive rebound, they kick it out. They had several of those open threes the other night they missed. You have to fly at them and challenge and so there's stuff that you do, for sure, gameplan-wise, energy-wise, activity-wise, and then sometimes shots go in, sometimes they don't.

01:33 Coach Kerr, you have a hometown guy, and the acquisition of Jimmy Butler. Can you tell us a little bit about what you've seen him do in these playoff games on the court as well as in the huddle in the locker room?

01:44 Jimmy's an alpha. He's one of the best players in the league. He's a brute force out there attacking the rim and he combines that force with incredible footwork and fundamental play. That's what makes him great. He never gets sped up. The game always just slows down when he gets it and we get a good shot over and over again. He's also a great defender and he's fearless. He loves the competition. Couldn't ask for anything more.

02:17 There's a lot of talk about Houston's young guys, but they have some solid veterans too, not only Fred and Dillon, but they added Jeff Green and Steven Adams. What can good veterans do for a young team?

02:29 I think playoff experience is important. It's a different game. It's officiated differently. It feels different, different level of pressure and the vets can help, kind of mentor the younger guys and teach them what the playoffs are about. Even in between games when the momentum of the series is going back and forth, there's plenty to be learned from veteran players and it's an important dynamic for sure.

03:00 Alperen Sengun had a pretty efficient night, a lot of one-on-one coverage against him. Are you guys looking to keep him from being a facilitator for this offense in the series?

03:10 Not necessarily. We have great respect for him. I mean, he's an All-Star for a reason and so we're not just abandoning him and letting him go one-on-one. We're just trying to be solid with our game plan and our coverages and I think no matter what we do, he's gonna score a lot of points, so we just have to be consistent with what we're doing. And if the game is going well, we stay with that and if the game is going poorly, then we change our strategy.

03:43 Steven Adams has been one of the best rebounders his entire career, had another great rebounding season this year, of course, on the offensive boards. He's one of the best in the league. How much pressure does that put on a team, your team, when you usually gotta have two or three guys just to keep him off the board?

03:58 Puts a lot of pressure on us. He's a hell of a player. We've seen him in the playoffs before. We know what he's capable of and he's been very effective for the Rockets, so, we just have to try to get a body on him and have all five guys participating in the attempt to get the rebound.

04:23 Brandin can't go, what's the plan?

04:26 I'm not telling.

04:33 Aside from the difference being regular season versus playoffs, what did you see as the main differences between Steph's performance in the final regular season meeting between the Rockets and Warriors and Game 1 this postseason?

04:44 This is the NBA. The 82 games, Play-in game, five preseason games. First playoff game is just, it's not about comparing this game to that game, it's just this is how it works. There's a million games and you have some good games, you have some bad ones. A tough night for Steph. It was a great night for the Rockets, but that game was two weeks ago and has nothing to do with tonight or Game 1. Every game's different and Steph moved on from that game pretty quickly. Thank you.

NO TRANSCRIPT FOR IME UDOKA DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS

—

00:00 Do you ever get tired of shooting the ball?

00:02 BUDDY HIELD, MORNING SHOOTAROUND BEFORE G2-GSW-HOU: No.

00:03 We got like two minutes.

00:04 It's a thing of beauty. You can't get bored. I enjoyed this all my life. No, I don't think I would ever, when I play finish playing basketball, I feel like this will be my therapy session, too, just workout sessions, getting shots up and playing with the kids, stuff like that.

00:18 When do you know that you're done?

00:20 Until I feel good. I still don't feel good, but Raymond (Ridder) is rushing me, so I gotta go on the bus, but I felt better today shooting the ball and get some reps, get some contests, but it's always how you feel good, feel thing.

00:33 Houston was pretty physical last game. Do you think they can be even more physical in game, too, or is there like a limit how physical a team can be?

00:39 I mean, just depends on how the ref left it be physical, wherever they go with it, but they a physical team, they play really hard, respect what they do and we just gotta figure out a way for us to be poised on the offensive end and just execute our way and don't get sped up.

00:56 What do you — when defenders are literally hugging, grabbing Steph, he's running off ball, how do you combat that to keep him — to be able to allow Steph to free up?

01:07 I mean, I think he's seen it all. I think that he's in the mental space right now, whereas just everything, just spiritual for him and he just let everything happen and he figures the games out, whether it's first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, he find his gaps where he be able to explode and that's why he's so good. He finds those gaps where Jimmy might be going the first quarter or second quarter and then the third quarter he has like a 15-point third quarter and you look at the scoreboard, he has 25, 22 and he figures how to get his himself going toward the game. And when it comes, he know how to annihilate people.

01:42 And from a shooter like you, what's it like watching him when he hits that turning three, falling out of bounds?

01:48 I just, I was talking to him yesterday about it. I just know that something spiritual is going on with him. It's not normal and when you see greatness, you have to acknowledge it and you have to tip your hat to that and whatever he is doing is not normal. And I don't think anybody is capable of doing that and I'm just glad to be a part of this, part of this journey right now and to see those type of things.

02:13 So much is made of how smart Jimmy is as a player. Where would he rank in your —

02:17 The dumbest. He's the dumbest player. The dumbest. Nah, he's not smart at all. Yeah, he's the dumbest.

02:28 He told us that he hates when you dribble. How often does — ?

02:31 Nah, I think y'all all read that wrong. I think that if you're watching the game — that's why you watch Instagram too much. You don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, he was — we were talking about grabbing the ball. I didn't grab the ball with two hands. I just dribbled the ball and tried to take off and running and that's what he meant. He didn't meant I couldn't dribble. He meant with me, that's grabbing the ball with two hands. He's talking about him grabbing the ball with two hands before, so I didn't grab the ball with two hands. I just take off and dribble the ball and then went outta bounds and we lost the possession and Houston ball, so that's why he was mad.

03:00 He was talking about, after defensive rebounds?

03:01 Yeah, defensive rebound. Grab them with two hands. That's what he meant. Ask him, I be — I'll be busting (his ass).

—

03:08 What are the main adjustments you think that the Rockets are gonna bring to you guys in Game 2 tonight?

03:14 QUINTEN POST: Sorry, one more time?

03:14 What are the main adjustments that you think that the Rockets might make tonight in Game 2?

03:18 Oh, I have no clue. They probably would want to make some more shots. We'll have to see tonight.

03:27 What are the keys to slowing down Jalen Green?

03:31 Put a lot of ball pressure on him. Make him make decisions in crowded areas, show hands, don't foul him. That's about it.

03:43 These guys on your team have so much playoff experience. This obviously is your first. What's the difference about the playoffs to you so far, versus the regular season?

03:51 Yeah, I mean, for me it's nice, obviously, to have these vets on my team. I just have to kind of fall in line, but yeah, the first game, definitely felt some extra nerves. They got a good crowd here in Houston and — nah, but in the end it's just the same game, just the moment gets a little bigger, that's what Draymond said, so I like that, yeah. So we will, I'll probably feel a little more at ease now in Game 2.

04:18 Not many rookies playing minutes in playoffs this year, you're one of the few. Who are — what do you think enabled you to do that, being picked so late?

04:29 I mean, I'm older than most rookies, which probably helps me. I've seen a lot more in my five years in college and then, yeah, I'm not sure, just obviously grateful to get an opportunity to play in Game 1 and yeah, we'll see how the rest of the series goes, but it's cool.

04:46 Would you allow yourself to look forward at all to playing a Finals game in Boston, potentially, or is that like way too far ahead for you?

04:53 Boston? I don't know if it would be Boston, but Finals would be cool. I'm excited.

04:58 I was just saying in Boston because —

04:58 Oh, because of BC (Boston College). Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess with that connection. Yeah, I mean, playing in the Finals would be awesome, but right now I think we're just focused on Game 2.

05:05 Sure. What about you — you and Kevon played together the last game for a few minutes, which Steve was saying that's never happened before, but it's just sort of the playoffs, you try things here and there. What did you think about that?

05:15 Yeah, I mean, obviously they just play like a jumbo lineup with they're two bigs, so it kind of makes sense that we threw it out there. I understand the vision. We will see if it happens again in Game 2. Like I said earlier, for me it doesn't change too much. I still kind of space the floor on offense and Looin kind of plays that screen-and-dive role, so yeah, we'll see if it happens again tonight.

05:38 Has their two-big lineup and their rebounding — the numbers were obviously pretty striking — has that been a topic among the you guys and sort of a point of pride, like, we gotta fix this?

05:47 Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, we gotta be better on the glass. Yeah, you gotta be better, yeah.

🫶💙💛