The following comes verbatim to me from someone in Klay Thompson’s camp:
He has been saying to himself for the last week that the Warriors game is just another game in November. It’s to help him focus, stay with the objective to win the game, and not let his emotions get in the way. This came out in his response on the podium too. Obviously, there’s a lot of emotions and he doesn’t deal well with emotions publicly, so it all came out in a very cold way. People expect too much and expect him to have perfect answers and respond in the way they want him to. Well, he’s not like that. He’s dealing with all of this the best way he can and dealing with it publicly is not what he wants to do. Obviously a lot of people with the organization and the Dub Nation fans who haven’t turned on him mean a great deal to him. Dealing with all of this isn’t easy at all. It’s even hard for me and I’m nowhere near how it is for him.
I would also add that Klay was just being a good teammate and acknowledging the advice he got from Kyrie Irving, who explained (full transcript of his amazing response, also below at the bottom of this article):
I’ve just told Klay, we have his back and just reiterating and affirming to him that it’s just another game on our road trip, but we know how much it means to you and we’re gonna have to bring our emotions up there too, to be able to meet you where you are, so you enjoy yourself.
There was even reinforcement of this yesterday at Mavs practice at Chase Center, from Dereck Lively:
In case you’re wondering the context of all of the above, it’s in reference to how Klay went viral Sunday night after taking the podium following a very close loss by the Mavs in Denver. The transcript is at the bottom of this article.
Idk, all I saw was the same old Klay I’ve seen for the past thirteen years. No big deal.
“Same old Klay” can actually range, oftentimes randomly, from yelling at reporters for filming his workout while he rehabbed, to suddenly showing exasperation at a question — btw, I still have strong reason to believe at least one of these GIFs was created from a video I took, just search “klay” on tenor.com:
…to smirking from the bench:
…to drinking a random beer in the postgame locker room:
…to just last week, when he completely forgot he was on national TV and picked his nose (thoroughly):
I mean, that’s the thing with Klay. He is a box of chocolates in human form.
So after the loss in Denver, he got asked about his return to the Bay in two nights:
Just what are the initial feelings about going back to Golden State, a place you played for 13 seasons. So what are those initial emotions?
Be good to see people that you grinded with, obviously, but to me, it’s just another regular season game in November. Obviously, there’s bigger implications with the NBA Cup. So that’s what’s on our mind is — in my mind — just to win that, because I haven’t been a part of it yet. I know it’s young, but it’d be fun to play for that title.
Yeah. Do you think it’ll be difficult to kind of compartmentalize just everything that you’re probably going to feel, going into the arena and actually playing in the game?
No, I don’t think so. I’ve been doing this a long time and basketball is basketball.
Were you surprised that they’re giving out the captain’s hats?
I guess it’s a good thing for the fans, so kudos to them.
People pointed fingers at him, labeling him as “apathetic” and almost all the replies and reactions to that night’s clip from Mike Curtis of the Dallas Morning News were of outrage.
All I could do was stand by and smh 🤦🏻♂️ as I saw all the comments fly by immediately following that tweet.
Where I saw just another piece of chocolate and chuckled at it, and btw so did Kyrie and the reporters in the room (check the video below!), a whole shit ton of people online saw poison.
To them I say this: Please, for your own sake, take control of your own happiness.
I understand that a lot of people are suffering out there. They are stuck in the modality of stress and survival. A simple example: That guy at work who you’ve had beef with ever since you can’t even remember? You have to see him five out of the next seven days in the cubicle across the way from you. Your defense mechanisms are on high alert for literally five-divided-by-seven-times-one-hundred percent of your life (71%).
Okay, maybe on a workday you’re really only in the presence of this dude for eight hours out of a sixteen-hour day. But when did you start thinking about having to go to work and dealing with him? And on the drive home, what thoughts, out of the 70,000 you get every day, raced through your head? Which of those 70k did you choose to engage?
How about that disagreement you had or the email he sent that backstabbed you? How long ago was that email? Two days ago? Two weeks ago? Two months ago? Two years ago? Five? Ten? You might be living in the past if you answered yes to any of those.
And then you might also be living in the future, plotting and scheming, manipulating and trying to control your environment toward some outcome where you show your boss how you’re the better employee than him. Or maybe, f— it, you’ll get a new awesome job and brag about it on IG, where you know he secretly follows you. In your mind he’ll be jealous of you. You’ll show him!
So you carry it around and that’s not healthy. You get home and you check the apps and any hint of outrage sends you thinking about your enemy again, what he did to you and how you’ll get him back. You re-transmit all that negative energy back onto the Interwebs as you thumb-type away, reacting to the Klay postgame tweets.
Well, at least lives aren’t being instantaneously lost. To resolve the conflict, you can’t challenge someone to a duel and agree to meet your enemy in the next state over, to probably avoid murder charges for whomever survives the duel (fyi: Hamilton-Burr reference).
At least we are a much more civilized society whereby death isn’t the solution.
And yet, not resolving a conflict — not resolving those heightened stress hormones that are turned on for what seems like 71% of our lives — sure feels like a slow death.
There are solutions to the above example, but honestly it’s probably best if you just join one of my Watch Party livestreams — the next one will be accessible in this playlist — and initiate a conversation with me and I’ll point you in the right direction. I’m more than happy to talk about it. I’ll try my best to get you re-grounded with gratitude, heightened emotions for this team, our GOAT, this game.
But thumb-typing back and forth on an app or in the comments below, writing this TLDR thing that not a lot of people are gonna read anyways, where does that really get us? At least on the YouTube channel, one of us will just be talking in front of a camera and you’ll get the context of my mannerisms and facial expressions as I try to help you out of survival mode. And I’m not here to compete. I don’t want to have cortisol coursing through my veins.
The much better state to be in is gratitude, or compassion, similarly. While the journey to get there can be long and arduous, this is achieved by opening your heart and understanding that behind the veil of our three-dimensional world where enemies may lurk, is a backdrop of love. Love for people, love for the game, love for Klay Alexander Thompson.
Along these lines, understand the “refractory period”.
If you react to everything you see on your timeline without even letting it settle a little bit, who’s in control of your life, your timeline or you? Who’s in control of your feelings, of your happiness?
I often use my own level of road rage to gauge how I’m feeling, btw. Turn road rage on its head and use it as a barometer for yourself. But also learn how to exit that mindset, on the spot. If you can do that with road rage, pay attention the refractory period, you can do that with any moment.
Our brains are the most advanced prediction machines in the universe. They simply want to ensure our own safety, our survival. But when it’s filled with outrage and reptilian reactions and fight-or-flight competitive tendencies, that’s a lot of cortisol for your body to take, especially if it’s a majority of the time, even just 51% as compared to 71%, of your waking life. Does transferring negative energy in the form of thumb-typing on an app really get rid of the cortisol?
And let’s remember when you thumb-type something into permanence on an app like Xitter, the technology encourages its spread and something can become pervasive to the point where it ends up hurting the receiver. While vitriol from fanatics is nothing new and even Steve Kerr has addressed that recently as “part of the job” — I actually don’t entirely agree with his process of dealing with vitriol, which should go hand-in-hand with these words I write — in the pregame at Boston regarding Jayson Tatum…
…because of the enormity of Klay’s return to the Bay, people in Klay’s camp are taking a break from social media and even considering leaving it altogether. I was told the following:
Thank you for reiterating sound advice that we hear from those who care about us and what we tell ourselves all the time. Being a public figure that he is, he’s always known that and had to live by that. It wasn’t so bad before but the last couple years is off the charts vile. With the amount of sewage that’s thrown at him, it piles up quickly. Everyone has their breaking point and tolerance level. That point is reached every now and then no matter how strong we try to be or how much we tell ourselves to ignore it.
So people bullied Klay and his camp to the point where he doesn’t even want to participate anymore. He literally doesn’t want to post anymore boat rides. Is that what you guys wanted? I guess you won? Congrats? Well, here ya go: 💍 🏆 That’s what it’s become about?
Why would you want someone to leave the room, as Muni Long explains of J.Cole?
Do you see how it’s cortisol that puts you in this insane competitive mindset? Heck, it’s not even “fight-or-flight” anymore. Apps make it so easy to thumb-type without any accountability, it’s become fight-or-more-fight. Yikes. 😬
So give your brain a break from predicting the next move or keeping you in alert-mode. Literally put the phone down. You’re not missing anything. You acting on the latest and greatest piece of outrage to be even further outraged by, what’s the point of that? What do the likes and clicks and views get you?
I mean, I get it if you’re a radio or cable station or aggregator or sports-media-brand-that-no-longer-does-actual-journalism or “talking head” — or paid by one of the aforementioned — and your job literally depends on clickbait. Sounds like a pretty stressful job, though, right? Why voluntarily do that if your paycheck isn’t dependent on outrage?
And so you can’t predict Klay. And that’s what makes him beautiful. He’s a box of chocolates. He’s life itself. Klay Thompson is life.
***
And I haven’t even written about why he deserves that $51 million, three-year landing spot in Dallas. I’ve talked about it a million times on YouTube. You would’ve done what Klay did and left. You would’ve had extra competitive basketball juices stored up for two years whilst torn ligaments and tendons healed and you, too, would’ve bet on yourself and turned down what ultimately became a generous $24 million offer before the 2023-24 season unfolded.
At the same time, you would’ve done the same as Joe Lacob this past summer and given Klay the cold shoulder if you had Buddy Hield in your back pocket (at nearly half the salary!).
And stop it with the “Klay was never happy” narrative. You think a baller is gonna step over the line and be a cancer to the team each and every day? I mean, you did use the words “never” or “at all” or the like.
Social media is absolute. Therefore, social media isn’t real life. So when you say “never”, the recipient mind on social media envisions an angry Klay and applies it to all 82 games. It can’t be helped. That’s how the brain works in the modality of outrage.
In a real-life practice facility where one Wardell Stephen Curry occupies the same space, is a “Klay was never happy” even possible? Let alone we’ve seen plenty of Captain Klay on the boat on IG Live. He angrily drove the boat to practice each and every practice? C’mon, man! Think about it!
More basketball math: These AAU kids have it ingrained in their brains to not become a cancer in the locker room, otherwise kiss goodbye to that scholarship or that ensuing pro contract. You guys on social media really drank that Kool-Aid! One or two or three flare-ups by Klay over the course of 82 doesn’t count as cancer, my friends. That’s a Wednesday in basketball, ask any of my former teammates.
Was Klay bitter on occasion about how he played, about his role? Sure. But don’t let that conflate into the Lacob (non-)negotiations. That’s entirely different than never being happy last season. You see, that’s what social media and the lack of a refractory period does to you, it warps reality. It creates separation.
As far as Klay ultimately leaving us, there exists such a thing as an impasse. The older you get, the more you see: in real life, impasse happens a lot.
Like, say, if you’re trying to get to the left-most lane to make a u-turn at the next intersection, fast approaching, and the dude behind you to your left is in a rush to get to work to snitch on his enemy to his boss… Impasse.
Impasse got me to where I’m at right now. Can’t wait to tell that story, maybe for Thanksgiving.
But social media? Social media doesn’t like impasse. You can’t not have a winner. Social media is a zero-sum game.
Btw, Tim MacMahon of ESPN (he’s been on the Dallas beat for years) is apparently coming out with an article today that details the sweeter side of Klay:
(Thank you YouTube commenter and long-time LGW supporter Nicky Diaz for sending that to me.)
I can only hope the pendulum swings back upon aggregation of that article. And maybe everything tonight will be magical and people will have enough sanity left to realize they should not to let their social media experience be the scourge of their human existence.
“Turn it on its head,” as one Wardell Stephen Curry likes to say, and make your social media app a reminder (instead of a repellent) of your gratitude for seeing behind the veil, for seeing humanity behind-the-scenes when the stressed-out zombies only see complaining.
Do I remember Klay for yelling at me whilst filming his rehab, and then me getting bullied online as they twisted a simple truth into me actually doing something to provoke him and having a bad reputation with him? Do I blame him for that? Am I bitter?
Nah. Heck nah! 😂 I laugh and wear that moment as a badge of honor for sharing it with Klay, really. I mean, not a lot of people get to have a moment with Klay in their lives, tucked away somewhere in grey matter. He probably forgot about it entirely. But, yeah, I had a rough couple days online back then with the bullies, when I didn’t know what I do now. Turned out okay, didn’t it? Hint: It always does.
I remember Klay for the positive, heightened emotions, not the moments that down-regulate your body’s production of healthy proteins. I remember the time when Zaza Pachulia interrupted our media scrum and gave him a fake newspaper (thanks to Raymond Ridder) that had Zaza outscoring Klay:
These are the emotions that will surely be brought out in the pregame tribute video tonight. 🥹 And with that, let me pre-extend heartfelt thanks to my colleagues such as Kassidy Iwashita of Warriors TV who probably worked tirelessly on that tribute video. ✊
Giving you factual evidence from Klay’s camp or having salary cap knowledge and an understanding of the who/what/where/when/how of NBA media throughout my decade-plus of being a credentialed media member, so you have the justification to feel happy about something, is what I do on the regular here at LGW.
But it also only cures the symptoms.
The real change is within you. You have to want to stop your addiction to outrage which is fueled by the power of social media tech. That means seriously addressing what to do about stress and anxiety. It’s so pervasive now because social media re-projects it.
I can’t say it enough: being able to tap gratitude and compassion at will instead of being at the mercy of anxiety is the best thing ever. Have I mastered that? No, but I’m getting there, with ups and downs and rights and wrongs. There’s a bonus of the journey: you learn that that type of mindset leads to creativity, community, caring, humanity, love.
It’s so good, you don’t even have to take a bite of one of those chocolates. You can just look at them all there and just appreciate every single one of them. And share them with others. Connect and reconnect.
Have a wonderful night, tonight, DubNation. And don’t let any app change that.
🫶💙💛
TRANSCRIPTS FROM OKC:
00:00 You guys, after Chet went down with the hip and they went small, was this an example of you having the adaptability and depth that y’all talked about as the game shifts (inaudible)?
00:16 DRAYMOND GREEN: Yeah, definitely. Oftentimes when you’re talking about depth, you’re talking about how deep you can go. Obviously, just the sheer amount of guys you can play, but the main reason depth is important because you — if you remember last year, Steph and Steve talking about the lineups and just kind of running out of options of lineups that we can go to. And this year is the total opposite. If we need to go small, we can go small. We need to put a shooting lineup out there, we can put a shooting lineup. We need to put a defensive lineup, we can put a defensive lineup. We need to put a big line up, we can put a big line up. And so, definitely makes a difference on a night like tonight where they played five guards all night, pretty much. It’s good we’re able to have that adaptability.
01:04 What of De’Anthony (inaudible), but just in general, what do you like about his game?
01:09 He gives us another ball-handler. Obviously, the spacing that he provides. And then defensively, taking on that challenge of guarding Shai, being the primary defender on Shai, and that’s a tall task. He’s one of the better scorers in our league and say you held him 24 points, that’s good work.
01:35 To go 4-1 on a road trip like this and it started where you guys kind of blew the lead and held on, you blew the lead, you held on. What do you learn about this? What kind of group — a group like this still forming together, coming together on a road trip?
01:48 You just learn a lot about yourself in the face of adversity. Two — both road games, obviously, crowd get into it. Young teams with crazy energy and just withstand their punch. Yeah. They’re a proud team, that’s why they are 8-2 now. This organization is known for their competitiveness, for their drive and they were never going to quit and they put a group out there that found the energy. And they were able to give their starters a chance. So you just got to give a lot of credit to this, their organization as a whole, and just having guys that would never quit.
02:32 For you guys, though, that’s forming an identity?
02:36 For sure. And we know-, we’ve known since the start of camp what we wanted that identity to be. And we’re working towards it. At times you get away from it, but most important thing is you find a way to get back to it. And I think we did a good job of that tonight.
02:57 What jumps out about the way Kyle centers small-ball units and how do you feel playing in small groupings with you guys today?
03:04 I love playing with Kyle. When he’s on the floor, he brings a lot of what I bring. And so just having that guy who is communicating in the back line. I was telling Loon on the bench, when I’m in the game with Kyle, it feels like I’m in the game with Loon. I can take more chances, can be more aggressive in certain spots because you know he’s going to be there to cover it. And then he adds another ball handler, another playmaker. So it’s been — I’ve always said how much I hated playing against him. It’s been great to have him as a new addition.
03:44 Klay game is Tuesday —
03:47 We have a very important In-season tournament game on Tuesday. We bombed it last year and I’m looking forward to having a better turnout in it this year.
04:00 What did it feel like for you, just running with that first group? Steve said that was something they had talked about for a while.
04:04 DE’ANTHONY MELTON: Yeah.
04:05 How did it feel to be out there with that first unit?
04:06 It felt good. I mean, I ain’t seen that lineup since, I think, almost like the first or second game of preseason. So a lot of lineup changes and I think that’s what makes it so deadly at the same time, being able to switch lineups up and get out there and play different guys. So, I felt great. I felt like we was able to run out there and get guys open looks too.
04:25 Yeah, Chet’s injury, obviously changed things. You guys downsized. What popped about those small lineups where you’re out there defending the ball (inaudible)?
04:33 Like you said, we was defending, you know what I mean? We was defending, guarding the ball, switching, recovering for each other. I think that’s the biggest thing. We was helping the helpers out there. And even when we was giving up some cheap fouls and stuff like that, we responded well by getting more stops and executing some good offense.
04:51 What’s your mentality on the glass, knowing that smaller lineups are going to necessitate it?
04:56 Go get it. Go get it. Like, I just — you know what I mean? I hate having to guard, you know, 25 seconds and give up an offensive rebound. They’re having to go guard again. So I know I don’t like it. I know other people don’t like it, too. So it’s just, attacking the ball. I think that’s the biggest thing. We just continue to attack the ball with those rebounds.
05:15 Yeah, both in the games you played and obviously watched, too, 4-1 on this road, what do you take away from a road trip like this, this early that you can apply moving forward?
05:22 We’re a tough team. We’re resilient the way we responded, after — given what happened last game. We responded well. We came back and we felt like we came with even more aggression and that’s what we need.
05:37 What do you think Tuesday is going to be like?
05:41 STEPH CURRY: I don’t know, actually. We’ve had homecomings before, but nothing like this with the level of impact and the brand of Klay in the Bay Area is something that I don’t know. I don’t know if any word I — or way I explain it will do it justice. We obviously have a game to play. So you want to make sure you’re locked in mentally on that, but he deserves the celebration and the welcome that he’s going to get. And then, like I talked about before, it would be a great opportunity to reflect on all the memories that we had. I don’t want to be too crazy where it’s not a memorial or like a (inaudible), like, we’re still talking about basketball and life, but you want to enjoy the moment of getting the celebration that he deserves and however it plays out. I just hope he feels the love because he deserves it.
06:47 Has it been weird for you to see him in a Mavericks shirt?
06:53 Yeah, I mean, that’s kind of like every teammate that you have a history with, for sure. Klay is just, I mean, the tenure. I played with him for 13 years. So, definitely is different. And it’s weird seeing 31. I hate that.
07:05 Ah, I just love that. I think just good momentum and not trying to ride the emotional rollercoaster of people declaring who we are as a team too early. It doesn’t really matter. It’s just win games and build that identity as you go. I think Houston and DC, those are games you probably say we should win. And Boston, Cleveland, OKC. It’s — we understand they’re the best teams in the league and have been for, besides Cleveland, like a couple of years. So you go in with the idea that if you play sound basketball, you should be able to win. You go 2-1 in that stretch and it’s great. So I don’t think it would matter how the games would have fallen if you said 4-1 on the road trip. When you get on the plane leaving San Francisco, you’ll take that in a hot second and get back home. So I’m excited about continuing to build momentum. I remember last year how we had a good start and then the wheels fell off a little bit. So you want to keep pushing in the right direction. And we’re doing that.
08:10 Just what are the initial feelings about going back to Golden State, a place you played for 13 seasons. So what are those initial emotions?
08:22 KLAY THOMPSON: Be good to see people that you grinded with, obviously, but to me, it’s just another regular season game in November. Obviously, there’s bigger implications with the NBA Cup. So that’s what’s on our mind is — in my mind — just to win that, because I haven’t been a part of it yet. I know it’s young, but it’d be fun to play for that title.
08:44 Yeah. Do you think it’ll be difficult to kind of compartmentalize just everything that you’re probably going to feel, going into the arena and actually playing in the game?
08:54 No, I don’t think so. I’ve been doing this a long time and basketball is basketball.
09:00 Were you surprised that they’re giving out the captain’s hats?
09:06 I guess it’s a good thing for the fans, so kudos to them.
09:11 What are your thoughts on them as a potential matchup since you’re familiar, obviously, with kind of the philosophy of the playstyle? What’s most important when you’re kind of flipping that perspective, entering the matchup against him?
09:24 Probably share my knowledge with my teammates and coaches and try to limit what they do well. Obviously, a high-volume, three-point shooting team. And switch a ton on defense. So we’ll go into Tuesday trying to counteract those two aspects.
00:00 STEVE KERR PREGAME, WARRIORS AT OKC: Their defense has been fantastic. Number one in the league, you can see why. They’ve got a lot of long ranging defenders. Adding Caruso really took them to another level. And they’re playing really, really well. So we’ve got a tough task ahead of us. But we’re excited about the challenge.
00:22 Getting a look at athletic defenses like Cleveland, Houston on this trip, does that help prep for a team like Oklahoma City?
00:29 Yeah, yeah, for sure. Just yeah, the more tough defenses we play, the more we understand how we have to execute and how much work is ahead of us to learn to execute better and under pressure. So it’s a, like I said, good challenge for us, and they’ll test us in a lot of ways.
00:52 You mentioned the defense. I understand, just the OKC team, through a small sample, there’s probably some (inaudible) baked into there, but their defensive readiness, miles ahead of the rest of the league. You’ve been part of some great defensive teams that have had stars from the old Bulls, the old Spurs, these early Warriors. Just, are there similarities, any underlying traits that they share with some of those teams, the defense?
01:13 Well, you need, number one, you need personnel. You need guys who can guard the ball, contain the ball, and you need guys with size and speed, and they have all of that. So all the best defenses that I’ve been a part of have shared those qualities.
01:32 He was just talking about your defense, particularly in the Boston game, that how much too on the ball pressure you’re putting, maybe more than years past. Is that important? I know that was kind of matchup-specific, but how much more of an emphasis is that this year?
01:46 Yeah, we’re doing more of that, just based on personnel. We didn’t have that personnel last year to extend out and trap a lot. So I feel better about that this year. We’re playing, obviously, more guys, but we have more guys who can cause some havoc. And so we’re just playing to our personnel.
02:08 What are kind of the pitfalls of that, that you need to watch? Because you haven’t looked necessarily at doing that a ton in the past. Like you said, I know it’s personnel based, but where are you watching to make sure that it’s not (inaudible)?
02:19 Yeah. Well, you have to be conscious of when and where to trap. I think, when teams are prepared for it and ready for it, they’ll try to bait you into trapping in an area where they can get the ball out quickly and then it’s probably an open three on the other side of the court, so that’s the big concern. I’m sure they’re prepared for that. But if you choose your spots wisely and catch teams when they’re vulnerable and in vulnerable spots on the floor, then it can still be effective.
02:54 For a guy like Lindy Waters, one of his biggest strengths is three-point shooting. What are some other things that he’s done well since he got here that’s helped him stand out, crack the rotation?
03:02 Everything. Everything. He’s smart. He’s tough. He gets in the fray, defensively. He rebounds. He’s a good passer. He understands the game. So if there’s a disjointed possession, he gets to space. Lindy is a not only a great shooter, but a really, really good basketball player.
03:23 STEVE KERR POSTGAME: First of all, just thoughts go out to Chet Holmgren. We’re all hoping he’s okay. He’s an incredible young player and you hate to see anybody go down and it looked serious. I don’t know What, the outlook is, but we’re all thinking about him. Just because the injury kind of turned it into a small game, was this an example of the adaptability?
03:48 Yeah, I think so. I mean, we feel like we have a very versatile roster and that we can play a lot of different ways. And that changed everything, as soon as he went out and obviously they’re without Hartenstein as well. So it turned into a small game. That’s why Loon didn’t play. That’s why we leaned into our small lineups and our guys did a great job.
04:12 How impactful has Gary been this season, just in general?
04:16 Gary’s, one of our highest plus-minus guys every year. He just impacts the game at such a unique level, in a unique way, I should say. Incredible on-ball defender and then he kind of plays like a big guy with setting screens and diving and finishing at the rim. So Gary’s been really important for us.
04:43 What do you take away overall from this five-game trip? You go 4-1 and see all different styles of play. You deploy different styles of play. What are your biggest takeaways?
04:51 Hell of a trip. A great way to start the season out, winning eight of our first 10 and including a couple road wins against two of the best teams in the league. So I feel like our team’s in a good place. But obviously, this is just the beginning of a long, long season. So we’ve got to keep working.
05:12 You started Melton. Was that matchups-based or — ?
05:18 I like this lineup with Melt. I anticipate doing it again. I think it gives us a really good two-way lineup. You saw what he can do at both ends, starts the game out with a beautiful assist. He’s a really good passer, excellent three-point shooter, but a really good on-ball defender as well. So Melton (in) the starting lineup is something we’ve talked about a lot in camp and here in the early going and I really liked it. And I think it makes a lot of sense for us.
05:52 So it sounds to me that you, I mean, obviously you can adjust it, but you would like this.
05:56 I would like for that starting group that was out there tonight, I would like for that group to be our group going forward. I think JK has shown how important he is to us off the bench, 20 points tonight, some huge plays. He seems to really fit into that role well. And we’re looking for really good defense to start the game and that lineup gives us two on-ball defenders with Wiggs and Melt and then two bigs with Draymond and and Trayce. So I think we’ll stay with it and we’ll see how it goes the next couple weeks.
06:36 Just I mean, you had a 31-point blown lead in Houston, still here tonight, nearly blew a big lead, I mean, you’re pumped coming off a 4-1 road trip. Do those two nights concern you at all?
06:49 I think those two nights are good for us to look at what we’re doing wrong to give up leads. On the other hand, it’s the modern NBA. No lead is safe with all the three-point shooting, the pace, as difficult as it is to guard people in space. So it just feels like this is the modern NBA. But we did have turnovers in both games that allowed, both Houston and OKC to get back in the game, and that’s probably where we can clean some things up.
07:24 What kind of rhythm do you feel like Steph, in particular, was able to find on this trip, the way you finished today?
07:29 Yeah, Steph was incredible. I mean, great rhythm. the impact that he made with his passing, even when he wasn’t making shots, he was pulling defenders with him and that opened up the whole offense. And those second and third quarters were really beautiful to watch. And obviously we had to go back to him pretty early, 30 minutes again. And then obviously OKC made that big run to start the fourth and Steph did a great job of coming back in and closing it when it got a little dicey.
08:06 Kyle had some extensive minutes in some of those small-ball groupings. What have you noticed from him in those units and how those have come together?
08:13 Kyle’s a phenomenal basketball player. He can play any position. We lean on him to run the point in a lot of groups. But he’s also a center in small-ball lineups like he was tonight. So when the game turned small, we decided to play Kyle at the 5 instead of Loon and get a little more spacing on the floor around Kyle. And he’s perfectly suited for that role. So it was fun to watch him out there.
08:45 Just any thoughts, I mean, Klay coming back on Tuesday, what that game is gonna be like, what that day might be like for you guys?
08:53 I’m looking forward to it. I think we all are. It’ll be very emotional. I know our fans are geared up for it and I can’t wait to see Klay. Thanks.
09:05 Are you gonna wear the captain hat on the sidelines?
09:08 Probably not, probably not, but thanks.
09:12 KYRIE IRVING, POSTGAME DALLAS AT DENVER: I think the biggest thing is just the human aspect of emotions and — they’re just gonna be haywire, man. You don’t know how to really feel because you’re — you’ve been in a routine with another team for a long period of time, everybody from upper management, all the way down to security, to every guy that’s on the team. Every guy that you had a conversation with, game-to-game. You just start reflecting on all those intentional moments where you spent time with people that really want to win. And you guys are all committed to a bigger goal. But yeah, outside of that, I just think it’s about having fun and being able to look some of your old fans in the face and tell them thank you. And they thank you in their own way too. But yeah, it’s just, you see it handled differently by all of us, right? Some people are very emotional. Some people kind of hide their feelings with what they’re going through. But with me, I’ve always tried to admit, like, I feel pressure, I feel nerves and I want to play well, want to do well, I want to beat them. But at the same time, I still want to have fun and enjoy the camaraderie of the game. But yeah, I’ve just told Klay just, we have his back and just reiterating and affirming to him that it’s just another game on our road trip, but we know how much it means to you and we’re gonna have to bring our emotions up there too, to be able to meet you where you are, so you enjoy yourself.
10:33 Well, Klay clarified it’s not just another game show, it’s the NBA Cup, so it’s a little bit more.
10:38 Oh, thanks. Excuse me. Excuse me. It’s gonna be a cup. Sorry. I need some food. No, no, it’s definitely not another game. It’s the NBA Cup. No, no, it’s definitely not another game. Yes. Redact that last statement.
10:55 I don’t know if Klay knew how funny that was.
11:01 Yeah, no, it’s gonna be an exciting time though. But it is — it’s a lot going on that night. Yeah, we’re gonna have some fun, though, man. But we’re going against a great Warriors team. They’ve been playing well, gelling very well. They’re not gonna take it easy on us. And they’re not gonna take it easy on Klay. So we just gotta raise our competitive level, be ready for it, to withstand all their storms.
00:00 Just as a kind of two-parter, do you have any additional update on Chet and then just the kind of the heart of the team to make that come back in the fourth quarter to give yourselves a chance?
00:10 MARK DAIGNEAULT: Yeah, no update. We’ll let when we have more information. Those guys that group was great. Credit them. We’re down by 30. I think at one point and they just played possession after possession really play the right way stacked up some stops and really got us in striking distance of that game I mean that was 15 with six to go which is a very manageable place to be and we got it even closer than that obviously, but That group had a 48 minute mentality. They did a great job.
00:39 Mark with the injury so early in, of the nature, it seemed like with Chet, how tough is to kind of reel the guys back back in?
00:46 I don’t know. I mean, I think obviously there’s there’s human concern. It’s their teammate. He’s down. I think it was more of that than anything. And then you gotta be able to get your footing back in the game, which we did at different times. But credit Golden State. I mean, they were the sharper, better team today.
01:05 I mean, obviously we don’t have a timetable for Chet, but assuming he misses some time, you’re now without your entire center rotation. Just how difficult is that for you as a coach to not really have him, the hands you thought you’d be dealing with at the start of the season?
01:22 I mean, I’m never gonna make that excuse. It’s part of the game and we’re gonna be adaptive. I mean, we’ve played small at different times. We’ll see what his timetable is. But this is a resilient, tough, competitive, adaptive team. And that’s what we’re gonna be, regardless of the circumstances.
01:36 Mark, did you guys come into the game with the more concerted effort to try and get downhill? What did you think of the defense?
01:40 Yeah. I mean, they’re great at the point of attack. They’re really aggressive on defense. And so you’ve gotta battle there, pressure and physicality with force. I thought we actually did that pretty well. I thought some of our offensive struggles at different times was more after we gained the advantage, not the process of gaining the advantage. I thought we were in the paint quite a bit. We got the type of thrust that we wanted, but didn’t complete enough plays. I thought they just outplayed us today on both ends of the floor.
02:07 After Chet goes down, it seems like that aspect was somewhat taken away from you guys, getting downhill and having that advantage when you don’t have the three point going the way you guys want to? How tough is it to keep that going?
02:21 I thought today, defensively, they were sharp on offense. Again, credit them. I never want to take anything away from a team that plays as sharp as Golden State did today. But I thought our execution against a team that requires great execution just wasn’t up to where it needed to be to control a game. And the offense is sometimes gonna come and go. There’s a shot-making element to everything, but I just thought we didn’t execute to the level that we needed to. We had a lot of breakdowns and against a team like that, that moves it well with advantages and that can finish plays with shots, it’s hard to have breakdowns and beat them.
02:56 Were you given further explanation on the play where Draymond had contact with Dort? And it was called an unsportsmanlike flail.
03:04 Yeah, they said it was a flail and not a wind up. They looked at the play. That’s their call. My frustration was that they called an offensive foul on Dort. Anytime a guy gets hit in the head with an elbow, regardless of whether it’s a flail or whatever, that’s a replay trigger. They can look at that. And if they don’t know what happened, but two guys kind of square up at the end of a play, they should go look at it. There’s nothing that prevents them from looking at it. So my frustration was, I have to use a coach’s challenge to go look at a play that they could have triggered anyways, right? We get the technical foul, which confirms that if they had looked at it without my challenge, they would have granted a technical foul. Then two minutes later, ball goes off Curry. We deflect the ball, hits his elbow, staring at the replay. I don’t have a challenge in my pocket. Curry hits a three on that play, right? So that was my frustration with the officials. It wasn’t an interpretation thing. They’re professionals. They know how to interpret the plays. My thing is, they gotta run the game. And if there’s a guy getting hit in the head like that, they gotta go look at it. And if they did, they would have found a technical foul. I would have had a challenge in my pocket. I would have challenged the Curry play. We would have had the ball instead of giving up a three. Now, with that said, we gotta take away the — we gotta play better defense going into the fourth quarter.
04:17 They start off the second unit that you put in there, including your two rookies, 11-0 run. Can you just talk about the excitement that they brought and maybe some energy into you guys with the going into the fourth quarter run that you guys had?
04:27 Yeah. I mean, those guys have done that all year. We have good faith in them as competitors. They’re gonna learn the lessons. That’s the first time you play that team, that’s really hard. So Dillon (Jones), Ajay (Mitchell), those guys, they haven’t seen those pictures yet. That’s a very different style that the rest of our team has gotten used to a little bit more. Still hard to stop, obviously, but the compete level of those two players, they’ve been inside the team from Day One. They’ve given us nice contributions. Dillon really helped us in the Orlando game. Ajay ‘s obviously been in the rotation all year. So we’re gonna continue to invest in them, but they’re doing a great job.
05:01 In that second quarter, they seemed to get it, really get it going from three. What do you feel like the issue was for you guys on the defensive end?
05:06 Combination of things. Some of it’s shot-making, and then some of it’s the ones that we played zone one possession, Kuminga bombs a shot in over the zone at the end of the clock. Those are the ones that you just gotta brush off and play another possession. And then there’s other ones that are true breakdowns that put them into rhythm and give them confidence. And that’s that those are the ones we gotta clean up.
05:25 What did you feel about you guys physicality tonight?
05:28 I thought our effort and our physicality, our intentions of competing were really good, but against a good team, regardless of who the good team is, you’ve gotta have that and the execution part of it. And we’ve been a high execution team for much of the season and tonight we weren’t so.
05:49 …the Warriors, before making the run that they made and giving you guys a chance on the stretch?
05:55 SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER: Yeah, they did a hell of a job. Obviously made it a game for us. Yeah, they just went out there and did their job. That’s up to them.
06:07 Shai, I guess I’ll ask you the same thing. Just your reaction to Chet’s injury and how tough that maybe is to reel yourself back into the game after seeing that.
06:16 Yeah, it’s hard. Hopefully he’s okay. Yeah, it’s part of the game, but it sucks.
06:25 And you’re — the role you played in in that fourth quarter when you guys cut it to six. What did you see maybe from that point on, that saw Golden State pull away?
06:38 Mmm, I’m not sure. We might have ran out of gas a little too late, didn’t have enough time. But we put ourselves in that position. So that’s how it goes.
07:01 From a mentality standpoint, what can you all take from this, because, like you said, you were down 30 late in the third? I know there’s no such thing as a moral victory, but what can you take from a mental standpoint of being able to make the run that you made?
07:23 Especially against good teams, you can’t go down that big. It’s almost impossible to get back. Yeah. Gotta be better on both ends of the ball for longer periods of time.
07:37 Seems like you specifically made a more concerted effort to get downhill and get to the basket tonight. Was that something that you want to do against the Warriors?
07:45 No, I was just playing.
07:48 You mentioned last game about kind of taking what the defense gives you. Have you noticed any difference in terms of how often they’re changing their coverages of you?
07:59 Sure. Nothing — I haven’t seen anything I haven’t seen before. Teams have thrown different coverages at me for the last four or five years. I’m pretty used to it now.
08:11 Anybody else for Shai? Go ahead. This is gonna be the last one.
08:15 When Chet goes out, (did it change anything in terms of have you approached the game)?
08:31 It changed a lot for us, defensively, for sure. You guys could probably tell. He does so much on that in the floor, cleans up so many things, deters so many things around the rim when he’s not blocking them. The average is like four blocks of game. Yeah, it changed a lot for us. Obviously a little wrinkle, but it’s part of the game. You gotta play through it and try to get a W done. We didn’t tonight, but we’ll try to do it again tomorrow.
08:58 If he’s out for a while, then you’ll go a different mode? I guess you’re small all day?
09:04 No choice.
09:07 Rebound more? How does that change your approach?
09:10 Yeah, we have to figure out. All of us have to figure out how to get stops and rebound, just the few things that Chet does, but those two most important for sure.
09:24 The group that started the fourth quarter, what was the feeling like watching and feeling that comeback that they made from down 30?
09:35 LUGENZ DORT: Yeah, they did great. We needed some juice. The game wasn’t really going on our side and they stepped up big. They went in there and they competed and played really hard and gave us a chance to come back in a game.
09:54 You guys for most of the first half were able to keep Steph and Hield in check. But it was some of the other guys — Defensively, did you feel like you had in the first half kind of executed how you wanted to, to force the Meltons and those guys to try to beat you?
10:12 I mean, yeah. We was throwing everything we had on the their main guys and their other guys stepped up and we gotta give credit to them. But we just gotta go back and get better on that side. But whenever the other guys, not the main guys, having a good game like that, we just gotta tip our hat and give it to them.
10:36 Kind of follow up on that, game kind of got away from you guys in the second quarter with them hitting nine threes. Was it just that you guys were paying a little bit too much attention to those main guys with Stephen and Buddy?
10:50 I wouldn’t say that. They was just making good reads and they was getting — a couple of them was tough shots. And like I said, the guys that had the ball the most made some good reads and the guys made a lot of shots.
11:03 It seemed like a lot of confusion happened with that kind of interaction with you and Draymond, where you guys get the free throw and then he gets the flailing, whatever that thing was. Just kind of from your point of view, how’d that all go down?
11:17 It was just competing. I don’t think he meant to hit me in my head. He was — he just threw his arm in the air trying to sell the foul. I did grahimem. So yeah, I don’t think — I think he was just trying to sell the foul and hit me. I think it was — I don’t think he meant to do it on purpose.
11:38 Yeah, how difficult is it to bounce back when something like that, like what happened with Chet, happens, like in the moments after it and to refocus as a player? You’ve got two different things. You’ve got what’s happened to your teammate physically and then you’ve got how you have to adjust as a team defensively. How did you guys — do you feel that you guys handled both of those things?
12:01 I mean, it’s always tough to see one of our guys go down. Yeah. He’s been working hard and it’s always tough to see somebody get hurt. And it’s tough because we’ve been game-planning with him on the floor as well. But at the end of the day it’s just the next man up. We just gotta keep our head up and the next guy gotta be ready. Credit to everybody that played tonight. Everybody competed and hope Chet get better.
12:34 How difficult is it out there on the floor without really anybody over 6′ 6″? I mean, the whole center rotation being out.
12:44 It’s not easy. We’ve just gotta do everything we gotta do to get the rebounds and just really play harder and do everything we gotta do to limit them to one shot. It’s not easy. Obviously, it’ll be easier if we had a big man out there with us. But like I said, it’s the next man up. Everybody that plays gotta be ready to play hard and compete.
13:08 There’s a lot of arenas in the NBA that team gets down by 20, 25-plus and it empties out. And that’s about the end of the night. Can you talk about how much energy the Oklahoma City crowd gave you guys in that fourth quarter when you guys made your run?
13:21 Yeah, they gave a lot of love, a lot of juice. I mean, we was down, the game wasn’t going our way, and when we started making a couple shots, we’re just hearing the crowd behind us. I guess, give us more power and just the type of fans we have, good or bad, they’re always gonna stick with us and that’s why we love them so much.
13:40 What about the mentality of this team, because you guys are down 30, the Warriors are sitting some of their people, you guys are about to go into a back-to-back. Y’all could have just chilled, waited till tomorrow, but y’all fought back in there. What — where does that come from in terms of y’all’s mental approach?
13:57 Just for many games, you gotta play the whole game. Like I said, credit to a lot of the guys that played the fourth, the start of the fourth. They really brought us back in the game and they didn’t give up and there was — they kept competing to bring us back in the game, which they did a good job of that. So, I mean, like I said, we just gotta play the whole game.
14:17 Lu, how would y’all — how would you grade y’all’s transition defense so far this season and kind of what goes into being so good on that end?
14:24 I don’t know what to grade it. I just always feel like we can there’s — we’ve been good at it, there’s some nice — been better or whatever. We’re always looking for some room for improvement, but that’s just our game plan and how we plan some of the guys that we have on the floor that’s able to run back and communicate and there’s always … room for improvement, but we’ve been decent so far.
14:49 You had some young guys the first time to face Golden State. What is it about their offense that makes it difficult when they’re — especially when they’re hitting threes, had 13 at halftime? What is it that makes it tough to cover up those shooters?
15:03 They just make the good reads. We’re trying to take out their main players and when they have their Plan B guys making a lot of tough shots, that’s when that’s — when it’s hard. Like I said, we tried everything we wanted to do, to stop their main players, and the other guys got going and just gotta give a lot of credit to them, when they’re making shots like that.
15:24 Do you talk to the young guys? Because sometimes when people hit threes, you can kind of get down on yourself a little bit mentally. Is that something that you gotta watch the young guys to maybe keep themselves up, that, “Hey, they’re gonna hit a few, but you gotta keep coming.”
15:36 Yeah. I mean, obviously they’ve been watching that team for a long time. They know that team is always gonna hit a lot of threes. But in our group, we just had to keep competing. It’s basketball. They kind of make shots and we just gotta keep playing our way and do everything we have to do to come back in the game.
15:56 Anybody else go, Andrew can have the last one to Lu.
16:02 Have you had many conversations with Ajay? He’s kind of in a similar position that you’ve been in and that a lot of other guys were in being, with them on a two-way and then played really well out of the gate. And just, have you had many conversations with them about that journey?
16:17 I had a couple of conversations. Like you said, we both started as a two-way, but the way that his story started was way different than mine. Give a lot of credit. He was way more ready than I was, and we can see it on the floor. And the only thing I’m telling him is to keep doing what he’s doing and then it’s gonna pay off. I mean, you can only control what you can control and go out there and play hard and compete and show that you belong. And then everything else is gonna take care of itself.
16:44 What makes you say that he was more ready than you were?
16:48 He’s playing. I wasn’t playing when I first started as a two way.
16:51 But, I mean, whenever you first gotta the team, I mean, you did play a lot down the stretch of that.
16:56 So yeah, I mean, when the season started. I didn’t really play, which he’s playing and he has a lot of minutes. He feels way more comfortable on the court than I did when I first started, myself. But give a lot of credit to him. I know he spent a lot of years in college and he’s way more ready than I was. But like I said, just tell him to keep doing what he’s doing.
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