Steve Kerr spoke yesterday from the team hotel and Andrew Wiggins and Moses Moody from morning shootaround today. Below are the notes and quotes. Video above is also clickable.
DISCLAIMER: These are all just notes for my main workflow of YouTube videos, tweeted by beatwriters. I used to transcribe every interview but it became too tedious and not worth the investment for the small amount of views we got on the soundbites on YouTube. The links to the tweets are not available because sometimes I don’t use the full tweet and just having a ton of tweets on this website imo isn’t aesthetically pleasing and gets away from the main goal: transferring information (not so much entertainment) asap.
STEVE MEDIA AVAIL. AT HOTEL
• Kerr on Andrew Wiggins: “I expect him to play (in Game 3). It’s just standard procedure to have to report it. Technically he’s questionable, but we expect him to play.” (Anthony Slater, Ron Kroichick)
• On usually needing to win on the road to win a series: “We’ve won road games in 25 straight series over the years. We’re very confident in our ability to win on the road.” (me via Jason Dumas)
• On Steph’s celebrations: “I don’t think we’ve run into any opponents that seem to mind it…He realizes that it’s all kinda part of the game…There’s a humility to Steph…that’s why he gets away with it.” (me via Eddie Sefko)
• On what changed in the second half: “Our help defense was better…we were able to challenge shooters better.”
• Kerr says he “doesn’t mind” with the enthusiasm of the Mavericks’ bench activity as long as they don’t interfere with the game play. (Marc Spears)
• There’s been some chatter about the activity of the Mavericks’ bench (which has already been fined from the Suns series) during Game 2, so I [Tim Kawakami] asked Steve Kerr if he’d noted this last night. He said he likes active benches as long as they don’t interfere with the play. (Tim Kawakami)
KERR AT SHOOTAROUND
• Andrew Wiggins was able to go through shootaround this morning, Steve Kerr says. He’s “good to go.” (Kendra Andrews)
• Kerr said the Theo Pinson-Steph Curry turnover was “the only time” Mavs’ bench upset him in Game 2. The one G2 play he takes issue with is when Curry passed to white-shirt-clad Pinson, thinking he was a Warrior. “He’s got his arms up, calling for the ball. That’s too much…In fact, I love their bench. They’ve got great chemistry, great energy. They’ve had a phenomenal season, and part of it is because they’re so connected.” (Townsend, Callie Caplan)
WIGGS SHOOTAROUND
• Andrew Wiggins said his ankle is feeling better, just suffered a little tweak in Game 2. Won’t affect his lateral mobility. (CJ Holmes)
MOODY AT SHOOTAROUND
• Moody on his “stay ready” mentality. (CJ Holmes)
• Moody on his 4th quarter Game 2 impact, staying ready, and if he thought maybe he’d get some run because he had played well vs. Mavs in regular season. (John Dickinson)
MAVS SHOOTAROUND
• On the noisemakers at each seat, Tim Hardaway Jr.: “We asked Cubes to get those clapper things. Glad he heard us.” (Brad Townsend)
• Dorian Finney-Smith on this moment: “I’m taking notes, because I might gotta use that one. For real, though. In the heat of the moment, I was mad, but it’s part of the game. It’s Steph. At least he had to watch it go in. He ain’t turn around.” (Tim MacMahon)
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