Latest / Bleacher Report / Steph Curry Talks Rockets Forcing Game 7 vs. Warriors _ 2025 NBA Playoffs
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: If your teammates have coming here and said that the
- 0:03Speaker 1: downfall tonight is not getting after the fifty balls to
- 0:06Speaker 1: want to to kind of get those hustle plays and
- 0:09Speaker 1: have them go in your favor, Why do you think
- 0:11Speaker 1: that is happening? And how do you think that changes
- 0:14Speaker 1: in game seven?
- 0:16Speaker 2: You just got to go do it.
- 0:17Speaker 3: Like we're down what to going into the fourth, they're
- 0:23Speaker 3: playing zone against us pretty much, you know, in the
- 0:25Speaker 3: whole second half, and you can kind of look at
- 0:30Speaker 3: the possession here that the start of the fourth freggin
- 0:34Speaker 3: a one to three. It's a tough momentum play. Jabari
- 0:40Speaker 3: got two threes off of a good hustle player, a
- 0:44Speaker 3: tough turnover and then another offensive rebound that turned into
- 0:48Speaker 3: the three that you know, a possession here, possession there.
- 0:54Speaker 3: It's not just the points on the board. It's a
- 0:56Speaker 3: feeling and survive. It's a morale, that's momentum and you know,
- 1:01Speaker 3: you gotta dig deep to win these type of games.
- 1:03Speaker 3: So thankfully we have another opportunity to go do it.
- 1:07Speaker 3: Very confident that we can go do it.
- 1:09Speaker 4: Steph, do you see some sense of hesitancy on some
- 1:13Speaker 4: of your guys not to take the shot? Do you
- 1:16Speaker 4: do you tell them, hey, it's okay if you miss
- 1:18Speaker 4: or make just take the shot, or do you want
- 1:20Speaker 4: them to keep passing the ball just trying to make
- 1:23Speaker 4: sure the perfect shots there.
- 1:25Speaker 3: There's a reason they're playing as zone for a whole
- 1:28Speaker 3: half pretty much, and they're trying to force.
- 1:34Speaker 2: A certain type of shot. Obviously they want.
- 1:37Speaker 3: I took probably four heavily contested deep threes just to
- 1:42Speaker 3: try to kind of will us. But if they're going
- 1:47Speaker 3: to do that, and they're gonna play zone and make
- 1:51Speaker 3: certain guys shoot it, then it's the same way we
- 1:53Speaker 3: talk about it all season long, regular season, playoffs, Like
- 1:57Speaker 3: everybody's in this league for a reason. You know, if
- 2:00Speaker 3: you have a shot, take it. I don't need to
- 2:03Speaker 3: say anything. Coaching ain't say anything, and you're out there,
- 2:07Speaker 3: be aggressive, you know, look for your shot, and we'll
- 2:10Speaker 3: live with it.
- 2:11Speaker 2: That's that's the name of the game.
- 2:14Speaker 3: You know, the shots that we're creating or the shots
- 2:19Speaker 3: that are open, keep taking them.
- 2:24Speaker 5: Do you have to, like, you know, as you look
- 2:27Speaker 5: at this zone, I mean, do you feel like you're
- 2:30Speaker 5: getting the looks you want? I mean, just going back
- 2:32Speaker 5: to that answer, do you just feel like you need
- 2:34Speaker 5: to keep doing the same thing and hopefully you know
- 2:36Speaker 5: your other guys make those shots, or do you guys
- 2:39Speaker 5: need to attack the zone different.
- 2:42Speaker 3: Well, it's probably a little bit of both. I mean,
- 2:44Speaker 3: I don't know if it's a surprise. It may be
- 2:46Speaker 3: a little bit of surprise that they played that much zone.
- 2:49Speaker 3: But I think we could probably look at a little
- 2:58Speaker 3: bit more film and see where those shots sort to
- 3:00Speaker 3: see where they're driving lanes are. Obviously when they when
- 3:04Speaker 3: you drive out, they have Steven Adams in the in
- 3:07Speaker 3: the middle of the paint waiting on you. So well,
- 3:12Speaker 3: that's a drive to a kick to a swing that's gonna,
- 3:15Speaker 3: you know, get you a step in three. I think
- 3:20Speaker 3: we can be a little bit more patient on certain possessions,
- 3:23Speaker 3: but you have to make shots at the end of
- 3:26Speaker 3: the day. You know, Fred had some some big momentum ones,
- 3:30Speaker 3: some big momentum ones. Those are you know, can swing
- 3:35Speaker 3: momentum again. So for us, don't panic, just you know,
- 3:41Speaker 3: make the necessary adjustments and understand how they're defending us,
- 3:44Speaker 3: and we should we should be.
- 3:45Speaker 6: All right, Steph, you and Draymond have five game sevens
- 3:51Speaker 6: together and Jimmy's played in for them. Where does that
- 3:56Speaker 6: game seven experienced factor in the most when you're actually
- 3:59Speaker 6: in the game seven. How does it help you, guys
- 4:02Speaker 6: the most?
- 4:07Speaker 3: Just the confidence that no matter how it looks, we
- 4:12Speaker 3: can get it done.
- 4:17Speaker 2: We need to be composed.
- 4:18Speaker 3: We need to be able to manage the emotions of
- 4:22Speaker 3: the next forty eight hours. Again not panic, but have
- 4:26Speaker 3: a sense of urgency on the adjustments that we need
- 4:29Speaker 3: to make going into game seven. And how to deal
- 4:34Speaker 3: with a hostile environment. I think we've had one in
- 4:38Speaker 3: that building before, and.
- 4:40Speaker 2: You understand the crowd is going to be into it.
- 4:42Speaker 3: How we start the game is going to matter, but
- 4:44Speaker 3: it's going to be a long forty eight minutes to
- 4:46Speaker 3: stick with it, and you know, come with the a
- 4:51Speaker 3: level of aggressiveness and intention to detail or attention to detail,
- 4:57Speaker 3: and just the idea that you know it's gonna be
- 5:01Speaker 3: a game of runs. You gotta just embrace it, have
- 5:04Speaker 3: fun with it, you know, show up with a kind
- 5:06Speaker 3: of killer killer instinct.
- 5:09Speaker 2: Everybody gotta be.
- 5:10Speaker 7: Like that, Oh stuff. This is like my third time
- 5:13Speaker 7: watching you play. I'll say, like it gets crazier every time,
- 5:17Speaker 7: Like seeing you get triple teams.
- 5:18Speaker 2: You're getting like health almost every play.
- 5:20Speaker 7: So how do you stay like locked in the whole
- 5:22Speaker 7: time when the defense is like doing everything you can
- 5:24Speaker 7: to stop you or get you involved.
- 5:26Speaker 3: Just embrace it and still try to find a way
- 5:29Speaker 3: to impact the game. You know, you see all the
- 5:36Speaker 3: type of defenses and at the end of the day
- 5:37Speaker 3: you have to be able to figure it out.
- 5:45Speaker 2: How do you feel physically? What are your fatigue levels?
- 5:49Speaker 3: I actually feel great. You're having to work and that's fine.
- 5:57Speaker 3: I think that it's weird because the zone it doesn't
- 6:01Speaker 3: necessarily take the most out of you, like or demand
- 6:05Speaker 3: the most physically. It's just mentally trying to figure out
- 6:07Speaker 3: where the holes, where the pockets are, where the openings are.
- 6:13Speaker 2: But I feel great.
- 6:14Speaker 5: Is there is the solution to get in the paint
- 6:18Speaker 5: or is it to make you shoot shoot shoot them
- 6:21Speaker 5: out of his zone?
- 6:22Speaker 2: Or do you want to get inside. I mean it's
- 6:26Speaker 2: a balance.
- 6:28Speaker 3: Because again there's they have size and that they have
- 6:31Speaker 3: they're playing the two bigs and trying to buy possessions
- 6:37Speaker 3: defensively with the zone so that they can take advantage
- 6:39Speaker 3: of it on the On the other end, I.
- 6:42Speaker 2: Think in the fourth quarter.
- 6:46Speaker 3: We struggled that first six minutes and you have to
- 6:50Speaker 3: resist the temptation to rush and force shots. If it's
- 6:56Speaker 3: me or Jimmy trying to you know, get good looks,
- 6:59Speaker 3: but use our the attention they're gonna throw at us,
- 7:05Speaker 3: whether it's me running around, you know, trying to find
- 7:07Speaker 3: open as with Jimmy driving to you know, make the
- 7:12Speaker 3: defense collapse and swing and find open looks. But I
- 7:15Speaker 3: think for the most part, we got a lot of
- 7:17Speaker 3: pretty good looks. In the fourth we just didn't make
- 7:21Speaker 3: didn't make them, and then on the other end they
- 7:24Speaker 3: made a couple, they got a bunch of offense rebounds. Then
- 7:26Speaker 3: we had to go hacker Steven Adams for a while,
- 7:28Speaker 3: so make shots.
- 7:31Speaker 2: And that's me as Jimmy, as everybody.
- 7:35Speaker 8: You mentioned a couple of times that Kaminga could or
- 7:38Speaker 8: should have a roll in this series. I know he's
- 7:40Speaker 8: played a little bit already, but could Game seven be
- 7:43Speaker 8: a really nice time for that for him.
- 7:47Speaker 3: I think everything's on the table for sure, and him
- 7:50Speaker 3: included to.
- 7:52Speaker 2: So ultimate challenge of staying ready.
- 7:54Speaker 3: I know he has answered that question plenty of times
- 7:58Speaker 3: that he is ready, and it's gonna be.
- 8:03Speaker 2: Good for us to get into.
- 8:05Speaker 3: The war room and figure out what those adjustments are
- 8:07Speaker 3: going to be personnel wise, scheme wise to give our
- 8:11Speaker 3: best effort for game seven. The cool good part or
- 8:14Speaker 3: the funny part about this is, no matter how it looks,
- 8:17Speaker 3: you win one game, you hit reset and get you know,
- 8:20Speaker 3: an opportunity to play another series.
- 8:24Speaker 2: And this is a grind. This is tough.
- 8:26Speaker 3: This is what it's supposed to be in the playoffs
- 8:31Speaker 3: to bring the best out of you to earn the
- 8:33Speaker 3: right to get to the next round. So for us,
- 8:35Speaker 3: everybody's got to be willing to step up. And if
- 8:39Speaker 3: you're asked to play, you asked to impact the game,
- 8:41Speaker 3: be ready.
- 8:42Speaker 2: To go do it.
- 8:49Speaker 9: Steph.
- 8:50Speaker 10: You just said this is a grind, and it's obviously
- 8:52Speaker 10: been a grind. One of the subplots is that you
- 8:55Speaker 10: guys are an older team and now having to fly
- 8:59Speaker 10: play game, fly, I play game, go back and forth.
- 9:02Speaker 10: Is it taking a toll? Is Is is it harder
- 9:06Speaker 10: now than it was a couple of years ago.
- 9:12Speaker 2: It's different. It's always been hard to win.
- 9:15Speaker 3: Like, don't get that twisted in terms of not just you, everybody,
- 9:19Speaker 3: just in the sense of like winning is hard and
- 9:23Speaker 3: sustaining it is hard, and there are different challenges of
- 9:27Speaker 3: figuring out a team that's trying to, you know, take
- 9:30Speaker 3: you out of your your rhythm or your your patterns
- 9:33Speaker 3: or whatnot. And you're playing against a really good team.
- 9:35Speaker 3: So if you want to win at the highest level,
- 9:39Speaker 3: you have to embrace the hard whether it's the physical
- 9:42Speaker 3: challenges of you know, doing it at this stage of
- 9:45Speaker 3: your career, or whether it's just because you're playing a
- 9:48Speaker 3: good team.
- 9:49Speaker 2: Like we've had challenges all throughout this run, and this
- 9:52Speaker 2: is another.
- 9:53Speaker 5: One steph You guys have had a couple of chances
- 9:56Speaker 5: to close them out this series.
- 9:57Speaker 8: Just what is your reaction to the fact that it
- 10:00Speaker 8: got to game seven the series.
- 10:04Speaker 3: I mean, thankfully we have another game to play, and
- 10:08Speaker 3: we did our work early in the series. It gives
- 10:11Speaker 3: give us some some some cushion. But you know, they're
- 10:17Speaker 3: there are they're the two seed, they have home court
- 10:20Speaker 3: advantage in the series because they had They're a really
- 10:22Speaker 3: good team and they've demonstrated that all all season. We've
- 10:25Speaker 3: been on a run since the trade to have an
- 10:28Speaker 3: opportunity to play a Game seven in a playoff series
- 10:30Speaker 3: and get to the next round. So again, in February,
- 10:34Speaker 3: if you told us we had a Game seven, we'll
- 10:36Speaker 3: take that all day.
- 10:37Speaker 2: Long how we got here?
- 10:38Speaker 3: Not not happy about it, but we do have another opportunity.
- 10:42Speaker 2: Steph over here.
- 10:44Speaker 9: How how are game sevens different than games one through six?
- 10:47Speaker 9: I mean they're all intense and competitive. What's different about
- 10:51Speaker 9: a Game seven? And related question, do you have any
- 10:54Speaker 9: specific snapshot memory of Game seven in Sacramento two years ago?
- 11:00Speaker 3: No, it's just the nerves and the adrenaline, and you know,
- 11:04Speaker 3: you understand the stakes. If you don't play a game
- 11:06Speaker 3: or your best game, or you don't figure out a
- 11:08Speaker 3: way to win, you're going home. But it's also exhilarating
- 11:12Speaker 3: because when you do, it brings the best out of
- 11:14Speaker 3: you and there's no better feeling of you know, closing
- 11:18Speaker 3: out a series.
- 11:20Speaker 2: You know with.
- 11:24Speaker 3: You know, just the whole game seven vibes. So there's
- 11:28Speaker 3: one tomorrow. We get to watch it as we got
- 11:30Speaker 3: one on Sunday, Like it's what it's what this league
- 11:34Speaker 3: is about, and you know, it's a great opportunity to
- 11:38Speaker 3: show up when it matters. Most you know, have an
- 11:42Speaker 3: opportunity to move on. So you don't really do anything different,
- 11:47Speaker 3: but you have to embrace the nerves and the adrenaline
- 11:49Speaker 3: of it.
- 11:50Speaker 9: You have a specific.
- 11:54Speaker 2: That was that was.
- 11:57Speaker 3: Uh, I was just a great game overall. Hopefully I
- 12:01Speaker 3: can repeat that.
- 12:04Speaker 11: Asked Draymond earlier about how there were some moments in
- 12:07Speaker 11: this game when your guys were frustrated, visibly frustrated. Draymond
- 12:12Speaker 11: pods and I said, is that because of something that
- 12:15Speaker 11: they rockets were doing to you guys? Or is because
- 12:17Speaker 11: something you guys weren't doing? He had an answer, what's
- 12:20Speaker 11: your answer to that? Why was the frustration level sort
- 12:22Speaker 11: of visible?
- 12:23Speaker 2: At times? Today?
- 12:25Speaker 3: There were momentum plays that you want to have back,
- 12:28Speaker 3: like fifty fifty balls. We didn't get offensive rebounds that
- 12:31Speaker 3: we let them have, you know, just breakdowns where they're
- 12:35Speaker 3: getting open looks. There were times we make a run
- 12:40Speaker 3: we couldn't just couldn't get over the hump. And now
- 12:44Speaker 3: you understand there there was pressure to win on your
- 12:47Speaker 3: home floor. They're playing great, like you've got to give
- 12:51Speaker 3: them credit. It's not like we're just you know, laying
- 12:56Speaker 3: an egg and rolling over. We're fighting, We're we're.
- 13:00Speaker 2: Trying to compete.
- 13:01Speaker 3: There's just in the margins and things that we can
- 13:03Speaker 3: do better and control what we can control.
- 13:07Speaker 2: And I think we can do that in game.
- 13:09Speaker 12: Seven, stuph knowing that things change her to year in
- 13:13Speaker 12: this league. How much does will play a factor in
- 13:16Speaker 12: just wanting to have another game, another series with this
- 13:19Speaker 12: particular group of guys on our team.
- 13:22Speaker 3: It's kind of baked into the nature of a game seven.
- 13:26Speaker 3: If you don't show up with that appropriate mentality, then
- 13:31Speaker 3: we got a long vacation ahead of you. So you know,
- 13:33Speaker 3: you don't want to be the team that's packing up.
- 13:36Speaker 3: We're packing for a week, getting on this plane to
- 13:41Speaker 3: you know, go to Texas and hopefully go to Minnesota
- 13:43Speaker 3: right after. That's that's the approach, and I know we're
- 13:49Speaker 3: all excited about the fact that we still have life
- 13:51Speaker 3: left even though these last two games haven't gone our way.