Warriors-Lakers postgame: Draymond’s ankle not “too bad”, Steph: “teams still wanna beat us…bad”

Important game in two nights at Portland

Here are notes & quotes from postgame Warriors-Lakers with Steve Kerr, Stephen Curry and Eric Paschall.

Free article due to the (embarrassing) loss. Be sure to check our YouTube channel for more videos, thanks! Here’s the first video on the status of Draymond (and more)…

Second video on what we talked about on the 2nd screen livestream commentary/analysis: LeBron was really zoned in on defeating the Warriors, screaming at teammates when they were up 30:

Third and last video (see why so few at the bottom) which is a compilation of all the things that went wrong for the Warriors in a blowout loss to the Lakers:

KERR:

- most disheartening? “We were just never in the game…fouling them like crazy…16 Q1, 26 in the first half and then we got destroyed on the boards and turned the ball over, we had no chance.”

- Draymond status? “I talked to him at halftime. He didn’t think it was too bad.”

- anything? “This was very very surprising (but) there’s gonna be a handful of games that are inexplicable…flush the toilet.”

- any point felt ok for comeback? “late first quarter…16 or 18 down to 8…that feeling went away quickly.”

- Draymond? “ruled out even before that…just semantics.”

- lesson? “Stop fouling.”

- surprising with fouls? “We reached on one of the first plays of the game on a drive…they had shot ten FTs by the time the first timeout came…we’ve talked ad nauseum.”

- LeBron blowing up plays: “They’re the Number One defense in the league for a reason…LeBron is a genius defensively…we didn’t get the ball into the paint at all.”

- practice? “Tomorrow we’ll be off and Tuesday we hope to have a very good practice here.”

- second unit? “No takeaways, really…the game sort of necessitated (them playing earlier)…it didn’t matter, nothing we did worked.”

- throw away game tape? “Toss it. Toss it but what I have to really convey to the players is this is three straight games with 20+ turnovers…there’s no way we can go back to being a high foul team…clean that up before the Portland game.”

- Steph: “He was fine, I mean, he didn’t play great, he didn’t play poorly, we got blown out. Whatever.”

- break: “Everybody’s looking forward…but it’s not time yet for the All Star Break…very important game in Portland.”

- replay in your mind? “If we hadn’t turned the ball over that one time in the first quarter…that one turnover cost us (jokes).”

- another game coming up: “all in all we’re in a pretty good position and we gotta get back to being ourselves…playing with some rhythm and some flow.”

STEPH:

- early fouls: “if you give a defense the time to set up it’s harder…they remembered the last game that we played against them…you add that on top of the equation it’s tough.”

- surprised? “good performances stacked back to back to back…tough way to start tonight knowing that they were gonna come out and try to avenge what happened last time.”

- less practice than normal? “condensed travel schedule this last ten days…coming back home for what seemed like a nap…we have had less practice…mentally it’s a challenge to stay locked in…good teams…bring that mental focus.”

- lessons? “Draymond said it at halftime…teams still wanna beat us and beat us bad, they still have a lot of memories from the last five, six years…discipline has to show up…and they brought a little bit more energy…can’t control makes and misses every night but you can control not fouling…energy and effort…tonight we didn’t have any of it.”

- will that ever fade? “Probably not…that’s where we hope to be.”

- vs LeBron just one more game? “Just one more game.”

- biggest lesson: “championship mindset…stealing one down the stretch (on MLK).”

- off ball vs veteran defense: “a little bit harder but it’s still part of the level of execution that we can get to…literally was just that first quarter because everything was at their pace…we still feel like (we can play at a high level).”

- assessment: “our confidence is high…some of our losses have been tough to swallow…(some exciting big wins)…gotta close these last two on the right foot…nothing’s really lost…solidifying playoff position.”

- things to step up? “A collective commitment to the things that have helped us win games: rebounding the ball better, not fouling…Wednesday will be a really good test…against a team desperate for a win…be a team as capable as they are offensively, it’s gonna take a really good game from us.”

PASCHALL

- rebounding: “we try to box out…we just gotta stay disciplined.”

- Draymond: “defensive anchor…guy goes out, hurts our team.”

- most disappointing part: “the way we lost, that’s about it.”

- lost momentum? “We played the last three games very well…didn’t go our way tonight.”

Ray leaves and comes back and says he had Baze lined up but he left already lol. No practice tomorrow then practice Tuesday in LA.

/fin