“They’re Similar To Us.” | Chris Finch Practice Sound | 05.05.25

“They’re Similar To Us.” | Chris Finch Practice Sound | 05.05.25

All right, Chris, now that you now it’s the Warriors, what do you think about the matchup overall here? What’s going to be key? Yeah, I mean, it’s obviously a tough matchup. I mean, it’s championship pedigree team. Um, you know, they’ve they’ve uh, you know, they’re similar to us. They played their best best basketball down the stretch and into the playoffs. Um, you know, they’re coming off of a really really tough series. Uh, no doubt about it, but they showed what they’re made of in that series. Uh, you know, they got us three times out of four this year. So, um, but we haven’t played them with the new look roster. Uh, so yeah, a lot lot of things to contemplate coming in this series. It’s going to be definitely a tough one for us. Can can you take much from the regular season just given how different they are and really you’re playing much differently now, too. Uh, yeah, I think there are there’s a lot you can take from it. I think, uh, you know, they hurt us in they certainly hurt us in transition. That’s going to be a big point of emphasis, I’m sure, for them as it is for us. you know, stylistically they’re still pretty similar. Obviously, centers around um uh Stephen and Draymond, and that combination is has been a handful for many years, but now they add uh Jimmy, who gives them just an added dimension. Not only feeds into their style of play, but also gives them things that they didn’t have before, like foul drawing, ISO, baskets on demand, you know, another closer. Um so, yeah. So, uh, I do think there are things you can take from the the the games in the regular season, though. Do you want to push pace against a team that’s been playing so much or do you not let that guide your strategy? I mean, we Yeah, we’ve been emphasizing pace for, you know, the last 40 games and uh we did so in the last series. So, absolutely, you want to you want to try to push pace. You know, it’s still a quest for easy baskets as however they might come. Um, and you know, you just got to be super disciplined in your shot selection when you are pu pushing pace, but yeah, it’s something that we definitely want to do. Is there anything that worries you about a fiveday layup? I guess by tomorrow night about a fiveday layoff. I mean, the normal rust stuff, but uh, you know, uh, can’t control that. I feel like we’ve had a really good good week. U, played enough live basketball throughout the week, I think, to to to keep us as sharp as we possibly can. It’s going to come down to uh, executing the game plan more than it is about anything else. So, where’s Go Bear in on that cuz they don’t really have a matchup for him and everybody plays five out some now, but he seems like such an X- factor because he’s so much different than what they have. Uh, he’s, you know, he’s always an X factor for us. I mean, when he’s playing at his best, he takes us to another level. Um, there’s no doubt about that. I mean, this is a small ball team. They’ve, you know, they’ve this that’s their superpower. Um, it’s what they go to when when they need to, you know, become the best version of themselves. uh you know, and you got to find ways to punish that and and and you know, certainly Rudy’s activity on both ends of the of the floor and in around the rim and and getting offensive rebounds and all that stuff is going to be huge. So, what advice do you give Ruby going into a match up with Draymond given that history? I mean, listen, you you got to play basketball. I mean, I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of physicality. Some of it certainly on the edge of legality. Um certainly there’s going to be a lot of things said um on the floor or outside the game itself. We just gota we gota focus and play basketball. That’s what we got to do. So what they’ve been the number one defense since they made that trade. Yeah. What obviously they have Draymond in there, but what what do they do specifically well on that end of the court? I mean their their turnover generation is way up. I mean they’re they’re it gives them with you know gives them some uh matchup flexibility. Gives them um another point of attack defender. uh high IQ guys that are playing off the ball and roaming u and both Draymond and and and Butler and those guys do a good job of really uh you know kind of intercepting passes, jumping your routes and all this stuff. So it’s it’s primarily their defensive uptick has been primarily generated by their turnovers uh that they’ve been able to create. So have you seen Steph really improve as defender these years in the league? Absolutely. I mean, you know, Steph is uh he’s he has a high care factor. He puts the work in. He knows what he’s trying to do. They’re executing a scheme around him or to the game plan and and he’s you could tell he’s always dialed in. You’re not just going to put Steph on an island and and come up with bucket after bucket. That’s that, you know, he has he he cares way too much for that. the way Steph plays maybe a bit of a matchup issue last series for Mike and Aquila, but they found their niche in that series, but with the way Steph plays, we’re going to need those two guys maybe specifically to help chase stuff around. Yeah, abs. Yeah, no doubt about it. It’s, you know, it’s not going to be one person’s job alone to do that. Uh, you know, we’re lucky to have multiple highle perimeter defenders. Um, you know, the just the effort and the activity is only part one. You got to have the discipline and the diligence to to execute all the things that they do to try to free him up. Um but yeah, it’s it’s not going to be just left to Jaden alone. What didn’t you do well against Steph in the regular season? Numbers are pretty good. Uh I mean, I thought uh he he hurt us primarily um you know in in transition or in early offensive situations when the floor is a little bit broken. I thought that we got hurt there. Um, you know, generally they they play a little bit more pick and roll against us than they do against other teams. Um, they move to a pick and roll game. So, we got to be a little bit better in our coverages there. So, Chris, you guys were really good taking care of the ball against the Lakers overall, is it just decision- making? Is that what it comes down to? Or like how how do you see that your guys that series? You know, we’ve been doing a better job at taking care of the ball for the back half of the season. Uh, I think it starts, you know, primarily with just the willingness to like get off of it and not, you know, play as selfishly as we had played earlier in the season. Um, and trying to play in a crowd. I mean, this is a team defensively that will draw a crowd that will swarm you when you get to the paint. So, uh, understanding, um, you know, the willingness to get off of it is one, understanding where the defense is helping from and where your outlets are. I thought we did a really good job in the LA series of doing that. um we’re going to have to reccalibrate for these guys because their defense is is is very very much different. Um and so I think those things are really important and just you know just having a a higher care factor. I think sometimes you know when when we’ve struggled with turnovers some of it’s just sloppiness you know so when Steve Kerr was coaching and did you talk to him before during after and just have any conversations about him? I did. I did. I did. I talked to him before and talked to him during uh and after. So, um, yes, I know he he really enjoyed Ant. Um, loves Ant Aunt’s energy, what he can do for a team. Uh, certainly knows him well. I think he’s game planned against them pretty well um, since their experiences together. Um, but I I know they’re very fond of each other. So, Chris, it seemed like the team really thrived on people not picking them last series and and being the underdogs. That might not necessarily be the case this time around. You guys are the betting favorites. What’s kind of the mindset now coming into this one and how do you keep that that hunger and drive that you had at the beginning of last series? Yeah, I don’t worry too much about it with this team. I think this team’s been pretty pretty motivated for a while now. I think, you know, uh when you’re playing against a team who’s won what four championships or whatever it is, they’ve won um they still have, you know, the remnants of a really good core plus Butler. um you know, they believe they can win it. They they believe they’re going to be the favorites. I think, you know, a lot of that is for the outside people to debate. I’m pretty pretty confident in our ability to maintain our mental edge right now. So, having a guy like Dante who, you know, played for Golden State a couple years ago in a playoff series, how valuable is that having someone that’s kind of been in that locker room, maybe worked with Yeah. Yeah. I think his familiarity would definitely help us um understanding what they’re trying to do. uh just you know a little bit of inside information on some guys personnel wise you know I think that that stuff always matters. So Chris, you’ve coached a lot of playoff games now yourself, I mean, since you got here. How have you changed as a coach and you go through the playoffs and certain things, you know, you learn through experience. Are are you much different than when we had the Memphis series or I mean, of course, you know, everything’s a learning experience. I think it’s what’s most important, I think, whether it be our players, every situation is is is different. This is the first time we’ve had kind of a layoff and not knowing who we’re going to play. You know, how you approach those type of things. We’re learning all the time. Any coach who who sits up here and and says that, you know, they’re not learning through these experiences is lying to you. I would imagine Steve Kerr just learned a lot about the things he needed to do differently in that last series. You know, you could see um that was an incredible series in terms of adjustments and style style of play and having to alter the way that they played to try to win a game. So, this is an ever evolving process. You know, no no no coach that sits here is ever going to tell you they have all the answers. And if they do, they’re probably on their way to a loss, you know. So, Ant could score 40 or get a triple double. Yeah. He would highlight a teammate for being the MVP. What does that impact does that have? Yeah. I mean, listen, you know, Ant’s long given credit to everybody around him. Um, it’s just what he does and he does it genuinely. Uh, he understands that, you know, he needs his teammates as much as anybody. they feed off his energy. Um he’s their biggest promoters uh internally as well as externally. I think it’s just a great shine of leadership. The great thing about him is it just comes naturally to him. You know, it’s just kind of how he is and who he is and how he’s always been. You can see it. Um that’s why, you know, he’s always got a big group of friends because he’s he’s fun to be around and he and he’s always about the the group, you know, he’s he’s never trying to exclude anyone from the spotlight. He’s always trying to draw people into the spotlight and that’s the mark of a true superstar with, you know, with grace. The Golden State, I think, probably played with more pace early in the year out of necessity. But yeah, if they do go back to that, trying to get you guys in that, what kind of challenge will that be for this team when obviously you’ve struggled like in Indiana and even Memphis in the first half of that game, just teams that really have tried to push up. Yeah, absolutely. You know, it’s been uh one of our inconsistencies all year and you know, if we want to win the series, we’re going have to be good at it. I’m sure they’re going to definitely look to get up and down. They use the advanced pass probably better than anybody in the league uh other than Indiana. You know, um I think u you know they’ve hurt us in transition. You know, we’ve looked at it a lot of the games that um have have turned on our you know transition kind of mistakes really and games that we had under control or games that we thought we had uh going our way was really our transition game that let us down. So it’s major point of emphasis. Their numbers say that they’ve played a little slower since getting Butler. Have you seen that? Uh, well, you know, it depends on how you’re guarding like how you’re measuring. So, like what pace really is, you know, like I would they do have long possessions, so it you know, they make you guard them in the half court. It kind of plays the way I think any every, you know, coach would love his team to play like they can quick strike you and if it’s not there, they’re going to make you guard for 20 seconds of the shot clock. So, um, so they’re not looking less to get out of transition. No. Yeah, they just I think, um, you know, if you compare it to like an Indiana or a Memphis, those guys are trying to score as early as possible every single time. These guys will happily carve you up in the half court, too. So, thanks, guys.

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