Here are some of the best comments from Doc Rivers and Mark Jackson’s pregame media conferences prior to Game 6 at Oracle Arena:
CLIPPERS HEAD COACH DOC RIVERS
On the difficulty of closing out a series:
“Well, it's hard. I'm hoping our guys don't, but I think what teams do is start thinking about that instead of the process. You have to stay focused on the process and do your job. If you do your job and stay focused on the process, the results will happen. But I hate when I hear guys talking about the results first, and that's usually a recipe for disaster, honestly. So I'm hoping we do it right and do it the right way.”
On Blake Griffin’s Game 5 performance:
“I think it depends on what side of the floor he's on and where we give him the ball. Yeah, I thought he was in a rush the other night. I just thought he wanted to do well, and sometimes you get sped up. I thought he got sped up, honestly. Usually when that happens, he uses the power game more than the head game. We need a little bit of both. It all really depends on the spot he gets it in. We went over it.
“But it doesn't matter how much you go over it. Still when you get in the game, you want to do well. And we have to help him. I didn't think our spacing was particularly good the other night. I thought we allowed them to really to trap them and be effective. That was on us. So we have to do a better job there.”
On why the Clippers have been able to slow down Stephen Curry in some games and not others:
“Because he's Stephen Curry. He's really good. Sometimes I think we slow him down; sometimes I think he becomes human and he misses shots. He's one of the greatest shooters I've ever seen. We're trying to just keep a big body in his face every time, but when he gets loose, especially in transition, he's deadly. We've limited our turnovers for the most part, and it seems like we've done them in bunches in this series, and that's when they make runs.
“But he's just a very difficult guy to guard. It would be easier if he couldn't dribble, but the guy can shoot and dribble, you know, and that's what makes him so good. And he can come off picks without the ball, so he's just a very difficult guy to game plan for.”
WARRIORS HEAD COACH MARK JACKSON
On whether Stephen Curry should try to take over games like Michael Jordan:
“I appreciate that question, but this just in: Steph Curry is not Michael Jordan. He's not my Michael Jordan. He's not anybody's Michael Jordan. I love him to death and he's a heck of a basketball player. At the end of the day, Michael Jordan is [6-foot-6], freak athlete, tremendous strength, cat like quickness, the ability to maneuver, get to his spots and, in spite of great defense, shoot over them.
“Steph Curry is being trapped by a 7-foot freak athlete in Jordan or a 6-foot-10 freak athlete in Blake along with a big time defender at the point guard position and Paul and whoever. There are times he's going to be aggressive. Then there are times he's going to look to make plays.”
On where pressure lies in the series heading into Game 6:
“I'm crazy enough to believe the pressure is on the Clippers. I've been in this situation before and it's tough to finish a team off. We are in our building. We'll play with passion, force, and try to keep our season alive.
“What you don't want in this situation is a Game 7 because anything can happen. So I don't think that the Clippers come in here with the mentality they've got one to bury and they can go back home. So I believe the pressure is on them.”
On the impact DeAndre Jordan had in Game 5 compared to his ineffectiveness in Game 4:
“You've got to give us credit; we've got something to do with it. If you want to give us credit for keeping him scoreless and not having an impact in Game 4, then give our bigs the same type of credit for him dominating. We did not meet his force with force. We didn't stay connected. We missed assignments and we paid the price.
“So, the key is to get back to who we are, get back to game plan discipline, and not allow him to dominate the game in the fashion in which he did. It's as simple as that sometimes. You try to look at the film a hundred times, but at the end of the day, what it shows you is we didn't fight the same way.”