Warriors 125, Wizards 112
BRIAN KEEFE: I'll start off quick. They made a lot of runs, but the one thing that was great about tonight was we were resilient. We answered a lot of them. Cut it to single digits multiple times into the fourth.
Great lessons for our guys. Just, we didn't let go of the rope, and that was important to me, being resilient, playing a really tough team that can go on runs and bury people, have a history of doing that, and our guys stood the course, pushed the game into the fourth. I was pleased with that.
Q. Speaking of resilience, what did you think about Kyshawn and the way he kept shooting?
BRIAN KEEFE: It was great. I told him during one of the time-outs, keep letting it fly; you're a great shooter. I think he took 10 more after I said that to him, and that was great.
We didn't want him to end up 0 for 6, which after the start I said, if you end up 0 for 6, that's not what we want. If you're open, let it fly. Because he puts the work in; we see it every day. This guy is a great shooter, and obviously ended up having 20 in the second half, which is great. Really happy for him.
Q. The night that Bilal had shooting the ball, was that just an off night for him, or was it the defense that you think contributed to that?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think the great thing is now you're asking the question. That's what the standard is because he's played well. So these are good things that Bilal has stepped up his game.
You're going to have off shooting nights, but keep defending, keep playing. That's the nature of the game. Can you continue when it's not going your way shooting-wise, can you keep playing, and he did that tonight.
Q. What do you think can be done with regards to helping the team in terms of scoring or becoming better with shooting?
BRIAN KEEFE: You know what, the second half was great. We took the same shots we took in the first half, so our process has been really good, and we thought that at halftime. We were getting in the paint. We were kicking it out. Just missed some of our shots. One thing good in the first half is we continued to defend, so that kept the game close. Obviously Curry hit that three at the end of the half to get it to nine.
But we kept defending even when we were making shots. We talked about that at halftime. When we're playing the right way, it's going to turn, but they turned up their offensive firepower in the second half, and that kind of ended the game.
Q. How has Bub improved from the start of preseason to now?
BRIAN KEEFE: You know, like all these guys, he's improving daily. His competitiveness has always been there, but now just reading the game, being a floor general, getting us into the right spots, picking his spots. The biggest thing I love about Bub is his competitive nature. He fuels our team. That's a great thing.
Q. Minus 11 rebounding in the first half, plus two in the second half. What did you change to get that change?
BRIAN KEEFE: Just our mindset. We talked about it before the game. That's one of their strengths. Can we get them off the boards. If we get the boards, we're pretty good in transition. I think that led to some of our runs in the second half. But it always starts with our defense and rebounding for our team.
Q. You guys have not always been a good rebounding team this year. What do you think has led to that, and how are you trying to improve on that as the season goes on?
BRIAN KEEFE: Yeah, we've been inconsistent at that. Sometimes we've been super elite, and then the last game we were not.
Tonight was a tale of two halves, like you just said. That's the thing we've got to get better at, the consistency of that, because you can see when we do rebound and we get stops, we're hard to guard.
Q. Another poor night shooting from three. What do you think about the shot attempts that you guys got?
BRIAN KEEFE: Great shots. Great shots. I love it. I love how we're playing. These are shots that we want to take. I've got great faith in all my guys. It's the same shots we hit versus Atlanta. We're going to keep staying with the process.
Q. Turnovers were kind of an issue in the preseason, and they're really good at forcing them, but you only had 10 tonight. How were you guys able to limit those, and how has the team gotten better at doing that?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think just recognizing who we're playing. A lot of the turnovers really were things of learning your teammates and who you're playing with and how they like to set screens or how they want to receive the ball. That chemistry has gotten better, and we also understand how we want space the court, shapes we want to have to take advantage of our strengths.
I think all those things have led to us -- those are why we're getting up good shots and getting up crowds, because we're not playing in crowds and we're kicking the ball, which is how we want to play.
Q. A feisty game for Jordan, kind of going back and forth at times with Draymond, a lot of blocks today. What do you think about his game, especially when he's in an amped-up mindset like it seemed like he was today?
BRIAN KEEFE: I think Jordan is always amped up, so I don't think this has anything to do with tonight. That's what I like about Jordan. Jordan is a guy who loves the game. He's a competitor. He wants to go out there and win. You can see that on his defensive play this year. I think he's leading the league in steals. What did he have, four blocks tonight?
His ability to stick his nose in there and fight and be competitive, that's his nature. Nothing to do with tonight's game.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports