Barnes, Fox, Sabonis & Coach Brown | Postgame Pressers 1.25.24

Barnes, Fox, Sabonis & Coach Brown | Postgame Pressers 1.25.24

Uh Harrison hi got a long NBA career what’s it like to uh set a new career high and do it against your former team uh you know I think the biggest thing is honestly uh just getting this road trip start off right and we talked about the importance of where we’re at

In the season um how we’ve been playing lately and I think really just starting off this this road trip with the win was was important for us your teammate was looking for you tonight you’ve been hot for the last couple games but tonight they were really looking for you as you can see

That you could feel it had y’all been talking about that no honestly I mean we’ve always felt that the way we play in our style of offense the way that fox and and domas um you know create shots for guys you know guys have to step up

And be open uh be aggressive you know whether it’s Kevin Malik Keegan myself whoever it may be on a given night I try to maximize those opportunities so uh when the ball finds you just shoot with confidence yeah last time uh at the inseason uh

Game you guys met the um Warriors at the home court and you get beat them but uh there were a lot of talks about you know um uh k a reference call reference decision so of today’s wi do you guys want to do you want to say something to the

Public I don’t I don’t think I’m understanding the question yeah I mean cuz uh last time uh a lot of lot of people say uh referee call help you guys win the game at the home court oh yeah so about this time you get beat them at

Their home court do you want to say something about that just two wins thanks HB two uh two 30-point games in a row like what what’s kind of got you going right now and and um how good does it feel to kind of have this this

Resurgence no it feels good I think the the biggest thing is um you know it sounds cliche but just trying to make make the most opportunities um like I said in our offense you know the ball the ball will find you and when it does you know our coaches teammates they

Always encourage you to shoot the ball with confidence so you know I know the Pall games I’ve been getting a lot of shots uh some games before that not so much so I think the the biggest thing is just keeping a aggressive mentality when those opportunities come and just like I

Said try to try to make the most of them HB kind of building off of that what you were just talking about a little bit with the offense the ball finding uh guys Mike has talked before about how he doesn’t necessarily draw plays up for you that that other guys are maybe

Focused in that sense and he just lets the offense run freely I’m curious just with your role and fitting with those starters are you trying to emphasize just waiting for your spot and picking your moments are you trying to be aggressive and get involved or is it different game by game honestly just

Playing basketball I mean there’s there’s certain occasions where coach might draw a player or things like that but you know if you’re if you’re open you shoot it if you get a post up or a mismatch and the ball gets two you know you try to make something happen if they

Draw two kick it if they don’t try to score so um I think for me and how I approach it is just maximizing it that way now there’s plenty of times you can run up and down for five minutes and and don’t see it at all or you can run up

And down for five minutes and get eight shots so I think however it’s it’s split up um throughout the course of a season you know you just always like I said just stay locked in Stay Ready um and just be prepared to to to shoot and a

Quick a quick Harrison uh can you go tell give me your thoughts on how that last play where you know Steph has the ball and you guys were able to prevent him from even getting a shot off yeah I mean we we’ve seen uh you know we’ve

Been in that situation you know a few times already so you know credit to uh you know Fox for being able to put pressure on him you know come over that last little steal there and to try to just make it difficult for him a quick follow up with what you just

Said Harrison on those days where the ball just doesn’t find you are those games where you just don’t get the ball sometimes when it when is that are those games tough to to deal with as someone someone who you want to be a focal point or engaged and involved in a high Tempo

Offense like this are those nights kind of hard or is it just the way it is I mean I think in general for the for the average fan you know you you look at a game you say oh this person this person scored right this person did a

Lot of things and there’s a lot of sacrifice that goes into it from the other four guys right so in the games where you don’t get those those shots you know maybe you set the screen maybe you were you know running to the corner that freed somebody else up maybe doing

All those type of things right so in a game like tonight where you know the average person can say oh you scored a lot of points tonight well that’s because Keegan screen that’s because Kevin ran through that’s because you know domas made the extra pass like

We’re all working in concert so I think not being attached as much to the credit of how it boils down every single night but just doing your job and knowing that you know the way you have a high-powered offense is all five guys are gonna have

To make a sacrifice at some point in time and um some nights you’ll be able to score baskets but other nights you know May said a lot of screens may do a lot of cuts and may make a lot of passes that may not show up in the Statue appreciate you

Guys hey Dar obviously big night for HP tonight do you feel like there’s been a more concerted effort to get him involved or is this kind of just still naturally happening in the flow I think a lot of it uh just happens in the flow but um

That’s kind of how he’s getting going and then once he gets going then um there’s more of an effort to get him the ball in certain spots uh whenever we’ve had scoring droughts obviously not many we scored 134 points but um we felt like we kind of needed a bucket we’re going

To him in the post and uh he was delivering for us Darren a lot is going to be made tonight about the the the scoring from both teams but to win that game with two big defensive possessions the Harrison block and then your you and

Kevin stop on on Fox there at the end is that uh or sorry on on Curry there at the end is that kind of poetic justice or a nice bow on the night yeah I mean uh obviously wish we made the free throws at the end of the game but uh I

Mean there are just times where tough shots going in like it’s not like this was just a layup Fest um so people look at the game and be like you there’s no defense being played uh if you actually I mean you watch the game I mean Steph’s

6 for 14 I think maybe two or three of his threes are wide open um other than that I mean clay hit some late clock buckets uh wigs hit some late clock buckets like um you play defense for 20 21 22 seconds um and it’s not going to

Be the result that you want every time that’s just the nature of the game that’s the nature of NBA basketball but um for us to be able to get that stop at the end of the game knowing we’re up one and you can’t give up any type of bucket

Is definitely big for us uh Deen um I know the Warriors last year were saying how they don’t they still don’t really consider this a rivalry do you feel like these games is becoming more of a northern California rivalry between you and the and the warriors uh have you

Asked anybody from our team before have you read anything about anybody from our team calling in a rivalry who well I can say I’ve never called it a rivalry so why would this be a rivalry they haven’t played that far from each other for 20 years they never play each other in the

Playoffs that’s why it’s trying to be considered rob you I would say if we played the Clippers in the playoffs last year and we go to seven games it’s probably considered the same thing because we played them 11 times in one season so um I mean just because the

Amount of games I don’t I don’t consider a rivalry now dear um Kevin heard heard amidst those uh two free throws bless his heart but you guys uh you got was we were talking about it too so so right on but you got he got on but he

Got on me and Malik cuz he was like well I missed him and we won so you had a little back and forth going on but you were eight for eight you guys were 12 for 12 at one point you know uh what you finished 16 for 19 how important was it

You know to make those free throws because they did make a difference in the game yeah I mean that that those are big for us obviously we’ve had close games where we’ve shot in the 50s um high and low 50s and we’ve lost those games by you know two three four five

Points so um for us to make our free throws and uh be able to pull out a close one I mean that’s just a testament to what we need to do because if we don’t make our free throws this this is an entirely different game so um obviously you don’t

Want to just sit here like oh make your free throws because we we actually had a conversation about this and J Triano brought up you know us telling you to make your free throws isn’t going to make anything better it’s not going to make you make your free throws so um for

Us obviously you go in you continue to work on it and um we know that we have to shoot free throws better but sitting there saying you need to make your free throws that’s never going to fix anything Daren uh there’s been a lot of talk like at least during that four game

Stretch that just talk about The Vibes like on this team around this team like what what can you say about the Vibes in the locker room and and and how good is a win like this to start a long trip for that I mean I think it was fine I mean I

I also think um in that four game stretch we handed two games away on a silver platter so um I think there was anything to pic about I think if two more free throws go in or two different two possessions go the other way we’re not sitting here having this

Conversation so um nothing nothing really changed with this team Fox back in the playoffs a lot was made about domas and the space that the warriors were giving him tonight he seemed to take those shots especially hitting a couple of wide open threes that they gave him I’m just curious your

Perspective on his willingness to take that shot and how confident you guys are in him taking that shot and I guess how much you enjoy seeing those drop yeah I mean seeing him in the summer and the amount of work that he’s put in on on his jumper obviously we don’t need him

Taking step back threes or anything like that but um when they’re giving you that when they’re giving him that much space we want him to take those shots um and when he’s doing it when he’s doing it with confidence um you you you become a better shooter whenever you actually

Want to be a whenever you want to take those shots so like I said we’re not asking him to shoot four five six threes a game if he makes if he shoots one or two that’s perfectly fine because that makes guys have to take one or two more

Steps up um it opens up the drive for him and it opens up the spacing for everybody body else so um as he continues to just grow his confidence as a shooter um it helps the entire team and I think um that that’s also a big thing for me just you’re growing your

Confidence as a shooter it helps the entire team I think two or maybe all three of your made triples tonight we just walking down the floor early in the shot clock while they’re they have some momentum are you consciously in those moments like trying to to slow down what

They have going yeah it’s funny cuz I told Doug um anytime and uh anytime a team makes a layup especially if a guard makes a layup um I always tell them to try to get it out fast get it out fast and then those are shots that you everybody works

On at some point you’re just sitting in the gym and you’re walking up and you’re taking a three so uh for me sometimes those are those can be momentum Killers for teams and obviously you have to make the shot but um I have I have a lot of

Confidence in in those walk up off the dribble threes and um when I do it in while they’re on a run I feel like that really uh helps boost our team up yep hey domas obviously a big night for HP tonight do you feel like it was kind

Of just coming within the flow of the offense obviously by the end you’re calling plays but was there a more concerted effort with getting him going tonight oh yeah you know um last game he went off um I feel like those first threes came came natural out of our

Offense you know and then um we always run this play that um usually puts a mismatch on him on the post you know and he started knocking down shots you know and he was aggressive you know it was it it was awesome to see goas uh Coach Brown did mention um

Chris Duarte and Kesler getting into the game and not knowing that they were going to play tonight and of course you know they parted part of this whole win as well can you talk about you know having those those guys available and uh stepping on the floor and helping you

Guys out tonight um it’s great you know we have a team full of professionals and Coach through out Chris and Kesler and they’re um they they are professional so they stayed ready and uh they helped us out tremendously domas what are your honest opinions on Mike Brown well today we got a win

So today we won so we’re [Laughter] great uh in addition to that uh a lot was made during the playoffs of the space that the warriors were giving you and your your willingness to take that shot tonight I know you hit a hit a pair of Threes you seemed not to hesitate to

To take those shots how comfortable I guess were you in those moments and does it feel good to see some of those drop yeah you know it’s something uh I’ve been working on and um you know it was just in the flow of the offense you know

Everything was working for us you know and um we do a great job of running our place were you thinking about dinner plans with your wife with your beautiful wife tonight uh at any part during the game um definitely not fair enough domas how uh how good does that locker

Room feel for HB to to you know kind of kind of show out a little bit these last couple games and and you know he talked about everybody playing in concert and not worry about who gets the credit yeah um to see him do this how how good’s

That feel for um it’s great you know um he’s he’s the most professional on the team you know he wakes up he’s in the gym at 6:00 a.m. you know he does all of his routine you know and for it to be paying off these last two games you know

It’s awesome and um he’s being aggressive so we we love that D that that is correct and you spoke about dorte and ker but what about having a teammate like JaVale who thought he was gonna uh play today but his number doesn’t get called by the head coach I

Don’t know what the head coach was doing but the he just kind of discarded him or kicked him to the curb however however youone how is he as a teammate you know I had to C him down on the bench but uh no he’s a he’s a professional you know

He stays ready um he knows his role um he came here to help us um take uh take us the next step you know and he’s been a vital part of our progress how much how much are you guys enjoying playing The Warriors these days ever since last year’s playoffs do you

Guys really kind of feel like you get up more for these games and they become PR exciting ones um to be honest I think we’re kind of sick of them they’re sick of us um it’s it’s it’s been I don’t know like 14 games already you know

Since the playoffs 2 you know with preseason and everything um but you know um it feels nice it feels nice to get a win coach said uh we uh tied to the tiebreaker you know and um that’s important for us you know um we’re we’re we’re we’re striving for something

Bigger savy I have one question for you do you know where your wife sits every game yes I know I know where she sits every and how many after every bucket do you do an OD to her probably every bucket every bucket we love it thank you thank you guys thank

You uh man what a what an entertaining game uh obviously shoot good win for us for a lot of different reasons um probably the biggest one even the series uh season series 22 with those guys um but we got a lot of great performances from a lot of different

Guys um e even you know you know a guy like Kesler uh dorte um those guys weren’t even expecting to play tonight we throw them in the game and you know whether they gave gave us 2 minutes or 5 minutes uh we needed somebody to step up

And and play as hard as they could and and those guys did and even taking it the other way uh javel was expected to play and at the last second we decide to go small um he’s just been a phenomenal phenomenal teammate he was great about

It tonight he was leading us on the bench in cheers uh pregame you know he gets the guys hype even postgame in the locker room I mean you talking about a phenomenal teammate in javel McGee he was he was huge even though he didn’t play a second for us uh and you know

It’s a testament because he’s an NBA champion been to the finals multiple times and I hope all of our guys especially our young guys take notice of his demeanor and his connectivity uh to our group as a whole um but a lot of great performances uh Davon was fantastic off the bench on

Both ends of the floor um uh Kev Kev L Us in rebounding you know we we’ve been on Kevin uh about rebounding and defending and he did a phenomenal job in both of those areas for us tonight uh obviously domas with the 13 assist foxy with the 29 Points

Especially a couple threes couple of Timely threes uh were huge uh Keegan you know you’re not stopping Steph Curry um at all uh he’s obviously a first ballot Hall of Famer one of the all-time greatest uh Steph has 18 or something like that in the first and and we just

Decided to try to match Keegan’s minutes with him to see if Keegan can make him work and they just throw a lot of different things at you offensively Steph’s a screener and then Steph’s a ball handler and then Steph’s coming off with Flare then he’s coming off with

Pend down just they do all types of things to get you confused and they did but he has 18 in the first and 15 the rest of the game and again you’re not stepping stopping him you just hope to to to to to make him work and and we

Thought Keegan did his best to try to make him work uh those last three quarters um but you know last hly I I HB HB was huge um you know as you guys know throughout throughout most of this year I don’t think I called a single

Play for him and these last two game these last two games alone wait shoot just tonight I call more plays for him tonight than I did the entire year combined you know and uh so I got to give him his due respect because he’s

Come up big for us he came up big in the last game against Atlanta down the stretch uh he came up huge tonight obviously he was aggressive throughout the course of the game and uh he kept us either in the game or extended the lead uh and then down the stretch when we

Looked a little out of sorts I just called his number put him put him in a spot that he’s very familiar with and he had two huge huge buckets for us uh on top of that big stop on kaminga uh on the other end of the floor uh even

Keegan had a great block foxy and Kevin’s Reed The Blitz uh Steph uh at on that last play just really good basketball on both ends of the floor at times uh most times for us to close a tight game down the stretch versus a very very good team and you know I’ve

Said this to you guys that those losses on the road really really hurt but they made us all self reflect starting with me on what we need to do better down the stretch on both ends and uh it’s starting to show a little bit so I I’m

Extremely proud of of our guys finding a way to get the win tonight in the tight ball game first very good team yeah Mike I was I was waiting for you to to reference the the Harrison defensive stop at the end A lot’s going to be made about the offense over 43s

From both these teams not what we really saw in the playoff but for the the the game to end with the HB stop and then Fox and and herder kind of forcing that Steph turnover there at the end is that kind of the icing on the ker cherry on

Top to win a game with two big defensive plays for sure because you know everybody says hey you got to make plays offensively you got to go get a bucket you got to make the pass or do this or do that you can make a play defensively

And you know kaminga is a heck of a young player he’s obviously going to be really really really good good and he’s been a handful he was a handful for us all night um but HB just walled up and you know LED with his chest like we

Talked to him and he made a defensive play it’s a hell of a play versus a very very good young player that kind of had his way with us at times tonight huge and then you know Kev we didn’t necessarily say we were going to Blitz

At the time if our guys got an opportunity they know stephs beat us before that we don’t want him to beat us and so Kevin to react the way he did Fox to continue to pursue and and and Blitz Stu and see if somebody else was going

To beat us it was a a huge defensive play that those guys made so those two plays were just as big as hb’s two buckets when we needed them what led to that last minute decision to not go in javal’s Direction and how do you feel

Like that small ball lineup did uh small ball small ball lineup did well you know uh javelle has been playing well for us and um it just sometimes you just get a gut feel has nothing to do with stats analytics numbers anything like that you

Just get a gut feel and they were small and so he said hey you know what let’s let us go small let us go small uh we could switch if we need to Steph was still on the floor at the time when we usually bring jav in uh draymond’s a

Handful uh with the basketball and uh we went with it and we thought it worked out okay in the first half and so we went with it again in the second half Coach Brown um I probably shouldn’t say the unlikely Heroes but they were the unlikely Heroes herder Barnes and Daven

Mitchell because he uh I think he made his first three shots I think they were behind the yard can you talk about his play I don’t think you mention uh Davon at this point no I did I Davon was huge for us he was one of the first guys that

I met mentioned he he was big for us uh on both ends of the floor he stepped in he looked really good shooting a three ball uh he was active for us defensively he pushed the pace he got downhill a couple of times and sprayed the ball so

I I I thought uh Davon was really good for us and he’s been good since I’ve uh put him back in the lineup uh coach I um I asked this to dearon earlier he was saying how he doesn’t consider playing against the Warriors a rivalry but given the close

Proximity between your two teams team and the fact that you guys play some really competitive games is it safe to say this could be a rivalry between the two teams uh maybe maybe it could you know right now obviously we’re we’re I mean they’ve accomplished so much you know in

I don’t know the last 10 years or whatever it’s been you know with eight years whatever it’s been with the four or five championships and you know deep playoff runs so you know as time goes on and we continue to get more competitive with them and you know maybe we we beat them

In the playoffs or something like that then that may add more credibility to it you know uh but we’re trying to carve our own path right now and their path is already carved I mean they they know they they can play better probably than what they’re playing now or they feel

They can or whatever it is and they will at the end of the day especially when you have you know three for sure three Hall of Famers and Steph clay and draymont those guys are still high high level basketball players and you got a Hall of Fame coach and

Steve so um we still have you know we still have some things that we got to take care of first before it’s probably a full-blown rivalry I know they’ve been fun games for the fans though I know it’s not you know your choice in that final uh

Closing se but it looked like they almost took a timeout a couple times s you know on the no they they almost took a couple times uh timeout a couple times as a defensive coach would you prefer you know the timeout to to get the subs

You want and set your defense or or do you like going you know having kind of have to scramble uh what’s is there a preference there well you know offensively you always like to to put your opponent in a scramble situation um so you usually Let It Go but uh

Defensively yes you know you prefer to talk about some things but you know I kind of said this alluded to this earlier some of our tough losses you know down the stretch where we didn’t finish really made us look in the mirror starting with me and and try to clean

Some things up to get across to our guys to put them in better positions down the stretch and um that was a read for Kevin to Blitz Steph and you know because we’ve spent a lot of time on it with these tough losses our guys knew exactly

What should have happened um when they were put in certain positions so I I take my hat off to to our group for responding to the long film sessions the walkthroughs the teachings and everything that we did to try to clean up our end the game

Stuff uh Mike HP talked about like five guys working in concert and and not being attached to to who gets credit and how you know some nights you may get shots some nights you may just run to the corner or set screens or or whatever

Just what can you say about his level of of professionalism and and Readiness and kind of the the the I don’t know the the path he’s had this year and getting to this point where now he’s getting some shots and and maximizing those opportunities but again I go back to not

Just stuff that happens on the court but even throwing throwing a guy like dorte or Kessler in when they didn’t think they were going to play you know we threw Kesler in in the second half um and then even a guy like javil still up and cheering his

Teammates on um when we told him he was going to play this morning you know so um the connectivity of the group has a lot to do with it um HB is is a guy that has uh been extremely professional the entire time I’ve been around him you go

Back even go back going back to the playoffs last year when there were times that I set him and whenever his number was called he went out and tried to do what he can to help us win you know that’s that right there you know the way

He carries himself as positive as he is with his teammates um the way he tries to hold everybody accountable uh it it’s all great leadership stuff and you know he’s he’s definitely much appreciated because um he’s helped us in a lot of ways that uh you know people outside won’t

Know coach you talked a little bit about Keegan um and I think before the game you used the word unfair when you were referring to the kind of defensive assignments that he’s had this season um he struggled a little bit offensively to start the game but how do you see him I

Guess balancing uh both ends of the floor like I think he had he drew a charge and then he had a big block um in early in the game so how do you kind of see him balancing that on the defensive and the offensive side of the

Floor he’s doing a great job for for a young guy um you know again I mean you look at a guy like jonath kaminga and this is year what year is this year three for him and they’re just now asking him to step up we asked Keegan to step

Up as he was walking off the Iowa campus you know so um he’s handled it extremely well uh you wish he had time to develop like kaminga and and Moody and some other young guys uh around the league and some people may say well look at the

Young fella in or Orlando uh the the difference is you know they weren’t in the playoffs last year you know and the pressure is not there when you’re coming out of college or you’re coming into league right now to be an integral Factor on both to the floor to help make

The playoffs and make a playoff run so Keegan’s done a fantastic job handling it um and we’re going to continue to put that pressure on him because he’s shown he can handle it thank you’all

Harrison Barnes, De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and Coach Brown speak to the media following a win over the Golden State Warriors on January 25, 2024.