Austin Croshere was brought to the Golden State Warriors for a lot of reasons, but a safe bet would be that his ability to hit the outside shot made him a bit more appealing to Don Nelson and co. With the Warriors' 106 – 101 comeback victory on Sunday night, fans got a great look of the little things that Croshere can contribute here and there. In one stretch during the first half, he knocked down a three, stripped Jermaine O'Neal for an eventual steal, and found a streaking Monta Ellis with an outlet pass.

Austin sat down with HOOPSWORLD following the game and shared his thoughts on his role on the squad, the development of Monta Ellis, and the Warriors' mentality when it comes to physical play.

You got a lot of playing time tonight because of Andris' thigh bruise and one of the things that I noticed was that when you were out there, you took Jermaine O'Neal out of the paint and opened up the penetration lanes for Monta and Baron. Is that one of the things that Coach Nelson has said will be your role?

"Absolutely. That's one of the things Coach Nelson likes to do from a matchup standpoint. The strategy of going with a smaller lineup is to do just that, get their bigs away from the basket, and open up the driving lanes for the wing players and it worked for us tonight."

The starters looked a little bit lethargic and when you came in, you brought an injection of energy with you. Can you give your mindset as you're coming in and where that's coming from?

"That's just what you need to do when you're a bench player. You need to read what's going on in the game, the tempo of the game. Lots of times, the starters are playing great and it's just a matter of going in there and maintaining that energy level and other times they're a little flat and you need to come in and pick it up a little bit and I was able to do that tonight."

Last year you saw the growth of Monta Ellis from another perspective as a member of another team, but now being on his team, can you tell me a little bit about his growth?

"I've said it from day one, being around him, we're at our best when he's in the open court, pushing the ball and attacking. Now he's starting to hit that pull up jump shot, which in the past has kind of been, you play off of him because he can't hit that shot. Now, if you set a little pick, he's knocking down that shot and making him a lot harder to guard."

It took that flagrant foul by Jamaal Tinsley to spark this team and wake them up to beat the Pacers on Sunday night. Can you talk a little bit about why this team needed that external factor to play at the needed intensity level?

"Yea, you know, sometimes you can just get into little bit of energy lulls in the game and it's funny how just something  that you view as disrespect or anything like that can get you out of it. Sometimes, with the style we play, you can get into shooting jumpshots and when you don't have that same contact and same aggressiveness, I think that foul was a reminder to sort of get back to that."

As one of the older guys on this squad, you're sort of the default veteran leader. With young big men like Brandan Wright, Kosta Perovic, Patrick O'Bryant and even Andris Biedrins on this squad, how do you go about the process of being a mentor for them?

"I don't think there's a set mentality about how to go in and help younger guys. You get around them and get to know their personalities, there's so many ups and downs in the course of a season for young players - for everybody, but moreso for young players. You just pick up on when they're having a rough stretch or a difficult time, you just try to talk to them and approach them in a way that fits their personality. Let them understand that they're not the only person that's gone through this before and they'll get through it - lack of playing time or whatever. I'm big on getting in early and staying late, and I'm willing to do that for those guys. Whatever it takes, I think that's part of it. I was very fortunate to have people that did that for me when I was young, so I look forward to that opportunity to do that for younger players."

Croshere's stat line to finish the game wasn't particularly impressive: he had 7 points on 2-6 shooting, 3 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals. But it was some of those intangible things that he did that helped the Warriors come back and win this game, particularly his work on the defensive end in providing some help defense. One of the most telling stats for Croshere was his +10 for the night, showing the impact he had despite not producing the stats on his own. Because he was able to open things up so well for the Warriors on offense as well, he definitely made his own less noticeable stamp on the Warriors' victory.