LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 24, 2020

Landry Shamet

Press Conference

Q. As a group this year, the team has been very big-picture focused all season, whether it was the way injuries were handled to the way kind of the regular season was dealt with. Now that it's a small-picture focus, is that a big adjustment? And have you guys handled that switch to we need to win this possession, this game, this minute better?

LANDRY SHAMET: I hear you on the -- we always have had that big-picture, and I don't think that's really gone anywhere. I think we still obviously have that big-picture focus. That's something we want to do as a team. We're just facing a little adversity right now. Last I checked, I know I'm only year two, I've played in one playoff series, this is my second, but my championship team you've had to battle through some sort of adversity. This is ours. This is our first taste of it this year in the Playoffs, in the postseason. It's just a matter of coming together and figuring out what we can do better, what we did wrong, what adjustments to make and how we can be the best team we can be.

Q. What do you think the biggest thing is that you guys have done wrong?

LANDRY SHAMET: Biggest thing we've done wrong? That's kind of an open-ended question. What we did wrong last night?

Q. Yeah, like you said, there are things that we need to figure out what we've done wrong and fix it. What are those things do you think?

LANDRY SHAMET: Right now it's all about the Mavericks and what did we do to kind of give away the game last night. You've got to give them some credit, obviously. They're a good team. They have good players. Luka played well.

But we went out, go up 20 and I felt like we kind of took our foot off the gas a little bit to be honest. We were playing well. The ball was moving. And then our pace slowed down. Defensively we weren't as connected. We watched film today as a team and really delved into what that looked like. We plan on getting those answers and being better tomorrow.

Q. JaMychal was talking about how he has observed Paul just be a little in his head, too focused on what's happening around him. Is that your observations of why he's struggling a little bit?

LANDRY SHAMET: You saw Paul?

Q. Paul George, yeah.

LANDRY SHAMET: I mean, it's Paul George. He's got his own shoe. He's been on the cover of a video game. It's not the first time he's been publicly scrutinized. I don't think it's anything new to him. I don't think -- there's obviously a lot of pressure with this team. We have championship expectations. But for me seeing him, yeah, he's not making shots but is he still being a good teammate? Yeah. Is he still moving the ball, playing hard defensively? Absolutely. A good basketball player is not just defined by the shots he makes.

On this team and under the scope that we're under, yeah, he's going to get ridiculed a little bit, but in these four walls with our team, we've all got his back. Nobody is worried about that. He's playing the right way. He's taking the shots that we want him to take, and one of these nights he's going to have 40 and everybody is going to say, oh, yeah, well, he was supposed to. That's what he does. He's a scorer. Nobody here is worried about it. It's going to come.

Q. Doc said the biggest issue in yesterday's game was your mental strength as a team. Today how are you guys focused on that aspect of the game heading into tomorrow?

LANDRY SHAMET: I thought we were -- I thought we got a little too caught up in the emotions of the game. We let things outside of ourselves, outside of our control kind of affect us. Top to bottom we got too caught up. When things go wrong like that, I feel like we need to -- we need to come together and find a way to get tighter in those situations. I felt like we just kind of took our foot off the gas yesterday, got a little too emotional with kind of everything, with the game, instead of just playing and getting through it.

Q. Understanding that Pat is such a big part of your defense and he's not there right now, but this team has had ambitions to be one of the best defenses all season, what can you guys do in this short time period, this short turnaround to fix the defensive issues that allowed them to shoot 50 percent yesterday?

LANDRY SHAMET: I mean, I think we've shown it. Like Game 3 I felt like we were really good defensively, really locked in, on a string, disruptive. Yesterday they kind of had their way a little bit.

I think it's just a matter of Game 3 we really set the tone physically, set the tone with our base and how locked-in we were defensively. I don't think we had that same edge throughout the entire game last night. We did early, I think, but kind of wore off as the game went.

It's a matter of harnessing that, bottling that, using that for 48 minutes. Obviously what Pat does can't be replicated. We miss him out there. But that's part of it. Injury is a part of the game, and we've got to find a way to win without him.

Q. J. Mike was saying that you guys were a little casual and maybe not as gritty as you're capable of being and sort of what you were saying about the energy out there. Is that something you guys are conscious of and is it something that you are working to address, and how so?

LANDRY SHAMET: Yeah, I mean, I think we know that. We understand that we kind of weren't ourselves yesterday. But then on the same note, you've got to give them a little bit of credit, too. This isn't just a one-team game. They came and they did what they had to do to win the game. Did we play a part in that? Absolutely, but they're a good team, too. And we just have to figure out how we can be better and combat that issue. We can't let our foot off the gas in situations where we're up and things are going well. That's the biggest thing.