LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 9, 2020

Paul George

Postgame Press Conference

Clippers 96, Nuggets 85

Q. Paul, the score doesn't show it but the Nuggets played hard and you had to take time-outs to slow their momentum. What is the biggest challenge with Denver?

PAUL GEORGE: I think just their player movement. This team been together for a while now, so they are a continuity offense. They know each other. They cut. They move around. I think that's the biggest thing about Denver is the player movement.

Q. You guys were able to come back from their rally in the second half. Do you feel like this series has given you a better understanding of how this team needs to up its intensity to keep that going for the whole game?

PAUL GEORGE: Yeah, I thought today was great from that standpoint. We started off the game defensively, which we struggled to do in this series. First quarter was amazing. Yeah, they made their runs. I keep saying, the game there's always going to be runs. In the third quarter, I thought we brought the defense back. Even when they made their runs, the fourth quarter I thought we rallied again and got stops when we needed to put the game away.

So I think we're fine in figuring out, you know, once our defense is there, that creates everything for this team. Especially for our offense.

Q. (Inaudible)?

PAUL GEORGE: I've got experience guarding point guards, dating back to my rookie year guarding Derrick Rose. You know, it's a different matchup, but I'm comfortable guarding smaller guys. So it's just keeping him in front but using my length to bother him. You know, mixing it up. Trying to keep a body on him. Pressure him, that's it.

Q. This was just asked, as hot as Jamaal was in that first series, when you guys watched that entering this round, were there advantages you saw for how to defend him, because he has not shot well the entire series?

PAUL GEORGE: I thought in that Utah series, I thought they just did a great job with their player movement. With this team, we've got so many defenders, so many guys that like to defend. We've been taking that challenge to just pressure him up, stay on his body, and just take him out of the game.

But I mean, you saw it, that first series was a big emotional series with him. They were going to have some legs and some fatigue from that first series, so we just -- you know, we knew that coming into this series, but we can't give them no life. You know, a team like that, you can't give him no life.

Q. Everyone knows Lou Williams is a walking bucket, but what can you say about his defense in this series and how have you seen him grow in the postseason with what he's doing on defense?

PAUL GEORGE: I think for Lou, he just tries. You know, everybody knows he's not a defensive player, but you tries. You know, that's all you can ask for out of Lou, just try. Nine times out of ten, he's making some big plays. For Lou, it's great that he's in rotations. You know, he's pinning down and helping the bigs. He's being crafty with his hands. I think just his effort has been amazing.

Q. I have kind of a two-part question about the sense of urgency you guys came out with, what was different from the past games, 2 and 3, that you didn't come out with the same urgency that you showed tonight, and about your team continuity, how you feel you're coming together as a unit. How do you feel about that continuity?

PAUL GEORGE: I think just at some point, we have to string some wins together instead of winning, losing, winning, losing. We, at some point, we have to start stringing some together.

I thought that was the mindset tonight, string some games together. Let's take the approach to put these games away early and come out aggressive, and we did that tonight.

I think our continuity is growing. I think this team is getting more and more comfortable together. I think the challenge, it's allowing us to come together and we are accepting these challenges. We are having fun with it and we are growing at the same time with it.