LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 25, 2021

Tyronn Lue

Postgame Press Conference

Dallas Mavericks - 127, Los Angeles Clippers 121

Q. How do you feel your team executed down the stretch in the second half of this game and what was the difference in this game that ultimately ended in something -- ended in bringing you guys to a 0-2 record in the series?

TYRONN LUE: I think down the stretch we took some tough shots instead of keep attacking, then took some quick threes, dribble up threes that we could have kept attacking them. But outside of that, just defensively, they had us all over the place. Attacking the paint, they got points in the paint. They got threes again. So that's 35 threes in two games. So Hardaway is playing at a high level right now, so we got to do a good job with him coming out on Friday. But they got everything they wanted defensively tonight and I thought the game was pretty easy for them.

Q. On the defense, obviously, that first half was a bit of a track meet. That third quarter you guys stopped scoring and they started scoring more. Well, not scoring more, but they kept scoring. What do you feel from a lineup standpoint and from a scheme standpoint needed to be better in that second half?

TYRONN LUE: I think we had to go small to get Zu out of the game, then our offense kind of stagnated because they switched 1 through 5 and then we started playing one on one instead of having that dynamic roller. But, like tonight, I just thought they took advantage of Zu being on the floor, so we got to do something different, which we got back in the game. But we'll watch the film, watch the tape, and we'll come back and see what adjustments we have to make.

Q. Obviously, you guys haven't been playing up to your level offensively but when their four guys, their four starters, are shooting 70 percent, and 70 percent from three, do you feel like a lot of that was game plan mistakes or, having not watched the film yet, or do you feel like they made some tough shots?

TYRONN LUE: No, I don't think they made tough shots. I mean, Luka made some tough shots, but that's what he does, but we had some game plan mistakes again tonight and then we double-teamed Luka or you blitz Luka, it leaves other guys wide open. So going down the stretch the last five, six minutes of the game we wanted to foul him and give him a different look. He kind of had it going, trying to pick a mismatch in the pick-and-roll and then try and just have Luka back down whoever was guarding him. So they did a good job with that. But we made some game plan mistakes as well that we just got to continue to keep cleaning up.

Q. What's the level of concern right now, down 0-2, going over there to Dallas?

TYRONN LUE: I'm not concerned. They got to win four games, and you come in on the opposing team's floor and you play. There's no pressure, you can make shots, because you just try to come in and steal a game or steal two games. But now they got to go home and try to keep up the same shooting. It's easy to come out on the road and do that when there's no pressure on you, so we'll see in Game 3.

Q. Nick Batum in that first half seemed to be a stabilizing force for you guys. There was a stretch there late in the fourth where he just wasn't on the court for about seven minutes. Did you, what went into that decision when he had been playing pretty well most of the night?

TYRONN LUE: I got to look at it.

Q. You said that you're always confident no matter what situation the series is. How do you ensure over the next couple days that the rest of the roster feels the same way you do going into Game 3?

TYRONN LUE: You got to talk to them. I've been down before. I've been down all my life and succeeded, so I'm not worried about it. You got to win four games and that's what it is. They won two games on our home floor. Now we got to go continue the favor.

Q. It's clear this team had championship expectation, has championship expectations and you said that all season long. What's the state of mind of the team right now? I know it's right after a loss, but, I mean, what's the confidence level of the team right now?

TYRONN LUE: You got to ask them. My confidence level is high. We haven't had a chance to talk so you got to ask those guys. But I think they feel pretty good. Need to clean up our mistakes. We got our offense going, how we want to attack this team, which we did a good job, but we got to do a better job of trying to stop these guys especially in the one-on-one situations where we got to stop the ball straight up, we got to do a better job of that as well.

Q. We saw a little bit in the second quarter Serge and Rondo got in a really loud shouting contest on the bench and Serge never quite checked back in after that moment. Was it from that moment or was it something with the back, what was the issue that Serge didn't come back in and what happened?

TYRONN LUE: I didn't see it him and Rondo get into it so I don't know. But we decided to go small. Went to T-Mann, it gave us more energy, be able to switch a little bit more, a little bit more speed on the floor. I thought T-Mann came in and did a great job for us.

Q. I was actually going to ask you about Terance. You put him in in the third quarter, it seemed like his energy and his drive to the rim ability was able to kind of invigorate the team during his time on the floor. Is that kind of something we can expect from him going forward in terms of getting minutes in this kind of series where that's needed?

TYRONN LUE: Yes, sir. I think that's a guy who will switch on the floor, doing more switches on the floor, especially with their second unit, doing more switching, get out, rebound and attack, get to the basket, make plays, so I was very impressed with how he played tonight.