LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 25, 2021

Kristaps Porzingis

Postgame Press Conference

Mavericks - 127, Clippers - 121

Mavericks

KRISTAPS PORZINGIS: I'll start off by saying what happened is a mistake on my part. I was honestly a little bit confused with the protocols and made a mistake and paid for it. And I'm glad we're able to get the win tonight and I was able to play. So I'm looking forward to what's coming but it's a mistake on my part.

Q. You had a postseason career high three steals and two blocks. Can you talk about the mentality of staying locked in on both ends of the floor tonight and what the mentality was coming into tonight's game to steal, to get another game in Los Angeles?

KRISTAPS PORZINGIS: I thought about the last game a lot and kind of went back a little bit to the fundamentals of how I can affect the game. And also realized that by me being out there, I'm like a decoy for other guys, for Tim and Luka. Kawhi is guarding me.

On the offensive end, I realize I can surely do that if it opens up shots for my teammates and takes Kawhi off Luka, for example. That's a good for us. At the end it's good for us. No matter if I'm involved in every situation or I'm not. And then just as I said, went back to the fundamentals a little bit how I can affect the game even if I'm not scoring. If I'm not shooting and things like that, which is something that I love to do.

And just worked hard. And first half could have done things a little better. Second half looked at the film. At that time we looked at the film and I feel like second half our energy on the defensive end was doing better.

Q. I think most people in this building are surprised except for you guys. You guys especially in the second half, you looked like you were a team out there that expected to win. And when you walked off the floor, you looked like you expected to win. Would you say that's accurate? And your confidence level on this team?

KRISTAPS PORZINGIS: We expect that from ourselves. I even thought we celebrated a bit too much. We just won the second game. We're not nowhere yet. That's a good step where we want to go.

But there's still work to do. And it's not over. They're a good team. They're a talented team. Anything can happen. We have to keep our heads in the right place and on to the next one as if we would have lost almost. That's got to be our mindset and keep going.

Q. Obviously you talked about your performance in Game 1, but what was key for you tonight in responding, coming up with some big 3s, clutch buckets, helping the team come out on top tonight?

KRISTAPS PORZINGIS: Just stay patient with it. Looking at situations how I can, what I can do offensively to combat every pick-and-roll. And I can space the floor and there's going to be situations that by me just standing somewhere I'm going to get an open shot and get things from playing with these guys and Luka. So stay patient with it and then good situations came to me. And my teammates found me. And things were clicking tonight. So happy about the result.