LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 30, 2021

Tyronn Lue

Press Conference

Q. Same lineup today as last game?

TYRONN LUE: Which lineup was that?

Q. Starting lineup, excuse me.

TYRONN LUE: I'm not sure.

Q. At this point, four games into the series, three games into the series, are there really any surprises from either side, something you might not expect, or do both teams kind of know each other by now?

TYRONN LUE: Both teams, I think they know each other right now. They're shooting the ball at a high clip right now, so we've got to do a better job just running those guys off the three-point line and making them drive the basketball, and then we can get our rotations better. We've got to clean up some of our game plan mistakes, which we were better in Game 3, but we've still got to get better.

Q. You mentioned just now after Game 3 about the game plan mistakes. That was a common refrain after the losses in Games 1 and 2. Specifically what are the mistakes you're looking to eliminate, and in general why will tonight be any different?

TYRONN LUE: No open threes. We want to run Tim Hardaway off the three-point line. He's shooting at a high clip, and that's what we wanted to do coming into the series, and we haven't done a good job of that. We know Luka is going to cause a lot of attention on the floor, but we have to be able to deal with Tim Hardaway there as well as Kleber, make them put the ball on the floor, we come low man, trap the box, make it inside or backside, but whatever we need to do to get him off the line, those two guys, we have to do it, so we've got to do a better job with that.

Q. How important or how valuable has Nico's weak-side cutting and overall veteran presence been for you guys so far in the Playoffs?

TYRONN LUE: Oh, it's been great. I think he's a guy who can switch 1 through 5, he can guard Luka and pick him up full court and try to shadow as much as possible and then just his IQ of how to play the game, where to be on the floor, when to cut, when to space. He's been doing a good job of driving the close-outs, as well, getting to the basket. He's been great, and we need him to continue that tonight for us.

Q. You wore the mask in Game 3 after losing for the first two games. Was there a reason for that?

TYRONN LUE: I wanted to change it up a little bit.

Q. Like superstitious wise or are you just more comfortable with with it on now?

TYRONN LUE: I think I'm more comfortable with it on right now.

Q. Can I also ask just about Marcus? You were able to get him going late in the game. Why is he so important to this team and this series?

TYRONN LUE: Because if they're going to help him three-team Kawhi and try and double-team and take those guys away, then we need our shooters to step up and make shots, and like I said, Marcus was huge for us down the stretch. I think he had three threes in that fourth quarter, two big ones that kind of sealed the game for us.

We see him taking shots if we don't have anything on the floor and make a play for himself or someone else. Like I said, he made two late in Game 2 and then it carried over to Game 3 where he made three big shots for us late in that game.

Q. Porzingis has been one of the few guys on the Mavericks who hasn't been totally shooting the lights out on you guys. How much of a focal point was guarding him when you guys were scheming for this series and what do you think you've done to succeed in kind of slowing him down?

TYRONN LUE: Well, I think, what did he have last game, 13 points? I think nine of them came off our mistakes. We know he's going to hit threes from deep. So we've just got to do a better job of knowing where he's at, especially in transition.

But we're trying to be physical with him. He was a big emphasis coming into the series because the Luka-Porzingis pick-and-roll is deadly. We knew we wanted to be really good at that. Being 7'2" and being able to shoot the ball the way he can, and with Zu starting him, we've been trying to pay a lot of attention to him. We've just got to keep doing what we're doing, taking away and eliminating mistakes of just him catching it in rhythm in transition, the walk-in threes, and I think we'll be okay.

Q. One of the interesting trends so far from this series is you guys have done a pretty good job of just making Luka into a jump shooter and kind of negating his driving ability. While he is making threes at a high rate, is the thinking in this series just force him to continue making those shots rather than getting to the paint and creating there?

TYRONN LUE: Yeah, I mean, we want to play him one-on-one as best as possible. We know he's a tough defend. We know he's going to make tough shots. But if he's playing one-on-one against our guys and we're shaping the floor and we're ready to help, it kind of takes away everyone else. We want to make him play, make him score the basketball. You can't let him have 40 points and 16, 17 assists and everybody else is going, as well. We did a decent job of it in Game 3, but we've got to be better tonight in Game 4.

Q. Prior to last game you mentioned urgency was what the players needed to play with. How did that sense of urgency manifest itself prior to last game, and how have you seen that manifestation lead to today's game?

TYRONN LUE: Oh, I mean, it's not over. Like I said, we've got to win four games. We came out and we attacked, we played well in Game 3, but we've got do it again for Game 4. It's going to be an even harder game for us, and we understand that, so the urgency has to be high.

We want to go back to LA with the series tied 2-2. We understand the game plan, what we want to do defensively. We've got to be better, limit some of our mistakes, and offensively we know we want to attack and how we want to play. We understand that now, so tonight is going to be a big game for us, coming out with the same urgency after that first six minutes of the game and play better to start the game. We want to be up at the end of the first quarter, try to put the pressure on those guys to have to play from behind.

Q. Dallas has the edge when it comes to second-chance points in this series. How do you guys make sure you're still crashing the glass, especially when you go small to make up for not having the size out there when it comes to rebounding?

TYRONN LUE: We've got to hit bodies. The biggest thing we showed a lot of clips of them crashing three or four guys, two guys from the corner and one guy from the slot. We've got to do a good job of not just checking, we've got to check and we've got to hit bodies. If we rebound the basketball at the pace we've been playing at and being able to attack, they're going to be in a bad way. So we've just talked to our team the last two days about boxing out, rebounding the ball, and when we rebound the ball, we can get out and get anything we want in transition, so we've got to hit bodies and bring physicality to the boards.

Q. Yesterday you mentioned that you got a missed FaceTime call from Serge. I was wondering if you called him back and if he had anything to say that you'd like to share.

TYRONN LUE: No, I just said congratulations. It was a great win. He said, come back home 2-2. He said he's feeling a little better, so I hope he continues to get better. He was just excited about the win that we had last game.

Q. With regards to some of the shooting on their end, I think you've announced a variation of this, but internally did you expect it to come down to earth eventually, or do you really just feel like it's up to you guys to just make them miss? You guys have contested shots pretty well for the series.

TYRONN LUE: Yeah, a little bit of both. I hope they can't continue to shoot this well throughout the course of the series, and the way we were playing offensively, if they have bad shooting night, then it could be a runaway for us. So we understand what we've got to do: Take away their threes, limit their threes, make them play inside the line, and like I said, hopefully they don't shoot the ball the way they've been shooting it as of late. We've got to do a little bit better job, as well, just making sure we're getting to Hardaway, making sure we get to Kleber, run those guys off the line.

Q. Did Serge tell you anything about his voodoo room?

TYRONN LUE: Oh, no, I haven't heard about that.