LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 2, 2021

Tyronn Lue

Postgame Press Conference

Dallas Mavericks 105, Los Angeles Clippers 100

Q. It looked like that 22-3 run they had in the third quarter really made it an uphill battle for you guys to get back in it. Given you were playing so well up to that, what happened there? Why did that happen?

TYRONN LUE: PG committed his fourth foul and then, you know, when he came out of the game, we got to ask Kawhi to do a lot. I think Kawhi got a little tired.

But you know, PG having four fouls early on in the third quarter really hurt us. And so we had some turnovers, delayed the easy baskets for those guys, and then we couldn't score the ball like we needed to. So only having 21 points in that third quarter really hurt us offensively.

Q. Hindsight is 20/20 but I think you put in Zu for PG at the time. Did you consider putting in Terance to keep the small lineup?

TYRONN LUE: I have to look at it. I don't remember.

Q. Did you see anything differently about how they were defending Kawhi in this game?

TYRONN LUE: I thought they showed two or three bodies tonight. They packed the paint to make sure Kawhi got off if it. I thought we got some great shots that we didn't make. They enticed us to take threes instead of and keep attacking because we were so wide open. We didn't make threes early on in the game, and they made some shots, gave them some confidence going into it.

I thought we had great shots throughout the night. You know, you're going to make some. You're going to miss some. But still can't take away from our aggressiveness attacking the paint, attacking the basket, even though they tried to run a lot of zone, which we still got open shots and you still could drive it as well. So we have to be better when it comes to playing against the zone.

Q. Obviously you've been in this situation before, so what is the message now this you're telling your team, especially coming after this loss and going back now to Dallas for Game 6?

TYRONN LUE: Got to win in seven now.

Q. What have you learned about your team so far in this series that you can apply to Game 6 and 7?

TYRONN LUE: Just resiliency. I think overcoming the deficit, and we got down 0-2 on our own floor, went up there, won two tough games. We're going to have to do the same thing again on -- I don't even know what today is.

Two days from now, we have to come out and do the same thing. We've just got to make smart plays. Can't get in foul trouble and we just have to keep attacking. We know what we got to do against their zone. We got open shots all night. We just didn't make them early, and that kind of put us behind the 8-ball.

Q. Where would you say the team is with the sort of mental toughness to climb that kind of hill compared to some of the teams you've been on and coached?

TYRONN LUE: I think we're fine. We'll see in two days but like I said, everybody talked about in the locker room, we're good.

So we've just got to clean up some things, you know, offensively, like we got great shots. They did -- Kawhi and PG to pass the ball, which they made good passes. We didn't make some shots and we didn't team attacking the paint. We'll go back and look at it and clean some things up, and we'll be ready to go in two days.

Q. On the play where Kawhi gets the shot up at three in the corner, was that the shot you were hoping to get in that set?

TYRONN LUE: It was three shots, actually. PG over the top, Kawhi gets picked to the corner for the shot, and then PG comes back off Marcus and Marcus goes down and gets Reggie. It's actually three shots available in that, and you know, I haven't watched it yet, but I think Rondo said he was open but I don't think his feet was set quite yet, so I've got to take a look at it.

Q. What went into the decision to close most of the game with Terance over at point guard and what did you think of his performance down the stretch?

TYRONN LUE: His performance was great. You know, we were able to switch one through five. I thought can he a great job of guarding Luka and that's how we got back in the game. We got stops and was able to get out in transition. The biggest thing with transition, like I said, we have five guys that was switchable on the floor and we switched one through five and all these guys did a great job on Luka down the stretch.

It was good seeing T-Mann out there bringing the intensity that he's brought us all season long. So it was good to see.