LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 2, 2021

Paul George

Postgame Press Conference

Dallas Mavericks 105, Los Angeles Clippers 100 is.

Q. How concerned is the team about not winning at home in these playoffs?

PAUL GEORGE: I mean, at the end of the day, we want to protect home court. But you know, we're fourth seed, so you know, it's a lot more than -- this isn't our biggest concern. We have to win on the road more than win at home if we want to become champions. Yeah, we have to take care of home court, but we've got other jobs to do. At the end of the day, we still have an opportunity to close this at home if we get this win in Dallas.

Q. Ty said that he felt like the snowball effect in the third quarter happened once you picked up your fourth foul. You've dealt with foul trouble throughout the series and you're guarding the best player, but is there anything you can do differently to avoid that and be able to keep the rotation set?

PAUL GEORGE: I just thought it was tick-tack, you know, it's tick-tack, and then they called what they called on me, and then, you know, those same contact plays down the stretch under three, four minutes, weren't called on the other end. So I don't know what's a foul and what's not a foul.

Q. What's the difference, concern or confidence, going down 0-2 compared to now?

PAUL GEORGE: We're confident. You know, we're confident we can extend the series and bring this back home. We've got to go to Dallas, it's going to be another hard environment, another tough environment for us to go into. It's what we got to do. It's the job that we've got in front of us and we've got to tackle it.

Q. What happens early in game for you that let's you know you're in rhythm and it's going to be a good game? What do you look for during the early minutes that you play?

PAUL GEORGE: It's just the flow of the shots and how the shots are coming. You know, usually that's when I'm in a good flow and tonight, you know, the shots were -- I was just stepping right into them. They were kind of just coming within the offense. And that's usually when I shoot and attack, when it's just coming freely out of the offense is usually when I'm in my best rhythms.

Q. What about in a road environment? What is different when the crowd is going crazy and you know there's going to be a lot of people in Dallas again? Do you do anything differently than you do at home? Is your focus different or what you look at or listen to different?

PAUL GEORGE: No, I think it actually helps. It's fun being in those environments whether it's at home and fans are screaming for us or we are on the road and fans are screaming against us. I kind of tune that and take that in the same way. You know, I still go out and try to be aggressive. Try to make plays. I think more so on the road, I try to be aggressive early, more aggressive early just to send a message and just have my teammates feel comfortable making plays and setups.

Q. After Game 2 Rajon said in Dallas that was a game immediately after that game, there were conversations being had about what to clean up, really positive conversations that let you win in Dallas. Have those conversations already started among the leaders on this team and what's the main point you feel like you have to clean up to survive?

PAUL GEORGE: Yeah, we just got to watch that third quarter. It was a tough third quarter for us where they really outscored us and went on a tough stretch that, you know, we had to climb ourselves out of. In the fourth we did a great job of doing that.

But you know, you can't have quarters like that. So that one kind of -- it's going to haunt us. That third quarter was a bad quarter for us.

Q. Seemed like the fourth quarter, that was when the team was at its best getting inside consistently and finishing at a high clip. What did you see in what Dallas was doing that made it difficult to do that in the first few quarters and how are you able to keep that consistent in the fourth quarter?

PAUL GEORGE: I thought the early quarters -- especially with Boban, they made an emphasis that they were just going to pack the paint and keep us out of getting layups. We got a lot of open threes. We didn't make as many as we wanted but we got a lot of good looks, and I thought late in the game, we were able to get downhill and they were almost, you know, hugged up and so we were able to attack and get downhill and make plays at the basket. I think that was the difference between the start of the game and late in the fourth.

Q. In Game 4, you guys seemingly built a wall to kind of stop Luka from getting downhill but tonight he was able to get downhill more than he has in any other game. What do you think kind of changed in that regard?

PAUL GEORGE: I'm not sure. You know, that's what tomorrow is, watching the film. I'm sure there was plays that we could have been more in gaps and helped each other a little bit better and a little bit more. Right off the top of the head, I can't pinpoint what was the problem there. But I can say that we could have done a better job; we could have had more opportunities or we could have been in gaps more than we were tonight.