LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 8, 2021

Luke Kennard

Postgame Press Conference

Utah Jazz 112, Los Angeles Clippers 109.

Q. Luke, how did you feel the team's defense was in the second half tonight? Do you think it was just crazy shot-making for the most part by Donovan Mitchell or do you think you guys had a few breakdowns?

LUKE KENNARD: Yeah, you know, I think we started off the game well. It's just a thing where we have to carry it off for 48 minutes. I thought we did a good job of communicating in the first half, throughout the entire first half, and then had a slower start to the third, and then maybe had -- definitely had some breakdowns but it's stuff that we can fix. It's stuff that we've got to go back, look at the film, see what we did right, see what we did wrong, and we've got to get better.

That's what this team is good at. It's what we want to do. We always want to get better and find ways to help us win. You know, credit to them. They played a good game.

But we've got to be ready to fight for a full 48 minutes the next game.

Q. How much confidence does it having figured out Dallas and making adjustments? How do you make those adjustments going forward?

LUKE KENNARD: Yeah, you know, it definitely gives you confidence the way we adjusted in the first series against the Mavericks, but that series is over and this is a new team, a different team. But it's the same kind of process. Figure out what we were making mistakes on and what we didn't communicate well enough, things that we can take away. And you know, like I said, that's what this coaching staff is really good at, making adjustments and guys are buying into that. So you know, it was a tough one. But we've just got to come out ready to go and learn from it and just be ready to go for Game 2.

Q. You came in the first quarter, shot with confidence, and if no one else -- it seemed like you had the carryover from the end of that series to this series. How do you translate that from game-to-game for yourself because I mean, you're not going to be a secret to Utah any more, they are going to expect you to play and you've got to get yourself open, you've got to get shots and the team is going to have to rely on you. So how do you make sure that against this defense you can get open and his consistency?

LUKE KENNARD: Yeah, it's just continuing to be aggressive. They play physical. So we definitely have to be more physical next game, get into our spots, get to the basket and keep attacking the paint. They are making us work, they are. They are a physical team but we have seen teams like that all year. You know, teams that play hard and try to get up into you a little bit. It's just talking to it with the team and seeing what we can do to get guys open and it's just staying ready, being ready and being physical on the offensive end, as well.

I think we did a good job of sharing the ball and we hit shot in the first half. We definitely missed some shots in the second half, but we've just got to keep trusting it, keep trusting what we've built all year, and we've got guys that can make plays and knock down shots. We've got to keep trusting in each other with that.

Q. You talked about just trusting the process of what you guys have built over the course of the season. What are a couple things that stood out to you in this game that you can emphasize for Game 2 to get the W?

LUKE KENNARD: Just keep attacking. Offensively we settled a little bit in the second half but we've got guys that can attacking the paint and attack it well and we have guys that can spot up and knock-down shots. Our game, it flows through Kawhi and Paul. They are our play-makers. They are our leaders out there. They have got to do what they do. And then we've just got to be ready on the outside to knock down shots. It's just continuing to attack for 48 minutes. Can't settle. Like I said, just keep trusting what we've built and continuing to flow off of what we did last series, and just keep trusting each other.

Q. Obviously it wasn't the outcome you wanted tonight but you did in particular have a pretty solid game. Just what did you see out there in terms of the way they were defending you or some of the sets you were in that allowed you to get your shot off like that that you can carry over into Game 2 to have success against this team's defense?

LUKE KENNARD: Yeah, I mean, guys, they were just finding me, and it goes back to the where we were attacking and just kicking it out to open guys. For me it's just being ready to shoot and with a couple plays that we ran, just some miss direction stuff that works.

Coach Lue is good at drawing up ATOs and getting open shots. You know, it's nothing that, you know, for us, it's just continuing to build, and I think today and tonight proves that nothing is going to be easy. You know, even if we've got a lead, nothing is going to be easy and we've just got to continue to fight together, communicate together.

And it goes back to, like I said, about playing 48 minutes as hard as you possibly can because we know what we are capable of and we trust in it, we do. We've got a locker room full of guys that trust in what we've been doing, so it's just following the plan and taking tomorrow and seeing what we've got to do better and hopefully apply it to Game 2.