LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 10, 2021

Kawhi Leonard

Postgame Press Conference

Utah Jazz 117, Los Angeles Clippers 111

Q. By the standard you set in the first series, you haven't played up to those standards in terms of your dominance on the court. Do you feel like you're putting emphasis on the game the way you did in the previous series? Are you still looking to figure your way out through this series?

KAWHI LEONARD: I mean, got to take what the defense gives me pretty much. We've got enough talented players to make plays. I feel like I made the right plays tonight. Just unfortunately it didn't go our way. Yeah, I think we're doing a good job. You know, kind of got out of proportion in that third quarter. We just keep having bad third quarters. We've got to do better on that.

Q. Despite the bad third quarter, you did recover and Jazz called time-out and they hit you up with that 2-14 run. What did Ty kind of tell you guys when y'all finally got the lead and what was the challenge in maintaining it for that THREE-, four-minute stretch there?

KAWHI LEONARD: Just pretty much just keep doing what we're doing. You know, just keep being aggressive. Keep trying to make plays out there. Rebound the basketball and execute.

Q. Do you think that the challenge now going into Game 3, obviously Donovan has been great but you slowed him down. To have so many great shooters, in your mind, what is the balance between stopping him and trying not to get hit with 20 more threes in Game 3?

KAWHI LEONARD: I think we definitely have to try to limit -- limit him out there. He got off to a great start. He got them going. You know, that's the head of the snake, and you know he's playing great right now.

Q. How do you look at this challenge of being down 0-2 again, having to overcome that and what do you think it's going to take?

KAWHI LEONARD: We all got to put our will out on the floor. You know, see what we did in the first two games and try to limit our mistakes and just keep going on from there pretty much. You know, we'll see tomorrow what we got to do and you know we've got a lot of fight left. So you know -- we're up for the challenge.

Q. I was just curious, foul trouble has kind of plagued you a little bit in the first two games. Do you think that's impacted your aggressiveness on either side of the floor at all?

KAWHI LEONARD: I mean, yeah, you know, at times when I'm in there with four fouls, it's hard to be as aggressive as you want to be on the defensive end as well as offense. You don't want to get no silly, you know, rebound fouls, charges, you know, illegal screens. Yeah, so I mean, a little bit, but just I've got to be better with not fouling so I could stay aggressive and play my game.

Q. What do you make of Reggie's performance tonight and what's it like to have another guy out there to take pressure off of you and PG in situations?

KAWHI LEONARD: He was great tonight. They let him play on the island. He stayed aggressive. He got to the paint. He made some big shots. He's been doing that for us all year.