LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 12, 2021

Reggie Jackson

Postgame Press Conference

Los Angeles Clippers 132, Utah Jazz 106

Q. You got off to a slow start, what was said during the time-out that got you on track?

REGGIE JACKSON: Really we just got to be better. We came out with our game plan and we have could you remember coaches that worked tremendously hard to come up with a game plan and scheme and so we have to go out and execute and lay it all on the line and find out if it works.

Early, we didn't come out. Felt like we got hit in the mouth, they came out punching. And going to make sure that we responded and make sure that we kept our foot on the gas and we just played with a sense of urgency. We did that after the time-out and we were fortunate enough to get some spots and were able to get rolling.

Q. Since you and Paul have been here, you go back a long way. What's key for you when you play well; are you feeding off each other?

REGGIE JACKSON: Very much so. When he gets going, I find some extra motivation. I think the whole team, we start riding his wave, we start riding his energy. He started off hot for us and started off well and I liked his aggression tonight. More so, just taking to him, I like the way he kept it simple. He made simple reads, whether it be shooting, whether it be attacking and made the game easy for him.

Once he got the flow going a little bit and got some shots going, his energy is he electric and contagious. Once he gets going, we all feed off it and it makes the game easier for us. We all see him through the years and all know how he can explode and get going. Makes it easy for everyone else once he starts going well and hopefully he can continue to just keep in the game, whether it be not necessarily -- not always going to shoot well but just keeping simple plays and playing well and playing aggressive and just being himself and we feed off his energy.

Q. Before this game, you talked about taking the one-on-one challenge defensively, and you held Donovan Mitchell scoreless in the first quarter. He found some shots but it was harder for those points to come by. What did you do differently tonight to make things so difficult for him and talk about how you really embraced that challenge of the one-on-one play.

REGGIE JACKSON: Donovan is a great player. He's one of the better players in this league, and shoot, I don't know if he's young and upcoming; he's already arrived. He's talented and relentless and going to attack all night and make sure he finds his shots and gives his team the best chance to be in the game and try to win.

For us tonight, I like that we held his field goal attempts to 24. I think guys really came in with a mindset to take on the one-on-one challenge. Honestly we found away way to load up on him. Just try to load up on him, try to attack him, whether it be sending doubles at times, get the ball out of his hands. We want to limit the amount of time he himself got to attack and just play one-on-one.

We are all ready to take the challenge but at the same time we have to be sitting behind each other and help each other. This league is not a one-on-one game. If it were, so probably wouldn't be as fun to watch and there's a lot of great scorers, guys who get paid a lot of money to score. You have somebody that talented out there and someone that can fill it up like that, you have to make sure you limit his opportunities. That's something we tried to do today and made sure we were great in rotations out of it. I feel like we did a great job, like I said, just limiting him; that was something we focused on.

Q. I know the game is still fresh but what do you think the team needs to do better on Monday than what they did tonight in Game 3.

REGGIE JACKSON: I'm happy with the way we protected the ball for the most part, limiting turnovers, good to be under 12 any time, especially in the playoffs. For the most part, defense, we won the rebounding battle. So we got a few mistakes, especially defensively, rotation-wise, miscues, miscommunication, those type of things, a few breakdowns we can shore up and still find a way to be better offensively with our spacing, with our base. Just trusting the guys by you.

So offensively and defensively, just learning to trust and just be locked in and stick to the game plan. Those of some things we can shore up. They still had some open shots they missed but we feel like we mostly came out here and tried to make it difficult.

Like I said, the film is going to tell us what we can improve but fresh in my mind, those are the things we can focus on.