LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 14, 2021

Bojan Bogdanovic

Jazz Postgame Press Conference

Clippers - 118, Jazz - 104

Q. Bojan, obviously you got off to a rough start tonight. Could you break down what were some of the biggest issues behind that?

BOJAN BOGDANOVIC: I think that we didn't get out with a sense of urgency that we had at first, the first two games. They hit a lot of shots, and we didn't distribute the ball the first quarter like we're supposed to. They had a lot of easy transition points off our turnovers or bad shots.

And then in third quarter when we were down 20, almost 30, we started to play with a sense of urgency that we're supposed to start in the first quarter.

Q. How much has all of this shaken the team's confidence?

BOJAN BOGDANOVIC: I mean, not at all. We've got to stay connected, stay together. They did what they were supposed to do. They won two games at home. Now it's our turn to protect our home court.

Q. As this series wears on, how much are you missing Mike just as a steadying presence?

BOJAN BOGDANOVIC: A lot. People don't even understand what he means for our team. And we are missing him big time, but we show first two games that we can play against them and we can beat them. So, like I said, we are playing 82 games for a reason. So we got home-court advantage and we've got to take advantage of that.

Q. When you guys started to, like you said, play with more urgency late in the game and things started to click, did you see anything happening that you could take into the next game?

BOJAN BOGDANOVIC: I mean, of course. We've got to watch the film, see what we did wrong in the first quarter, why they get that big lead. And then we've got to also see the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth, the way we played and moved the ball.

And then also we were way better getting back on transition defense. So, they had, like, 10 or 15 free throws more. So that showed that they were a more aggressive team on the floor.

Q. How do you explain your difficulties with the shooting in the first half compared with the second?

BOJAN BOGDANOVIC: I mean, we couldn't get a stop. So we needed to play our game there. Half-court defense, they were trying to double Donovan -- they threw a lot of different defenses at him. So, it's our turn to step up and play a little bit more aggressive as well.

Q. Speaking of that inability to get a stop early, just given how good of a defensive team you've been all year and it seems like there have been several times early in these playoffs where you guys have struggled on that end. What do you attribute that to? What needs to improve on the defensive end going forward?

BOJAN BOGDANOVIC: I think we've got -- our transition defense has to be better because we're cross-matched offensively by them. And when they are coming back to the defense, we're also cross-matched. So we've got to find our guy or talk more defensively.

But I think the first quarter we didn't play well offensively. And, like I said, we had a couple of turnovers and bad shots. And we allowed them to run behind our backs and have easy buckets or easy shots.