LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 16, 2021

Quin Snyder

Press Conference

Q. I'll ask the obvious question. How does this game change without Kawhi Leonard available?

QUIN SNYDER: Yeah, I mean, obviously your sympathies and hope and wish him a speedy recovery. I know obviously the competitive component, but the personal component always trumps that. So hopefully he'll get better quickly and it won't be anything that's severe for him.

As far as how it impacts the series, I think there's obviously things that he does that are unique. We have been through that with Mike and some of the things that he does for our team that you have to adjust to, and they will make those same adjustments, whether it's, obviously minutes, personnel, matchups, who they play. There are other things, I think PG at certain times in the game, as you review the game, has already been unbelievably aggressive and that's something that we have talked about and we need to address and I think there's a number of ways that we can try to do that.

But now you look at someone like Reggie Jackson, and the windows that he's had at certain points in the series, where he's been, he's really scored the ball. Obviously, Morris as well. So their usage likely goes up and some of who they play, and we'll have to wait and see, but you have to try to prepare for all those things in advance as much as possible.

Go back and look at some of the games this year where Kawhi hasn't played and look at the way that they substituted and the way they have played and those types of things that give you a little bit of color. But no one isolates at the nail better in the world than he does, so there's obviously some things like that. His post-ups. He was playmaking out of the post and then obviously defensively.

So anytime you lose a player like that, it impacts the series, as I said, but teams respond and they will respond. So I think our guys know that, the same way we have had to do that and need to continue to do it. I think everybody on this level this time of year understands that there's a next man up mentality, and they're a deep team and they're a talented team, so there's certainly enough offensive talent out there that they can score the ball, and we have to defend so that we can get out and run and get some cleaner looks and be more efficient offensively.

Q. Obviously, you dealt with the injuries and there's about, what, eight or nine all-stars, NBA all-stars, that are out or have missed time during this NBA playoffs. Would you attribute -- what would you attribute that to and do you give it cause to the shortened off-season?

QUIN SNYDER: You know, it's really difficult for me to speculate on that. Anytime -- some of those things you just, you can't control, and I think across the league everybody does their best to mitigate on whatever level that's possible, but it's hard for me to comment on that with any real credibility.

Q. Yesterday you talked a lot about adjustments and then of course the major change without having Kawhi. You adjust because of personnel, but you also adjust because of scheme. How does that change? How do you change now with those adjustments or do you keep it the same ahead of Game 5?

QUIN SNYDER: No, there's probably things that we can tweak that have to do with lineups and who is playing. Their depth allows them to play some guys that you can still look at how they have played during the course of the series and see some things that you want to try to influence or take away.

I think, obviously, PG's been terrific, particularly in certain segments of the game where he's been able to really attack the basket. We tried to switch Rudy on to him late in certain possessions and have been able to do a pretty good job protecting the rim.

Our half court defense during stretches has been very good. Transition has been the thing that, if you look at the numbers, it's really hurt us. Some of that is connected to our offense and some of it is connected to us just being better getting back and not allowing driving lines.

So there are things that we have wanted and talked about doing and feel like we need to do that we see coming out of Games, really Games 3 and 4, but particularly Game 4, that don't involve Kawhi, certainly things that, obviously the things that you look at aren't relevant now without him playing, but there are some things that, whether it be points of emphasis for us in our group and things that we know we need to do. We saw the second half the other night that we found a little something. We were just more aggressive and being more committed and reading quicker to try to get the ball into the paint to create, and then doing a better job once we get in there, being precise, using fakes, making passes that we can shoot.

So some of those things that impact our team and impact the game, particularly getting back, and then, certainly, as I said, with PG, there's things that we need to take away and have taken away at certain points in the game, but he's a heck of a player and he's been able to do some things and obviously that still remains the case.

Q. There's a lot that's been made of kind of how the minutes that Derrick Favors gets has possibly negatively impacted the team when he's been out there. How do you kind of make sure that those minutes are maximized when he is out there?

QUIN SNYDER: Well, you do just that. I think Fav, if you look against Memphis, had a terrific series. I know that, it's not lost on us, and the minutes that Fav is in in this series, if there's things that we can do to help the team be more effectively defensively in those situation, those are adjustments that we'll make. And then obviously as far as how we match certain players, sometimes that's on the ball, sometimes that's off the ball. We have done that over the course of the season as far as we have played guys at various times in matchup situations. And I know this question came up previously and it's a good one and, Rudy needs to keep himself out of foul trouble. We need to help him stay out of foul trouble because we are so dependent on him, and that's not a criticism in any way of Derrick. I think we have been who we are because of the job that he's done during the year. But, again, there's things that Rudy's capable of doing that no one in the league is really doing and particularly become very important with our team.

So to the extent we can keep him on the floor, particularly at certain times, you get a chance to see the times that he can be the most impactful as far as how our lineups look out there. We have got some constraints, obviously, at the point guard position that come into play as far as matchups. So all those things kind of work together. And we won six playoff games in a row, and then you get into a situation where you're able to see other things more closely against a different team, and then obviously whatever those things are, whether it be small or large, things that you can do to adjust as far as rotations or minutes or schemes, those are things that all come into play.

Q. You were just mentioning that the Clippers is an aggressive team, so I was wondering, what do you think the key will be to limiting guys like, for example, PG, and how challenging would it be to guard them tonight?

QUIN SNYDER: Well, I think you see PG's had, there's a couple real clear tendencies when you look at the last couple games in particular, his ability to attack the rim, and how he's doing that and who he's doing that against, and then his ability to shoot the three off the dribble, particular in pick-and-roll, where we need to be up at the point of the screen, we need to make that harder for him and be more aggressive to take some of those things away.

Then, really, when you go back and you look at a lot of the numbers, we have been, with Rudy on the floor, been really good in half court. I think that that's something that they recognized in the first couple games and really made a concerted effort to run. So to the extent that we can be more efficient offensively, that also will really help our defense being in half court situations.

And then a few things schematically that we need to do that can further help us and those things may be individual or they may be more collective.