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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: SPURS v CLIPPERSApril 19, 2015Blake GriffinChris PaulLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game One Clippers – 107 Q. Doc said defensively they had a lot of open looks and you guys would look at the film. Popovich said you guys were very aggressive and basically took them out of what they were doing. Was this just a question tonight to start this series that you guys wanted it more? CHRIS PAUL: We're not going that deep into it. We won. It's one game. It is what it is. I know from guarding Tony he missed a lot of shots that he could have made. They were right there in the basket, they were in and out. I'll look at the film and see what I can do better to defend him, see what we can tag better, and all that other stuff is... Q. Chris, this is obviously your fourth year with the Clippers and the fourth time through. How much sense of urgency do you have to get over the hump this year? CHRIS PAUL: Luckily it's not a one‑on‑one game, so it's not about my sense of urgency. I think we as a team have a sense of urgency. It isn't just my fourth year here with the team. It's me, Blake and D.J.'s fourth year together. We've been through a lot together. Our team last year went through a lot together, so right now we're just trying to take it one day at a time and worry about each game. Q. Tonight you guys were the aggressors. How important is it for you to be like that against a team like San Antonio? CHRIS PAUL: It's very important. Me and Blake talked about it before the game. The team goes as we go, and we sort of feed off each other. Blake was so aggressive early, and then it opened it up for me, and we both just played off one another, then our guys made shots, Jamal was huge, D.J. was big on the glass. It's one game. Got to get ready for Game 2. Q. You guys know that obviously they've been able to do this, San Antonio has been able to get through the Playoffs a bunch of times. Knowing that how different do you expect them to be in Game 2 adjustment‑wise? CHRIS PAUL: Luckily we're just the players, and Doc will probably be up all night trying to figure that out and talk to us about it tomorrow. You know, we can't worry about what they're doing. I think for us we've got to see what we did right, see what we did wrong and come in tomorrow and try to worry about us and not so much about them. Q. Chris, you've talked before about trying to appreciate this time because you don't know if you're going to be on a team this good. Do you think about that when you're about to play and you see Blake and DeAndre and all these guys? Do you think about we have to do something now because this is‑‑ no way you'll get this chance again? CHRIS PAUL: Only when y'all are asking questions like that. When they throw the ball up, trying to figure out what play we're going to run, if I'm going to attack, if I'm going to pass. Do you think about that? BLAKE GRIFFIN: You go you go uh‑huh. CHRIS PAUL: We're playing basketball, man, trying to win as many games as possible. Q. Blake, you've talked a little bit about it in practice, but to piggie back off of what he said, do you see that as you and Chris's biggest challenge together? BLAKE GRIFFIN: Yeah, but it's not just us like he said. It's our team's‑‑ it's one of the biggest challenges.  Every playoff you're faced with challenges. You know, this happens to be our biggest challenge because this is the series that we're in, and these are the games that we're playing. Every game, our next game is the most important game of the season because we can't look ahead, can't look back, and I like the way we've approached games this past month or two, whatever it is, and then how we approached today's game. Q. Blake, you had some spectacular moments tonight. Early on it might not have been falling for you as much as you would have liked. Were you frustrated at that point? BLAKE GRIFFIN: Not really. I got good looks and when you are getting good looks and missing shots you have to keep going. If anything I watched the games yesterday and today and you saw some of the guys maybe not shoot well from the field, but you've got to keep going. You've got to keep going. My teammates said that. Luckily got to the line a little bit and that's where being aggressive helps, when you're not making shots, get to the line, keep them on their heels and got to keep attacking. But you're right, I would have liked to have gotten a few of those back. I think we managed to go without. Q. Blake, with Jamal, with how long he was out with his injury, how did you see him handle that adversity and the process he took trying to get back into a rhythm? BLAKE GRIFFIN: He handled it well. Jamal is one of those guys that I don't worry about that much as far as rhythm goes just because it seems like he could not play for a year and come out on the court and give you 20, 30 points on any given night. The way he played tonight was unbelievable, and it looks likes he hasn't even lost a step. He worked hard to get back, and I think it showed. Q. Before the game Doc kind of joked that he wouldn't want to get involved in a chess match‑type scenario with Gregg Popovich. Is Doc underrated, Xs and Os. You guys are usually so go out of timeouts and stuff like that. Is that part of his coaching that doesn't get enough attention? BLAKE GRIFFIN: Yeah, I think so. Our staff in general, Woody had some great ATOs, after time‑out plays, but Doc, too. We run some stuff in practice and we run some stuff when we come to the huddle in practice it seems like he's kind of making it up, and it ends up working a lot of times. Yeah, I think his Xs and Os, I don't really know what the general consensus is on his coaching and what areas are strong or not, but his Xs and Os are very strong. Q. You kept taking at Baynes in the third quarter there. Did you kind of sense that you had an advantage in than match‑up? BLAKE GRIFFIN: Baynes? If you noticed, most of those were off of pick‑and‑rolls. He was coming over from the weak side. It wasn't so much just a one‑on‑one match‑up, it was just getting to the rim and attacking. But we had a play that worked for us there in the third quarter, and we just kept going to it. That's kind of‑‑ that's been our theme as of late. Once we get something that works, we keep going to it. Doc calls it feeding the pig, and I think that works for us. Q. Blake, I don't know if that's a protein shake or something‑‑ is that chocolate protein or something? BLAKE GRIFFIN: Yeah, it's a protein shake. Q. You played 41 minutes in this game. Can you sustain this‑‑ Chris played 36, DeAndre 36. Can you sustain that level and that many minutes? BLAKE GRIFFIN: Yeah, I think so. We've got two days of rest coming up. As long as we're smart with our bodies and making sure that we're prepared mentally and physically as far as getting rest and all that, I would like to think so, yeah. I missed a lot of games this season, so my legs are a little bit fresher than maybe everybody else's are. Hopefully we can sustain that. Q. There was a play in the third quarter, I think it was a time‑out, and Chris came over and you might have got hit in the face or something and he kind of just picked you up and it was like, you don't have time to be hurt or tired here. Do you remember that play? What did he say to you? BLAKE GRIFFIN: He just said, come on. That's all he said. I don't want to lie to you. Q. What kind of spark do you think those two dunks gave your team? First it was Matt's play and then your two dunks. Is it pretty gratifying when you get a chance to pounce on somebody bigger than you? BLAKE GRIFFIN: You know, we use all kinds of different plays as momentum. Especially at home they're big and even on the road, too, it kind of gets your team into it. We can't live or die by those plays. We talked about not getting too high with the highs and not getting too low with the lows throughout the course of a game and throughout the course of a series. You always hear like when the Clippers are run‑and‑dunking they're all having fun and doing all that, but I thought tonight when they made their run we took it, made plays, got stops, they made another run, we took it, made plays, got stops. I thought we were pretty even throughout the course of the game. So that's kind of our main goal right now. Q. You said or even wrote that maybe you weren't going to go to the basket as much this season for self‑preservation, just to save on the wear and tear. Is that out the window now in the Playoffs? Will we see you attacking the basket like you did tonight? BLAKE GRIFFIN: Yeah, I'm trying to be aggressive. I can't tell you coming into each game it's not a set thing. I don't say I'm going to drive this many times or I'm going to shoot this many times, I'm trying to take what they give me. I just want to be aggressive. I don't want to settle for anything because now is not the time to have the mindset of self‑preservation. Q. Kind of along the lines that Jay was talking about. We've asked you almost every game it seems like the balance between shooting and driving and then you're hurt for 15 games. When you have a performance like this does it kind of affirm that you are where you need to be from that type of an aspect? BLAKE GRIFFIN: You know, I can always be better. I don't ever want to settle and think that I've found that perfect game. I can always be better. But you know, the mindset going into these games is to be aggressive. Like I said, I don't want to settle. I want to make the right plays. A lot of times I didn't tonight, but I'll go watch the film and we'll get better and go from there. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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