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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND TWO: CLIPPERS v ROCKETSMay 10, 2015Chris PaulLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Four Clippers – 128 Q. Chris, what did you think about the way DeAndre handled the Hack‑a‑D.J., the 28 attempts in the first half? CHRIS PAUL: Great. Great. Doc kept telling us and we told D.J. this isn't the first time we've seen it. I mean, I just kept telling him embrace it. It is what it is. He went to the line, you know, he made a few, and it was huge. Q. What do you think it says about your offense that three minutes and 40 seconds into a game that they feel the need to start intentionally fouling? CHRIS PAUL: Was it that soon? Q. Yeah. CHRIS PAUL: I don't know. It is what it is. It's part of the game. You know, people be talking about should they ban it, whatever. No, it's part of the game. Q. Does it give you confidence, though? Even more confidence in your offense and kind of what they think about their chances of stopping you? CHRIS PAUL: I guess if you think about it‑‑ we didn't think about all that during the game. We're just thinking about we've got to defend because that's one of the biggest things, because they're fouling and we've just got to make sure that we play defense. Q. The Clippers have a chance to move on to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history on Tuesday. What does that mean to you guys as a team? CHRIS PAUL: It means that us as a team have an opportunity to win on Tuesday. Yeah. I mean, it's about us, not about the Clippers' franchise and all that. It's about us in that locker room and we've just got to go out there and play. Q. From a personal level how much does it help you to be able to slow the game down like they did so you're not running up‑and‑down the court, up‑and‑down the court? CHRIS PAUL: I don't know, I'm sure they're not fouling to make sure my hamstring feels good, you know what I mean? If so, I appreciate it, I guess. I don't know. I'm feeling better. I think that's all that matters. We've just got to stay hungry for the game on Tuesday. Q. Can you speak to the confidence you guys are playing with right now? These last two games were kind of close at the half, and you pulled away, and it just seems that there's a confidence or a swagger about this team right now. CHRIS PAUL: I think our confidence comes when we defend. You know, everybody talks about how many points we can score and all that different type stuff, but the biggest thing Doc said at halftime was we had 60 points, but we were only up six, and it was because of our defense. The reason we played so well in the third quarter was because we defended and we got a chance to get out in transition. Everything for us, believe it or not, begins and ends on the defensive end. Q. When you guys look at a close‑out game like on Tuesday, is that something you're looking forward to as far as it's an opportunity for you to get rest, kind of heal your hamstring and get ready for the next series? CHRIS PAUL: No question. No question. We're thinking about it, too, as a close‑out game. We've got to go there, be hungry, and you know, in this situation you can't give teams confidence. You can't give them life. We know they're going to come out ready to play Game 5, and we've got to stay the hungrier team. Q. Talk about the confidence level of Austin and how he's playing right now. CHRIS PAUL: Yeah. Austin, man, it's great to see him playing with that confidence. You know, at times he second‑guesses himself, and I think right now he's just playing with a lot of confidence, and we need that. He's coming off being a big spark to our team, and not only on the offensive end, the defensive end. He's playing both ways, and we're going to need him to continue to do that. Q. To have Austin be a credible scoring threat, how much easier does that make it on Jamal with the second unit? CHRIS PAUL: I think it makes it a lot easier on Jamal. Our first unit, our second unit, it's all about ball movement. Doc always tells us don't let the ball stick. Make it move, let it move, and the ball will find the open man, and I think that's what we're all doing. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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