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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: TRAIL BLAZERS vs CLIPPERS

April 27, 2016

Damian Lillard

Los Angeles, California: Game Five

Trail Blazers - 108, Clippers - 98

Q. Damian, you finished the third quarter with six points but then you got explosive in the fourth, finishing with 22. How were you able to overcome that?
DAMIAN LILLARD: I mean, that's my entire career in the league, I've always been able to put the first three quarters behind me and come up big when my team has needed it. You know, all my teammates throughout the game, they just kept saying, keep shooting, stay with it, stay aggressive, keep your mind right, and I would have been doing that all along, but it was -- it felt good to have that encouragement and that support, especially with them trapping so high out. I had to trust the right play, hitting the guy in the middle and allowing him to make the next play to the weak side. I just had to be patient. It wasn't even so much missing the shots that were bothering me, it was just I couldn't get any attempts because they were so aggressive.

But I stayed with it, kept my mind right, and I saw one go in, and that was it.

Q. You started the fourth quarter, which typically you don't. Was that a change that you asked for or do you know exactly what the reasoning behind that was?
DAMIAN LILLARD: No, I was actually surprised myself. I usually play the third and then I sit the first couple minutes of the fourth. But I hadn't gotten it going, and Coach Stotts knew that it was a game that we needed to win. It was a huge game for us. I think he left me out there just so I could get it going. That was a great call on his behalf because I had a stretch before I came out where I made like three shots in a row, so I was feeling good when I came back into the game again, so that was his call.

Q. What did you see defensively from the Clippers that was different from the first four games?
DAMIAN LILLARD: Nothing was really different. You know, they played a smaller lineup more often than they did the first couple games, but everything that I did, they were just as aggressive. You know, it was obvious that they wanted me to get rid of the ball just like it was in the first four games, and I just made the right play. They stayed true to what they've been doing all series long, and so did I.

Q. Things were somewhat bleak when you left here after two games, and you kind of completely turned the series around. What's the feeling now that you are on the verge of possibly clinching it?
DAMIAN LILLARD: It's a great feeling. But even after the first two games here, I said that the series changes every game. After Game 3, we felt really good going into Game 4 again at home. We played well, and then we played really well again, and unfortunately they had some injuries that completely changed their team.

Like I said, it changes every game. We had a good game tonight. We finished it, and they could -- they got a good enough team to do the same thing to us. So we've got to just continue to get better at the things that we've done well in this series that's given us a chance to win these games.

Q. You've won three in a row, now you go back home. You think they've broken the Clippers' will at all with the momentum like this?
DAMIAN LILLARD: No, they're a competitive group, even without CP and Blake. I think they have a team that can really compete. They've got some explosive guys out there. They still have guys where they can be a really good, disruptive defensive team. I mean, they know that if they can try to come win this next one in Portland that the series is coming back here. At that point anything can happen on your home floor.

I wouldn't say that their will is broken, just understanding that part of it, but it also makes it tough when you know you've got to go back to an arena like ours and win a game.

Q. There was a stretch of about four possessions in the fourth quarter that put the game away. You guys got like 11 points in four trips down, a lot of the sort of perimeter actions we've been accustomed to seeing from you guys during the season but hadn't really done a lot during this series. Kind of walk us through that period.
DAMIAN LILLARD: Well, we had a lead. It wasn't a huge lead but we were in control of the game, and C.J. had it going a little bit, I had saw the ball go in, and we wanted to have long possessions, make them guard a set and then get it into my hands or C.J.'s hands and make something happen. A lot of times it ended in AC having the ball and me coming off a flair, C.J. coming off a pin-down or vice versa, and we just kept them busy. There was a guy on the week side so they couldn't have a guy over-helping, and we executed really well down the stretch and was able to get some looks, and we knocked down shots.

Q. The Clippers were up five at the half. Were you surprised by that, and what was the attitude like in the locker room?
DAMIAN LILLARD: No, I wasn't surprised. We missed a lot of free throws in the first half. We didn't shoot the ball well in the first half. And we didn't defend with the urgency that we had defended in the past three games. It wasn't a surprise. They got it going. They were feeling confident. They saw the ball go in early, and they felt that they could win this game, as they should.

We came in the locker room and we were honest with ourselves. The first thing I heard when I walked in was we're not guarding like we have been. We're not as locked in as we need to be, and guys were just throwing things out like that. Once we realized it, we'd go out there, and we'd correct it in the third quarter. For a long time they only had 12 points toward the end of the third quarter, and we fixed it. So on the defensive end we knew we needed to be better, and we got better.

Q. After a season of being the, quote-unquote, underdog, could you describe what it's like now to be a favorite, to be a team that's favored?
DAMIAN LILLARD: I mean, it's funny that we'd be considered a favorite, because they have a really good team. This is a team that went to Utah against a really good Utah team at the end of the season and beat them with none of their guys there except Jamal Crawford, and he just went off, and they beat a good team. They went to OKC at the end of the season and almost won a game with OKC at full strength. It's funny you say that. Neither team had an All-Star out there. You know, it was a game that we knew was going to be tough, and we came out and we did what we had to do.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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