	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: JAZZ vs CLIPPERS

April 18, 2017

Chris Paul

Los Angeles, California: Game Two

Clippers - 99, Jazz - 91

Q. Right off the bat, how important was it to establish DeAndre inside without Gobert there?
CHRIS PAUL: What did D.J. finish with? I guess it was important. We just played. Like seriously, we played a game. Whatever is there, if a guy is open for a jumper, you find him. If a guy is open for a dunk, you find him. You just try to win the game.

Q. You called Jazz fans true homers on TNT, and was that meant as a compliment or was that meant as something maybe less savory?
CHRIS PAUL: Tell me what you took it as, if you're that reaching. If you're reaching that much, you tell me what you took it as.

Q. I would think it would be a compliment because --
CHRIS PAUL: Exactly. That means they like their team. Why even try that, though? I've said that before, they're homers, and I say when you go play there, you don't really see like opposing teams' jerseys; know what I mean? Like they support their team, which is good; know what I mean? How can you take that in another way?

Q. They seemed to be upset about it. I didn't think it was a problem.
CHRIS PAUL: Well, yeah, like when I go there, I don't see like too many Clippers' jerseys. Like they really support their team, and it's always been that. Yeah, you're reaching if you're thinking that's something else. You've got to get a different hashtag. Come on, man.

Q. With the balanced game that you had, how were you trying to determine when to look for your shot and then get other guys involved?
CHRIS PAUL: Man, I was trying to just stay on the court to tell you the truth. I mean, just trying to be aggressive, take what's there. I think we moved the ball great, but all in all, I think our pace was pretty good all night. Whether they scored, missed or whatnot, we just tried to keep the tempo and the pace up.

Q. Can you talk about the job Luc did on Gordon today?
CHRIS PAUL: Man, Luc was amazing. I thought Luc did a great job last game, too. I see Gordon had 20 points. Probably 20 of the toughest points he ever had to get. Luc just constantly keeps coming. I think he's so underappreciated. I'm probably Luc's biggest fan all game long because I like -- like I love defense, so I'm always like patting Luc on the back, like when everybody else is looking at guys making shots, I'm like, Luc, good job, keep going, because that's what goes unseen and unnoticed, and a big reason why we won.

Q. When you think about that road environment you're going to be going into in Salt Lake City, does it make it all the more important to make sure you guys attack inside and get easy baskets from your bigs?
CHRIS PAUL: We've got to play. We've got to play. I've honestly never went into a game and said, we're going to kill them inside or we're going to kill them from the three. Like basketball is a game of reads; know what I mean? If they were in on D.J. and J.J. was open, you would go to him, so for me it's about going in there and executing our game plan, and that's -- if you come off and it's not shot, you make the pass, and you just keep making the right plays.

Q. Chris, what do you think allowed your team to get so many paint points tonight? You had 60, whereas in Game 1 you only had 40.
CHRIS PAUL: I don't know. I'll probably have to go back and look at the game and realize that. D.J. got a lot of offensive rebounds it looked like. Blake was attacking and stuff like that. But over the course of the game, I'm sorry, I'm honestly not paying attention to the paint points and stuff like that, I'm just trying to make sure we've got as many -- we have more than them at the end of the game. But it was probably from being aggressive and going downhill.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297