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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: CLIPPERS vs WARRIORSApril 26, 2019Patrick BeverleyLou WilliamsLos Angeles, California: Game Six Warriors - 129, Clippers - 110 Q. These fans, was there a moment this season that you felt that connection? PATRICK BEVERLEY: Every game. LOU WILLIAMS: You're crazy. (Laughter). You know what, our fan base grew with us this year. It was exciting to see the crowds grow. It was exciting to see people come out and actually be excited about what we were trying to build and what we put together. I appreciate them for that. Q. Lou, as we all know you played so good in Oracle Arena in Game 5, but you kind of struggled in Staples. And what makes you play so good in Oracle arena but not too good tonight? PATRICK BEVERLEY: Next question, man. LOU WILLIAMS: No, we're not going to do that. I struggled at home this series and I played well on the road and that's just how it mapped out. It was unfortunate that I couldn't give our fan base the performances that I was given on the road. But it happens in the game; I live and die with the shots I take. Tonight was especially tough because it was a deciding game. I wish I would have played better. But I'll go to sleep tonight happy with the shots that I took and missed. PATRICK BEVERLEY: To add to that, Lou's been carrying us all year. Of course off the bench game winners, down in the situation we gave Lou the ball. To answer that question, he's been doing -- we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Lou. If that means anything. Q. Doc says this is his favorite year coaching in terms of the team. Why was this team special each of you? LOU WILLIAMS: I think we bought. I think we bought in early. It started from training camp. Stated from day one. We have so many guys on this team that had something different to prove and none of those goals bumped heads. I think everybody had a different goal, a different agenda and it meshed well. So we went into camp with the attitude that we were going to be each other's best supporters and trying to reach those goals, trying to reach -- we saw the schedule, realized we had three national television games out of 82. And we said the only way that we're going to figure this thing out we're going to turn heads, we've got to do it together. So for me it started from day one. We had guys that bought in. We didn't have any ego problems. Every argument that we had was a basketball-related problem. And I'm thankful, like, this was a smooth year to play with these guys. And I think from a coaching standpoint, I think Doc felt that energy as well. We policed had ourselves this year. PATRICK BEVERLEY: To add what Lou said, it no doubt when it came to training camp Lou was our leader. And we followed his lead. Throughout the year he told us to continue to play hard and live with the results. Sad we lost, of course, but we took the back-to-back champion six games. And we hold our head up high with doing that. Q. Lou, Patrick is filling you up with praise and kind words. Will you talk about what Patrick meant to this team, his defense tenacity, awareness and aggressiveness? Would you speak to us about that a little bit? LOU WILLIAMS: He was the heart of the team. I think Patrick creates so much attention on the floor with the energy that he plays with and some of his antics, that it allows me to do my job kind of behind the scenes. While he's frustrating everybody on the other end, I'm doing other work. But he's been the heart and soul of our group. Sometimes I have to relax him and tell him that we kind of got it. But without a doubt -- it showed at the end of the year and we lost four straight without him. We needed that energy, we needed that push at that time of the season. We didn't have it. And he's very instrumental in what we try to do, man. So heart and soul for sure. Q. Collectively, as a group, when you guys come back next year what will be the focus on the offseason? Is it too early to ask that question? PATRICK BEVERLEY: Way too early. LOU WILLIAMS: I'm trying to find a beach somewhere, man. Q. This team seems so close together and at the end of the huddles you guys chant "family." Can you talk about how close you guys all were this year? PATRICK BEVERLEY: Like I said, I think that all starts with Lou since training camp. We made plans to meet up this past summer. We met in Miami. Of course, Lou and Trez, they played together. We had Tobias in. That was great. We got the trade. Again, Lou opened all the new guys, open arms. It was just like a family. We was able to police ourselves, we see somebody not playing well, we was on them. Doc was able to coach all the rookies the way he wanted to, he was able to coach us the way he wanted to. There was no complaints, man. We wanted to see everybody eat. We wanted to see Lou get another six-man, of course. We wanted to see Trez to get Most Improved. So, we were rooting for everybody. When it was time to be successful, we got out of the way. Q. Can you all just speak on the competitive nature of this series? Obviously a lot of people predicted that you guys might have swept or maybe lost five games and you gave the Warriors one of their toughest tests over the past couple of years. Could you speak to the competitive nature you guys had this year as well as in this series? PATRICK BEVERLEY: I don't think people thought this was going five. At the end of the season people didn't even have us going to the playoffs. I don't think people thought that. But we wanted all the smoke, regardless of what number they was. When I say smoke, we wanted -- LOU WILLIAMS: They know. They know. (Laughter). PATRICK BEVERLEY: We weren't backing down. And that's just the will of this team. We just keep fighting. We never back down. And at the end of the series, they do -- fortunate to win a championship; they know they were tested by the LA Clippers, that's the most important thing. Q. Pat, when KD was in rhythm in the first half, did you approach Doc and want to take on the Kevin Durant challenge? And number two, what did you guys see from the rookies? Did you expect from them what you got at the end of the season when you guys first had them in training camp? LOU WILLIAMS: I'll talk about the rookies. I've decompressed the series, so I'm kind of over that. But the rookies, I'm so proud of how they responded all year long. Like we popcorned Shai's car one time and that was because he forgot donuts four times. But usually you forget the donuts the first time your car is getting popcorned. But the young guys are so solid that we gave them so many chances and he kept doing it. So we had to do it just out of, like, bro, you've got to respect what we've got here. That speaks volumes to just how they carry themselves. And Shai, Jerome and then Land coming in late, I love coming to work with them guys. They were super respectful and at the same time they took every challenge that we had for them on the road in practice. They were complete pros, and I'm proud to be a part of their maturation. Q. What more could you have done to slow Kevin down, especially in the first half? PATRICK BEVERLEY: What you think? (Laughter). You played basketball before? What you think? That's an honest question. What you think? You watch a lot of basketball. You work for ESPN. I mean, he's Kevin Durant. LOU WILLIAMS: I promise we tried. PATRICK BEVERLEY: We didn't roll over. We didn't just say, come on, man, just give us 50 tonight. Of course not. He's a hell of a player. The shots he took, he made some tough shots. If you were a coach, what would you tell us to do? Thank you. LOU WILLIAMS: We tried everything. (Laughter). So we tried everything. We had several different coverages for KD. PATRICK BEVERLEY: It didn't work. LOU WILLIAMS: Like sometimes -- sometimes you come across special people and it doesn't matter what you send to them. There's no scheme. There's no nothing that you can do with special people. He's one of them. And he showed it tonight. He put them guys on his shoulders. Even the game he came out, he was, like, I'm Kevin Durant; y'all know who I am. That's like a bold statement to make when you're about to go see some guys that's extremely competitive. And he came out that game and he said, I can really shoot over these guys and he did it. It wasn't lack of effort on our part. He's an all-world professional and he proved himself. He proved exactly who people think he is, who he thinks he is himself and he did it. And you tip your hat off to a guy like that. PATRICK BEVERLEY: If that answers your question. Q. At the risk of sort of provoking the same sort of response, Steve Kerr said he felt like you guys forced the Warriors to play their best basketball and they felt like they did that by the end of the series. Were there specific things you saw the Warriors maybe change or something about their games that evolved from Game 1 to Game 6? LOU WILLIAMS: We made them change their starting lineup. (Laughter). But everything is about the Warriors and they deserve the respect. But for me I want to focus on, man, we put our heart and souls into this season. Based on popular belief we overachieved. We put together a hell of a run, and I'm proud of our guys. So whatever we made them do, it's in association with the work that we put in. Q. Doc said if you guys could have scripted your opponent before this season you would have wanted the Warriors. Obviously Denver is in seven games. Portland could have been a good opponent for you guys. But playing the champs, what did you guys learn from it, and what can you build upon that in future seasons by playing against them in this series? PATRICK BEVERLEY: Going in, we knew who we were going in. We knew exactly who they were. I think if we did anything, I think we proved to you guys that we're just not a regular team. I think we proved to everybody in this room we weren't slouches. Let's be honest, you didn't think we were going to be here, definitely not going 4-2. What we did was prove you guys wrong and we are happy with that. LOU WILLIAMS: We were a 48-win 8 seed, you know what I mean? There were a lot of teams that would die for a 48-win season. For me, we weren't just happy to be here. I think our record and how we played and how we carried ourselves throughout this season it proved that we weren't just happy to be in the playoffs and let's get 4-0. We came into the series really thinking we could put some pressure on these guys and give them a run for their money to upstage these guys. PATRICK BEVERLEY: And we did. LOU WILLIAMS: So, we came up short and they put together some amazing games. KD was amazing tonight. Klay had an amazing game. Steph had an amazing game. That's a testament to the way that team is built. But so we don't look at them and say, from a player's perspective, what could we have learned. I think we learned from the mistakes we made and we built off of that. Q. Talk about your front office and your owner. I saw in Oakland how you came out -- Patrick came out and hugged the owner after the game. How do you guys feel about your front office and your owner? PATRICK BEVERLEY: I think, first, our owner, he's the biggest fan, the biggest Clipper fan in the world, not only what he does for the team but outside of basketball. What he's doing for our community. Of course the logo is the logo. He puts together things you don't even see coming give a lot of credit to L. Frank, making the moves he's making and the trades that he's making and we were still competitive. So you have to give him a lot of credit, a lot of credit. And to top it off Doc. You know, Doc was on us. He was tough. Cursed us out in a heartbeat, but allowed us to be ourselves on the team and you can't ask anything more. LOU WILLIAMS: I'm happy to be a Clipper. I think it showed with me taking the extension last year, just the way everything is run here is smooth. Everybody communicates with each other. It's no surprises, no sneaky stuff, no funny business. If there's an issue it gets discussed. And I'm just happy to be here. So as far as ownership and the front office goes, I have a lot of confidence in the decisions they make. And I look forward to seeing what they put together this summer. Q. Pat, after last year when you only played 11 games, out with the injury, to come back, be persistent and have the season you had, especially towards the second half, what did it mean for you? PATRICK BEVERLEY: It was hard, of course. You've been around. The beginning of the season it wasn't all that perfect for me. But stayed with it. Lou stayed on me, kept giving me confidence. Fortunate to learn the things I've learned from Lou to be a leader. And I was just out there, this is Pat. Doc allowed me to be me, coached me but allowed me to be me and we were fortunate to get to the playoffs. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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