NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: LAKERS VS. NUGGETS

September 23, 2020

Alex Caruso

Los Angeles Lakers

Practice Day

Q. Alex, I know the timing of practice is maybe a little tricky, but there was an announcement in the Breonna Taylor case. Are you aware of this?

ALEX CARUSO: Yeah, I was. It happened right before we went into -- honestly just minutes before we went into our team meeting. You know, obviously the results of what happened is not significant enough, not harsh enough in the eyes of people that are fighting for justice for Breonna Taylor, and I'm not sure legally what the process is next. I'll have to do some more research and find some more information out, but hopefully there are more steps to be able to gain better justice for her.

Q. Obviously these cases have happened before, and you've talked about how you've learned a lot from your teammates and obviously you're wearing Black Lives Matter across your jersey. In this specific case, are you just feeling it differently than you might have in the past when things like that come out?

ALEX CARUSO: Yeah, I mean, this whole progression from being on quarantine and having time to think and time to learn and time to just gain more knowledge on stuff that I wasn't knowledgeable enough about has been great for me, but obviously there's still a long way to go, and like you said, this isn't the only case that's ever happened. This isn't the only situation like this that's happened. There's definitely progress to be made. You know, this is one step of still not even in the eyes of many gaining enough justice for what happened. There's still so many more steps that are involved that are going to be put into place and just stuff that needs to be done to have more progress. This one case I think is the focal point right now, but even since then there's been more black innocent people that have been killed.

You know, it's just going to be a long journey. Steps like this are hopefully small steps in the right direction, but there's still such a long way to go.

Q. I don't know if you can share what the team reaction was when you got the news, and were you on that phone call with her mother earlier in the bubble that she had with the players?

ALEX CARUSO: Yeah, the Zoom phone call where she talked to everybody. Yes, I was part of that, and then as far as the team, we haven't had too much time together yet since the news broke right before our team meeting, but a good number of us were in the team meal room watching it on TV as the news broke. Lots of opinions and thoughts on it, but I'm sure we'll have a collective team -- I don't know what the right word for it is, expression, just to be able to come out and talk to each other and kind of say how we're feeling.

Q. What were your takeaways from the call?

ALEX CARUSO: Just how hopeful the people close to Breonna were, how much strength they have, because I always try to put myself in the position of the people that are going through stuff. I try to be as emotionally connected as I can, and I try to imagine if that was one of my sisters or one of my parents. Those people are a lot stronger and a lot more professional with the way they handle themselves than I think I would if it happened to somebody that I knew. So just the strength that they have and the fortitude for them to just keep fighting.

Q. Alex, you're a cerebral player and you understand the game. Did you have an explanation or did you understand what was unfolding yesterday that caused you guys to be so flat for so long before making a run?

ALEX CARUSO: You know, you've got to give credit to Denver first off. They played more desperate. They played with a little higher edge, and rightfully so, they're down 2-0. But for our aspirations of being a champion, that can't happen. You know, it's just about us playing to our best of our ability. I think we didn't do that for 48 minutes, and I think that's where we really get in trouble is when we don't put our best foot forward. And Denver is a good team; they're not there by accident. It's not like they just lucked into getting into the Western Conference Finals. They've been a top-3 seed all year in the West and through the bubble they've beaten really good teams.

It's not just about us coming out flat. Obviously that's a big part about it, but I just think we have to be the more aggressive team and keep the bigger picture in mind. Don't get caught up day-to-day. We've been in the bubble for two months. It's easy to get a little lethargic. We've got to rely on each other to go out and play and know what our end goal is, and it's to hold a trophy at the end.

Q. The second unit that you've been to start quarters, the second and the fourth, has generally been a big plus in the Playoffs. Certainly it struggled last night against Denver. What do you think of the match-ups and if there are things you can do to adjust there?

ALEX CARUSO: You know, I don't think it's too much adjusting to do. I think when we handle our business and we show up and we're locked in defensively and then we move the ball offensively we're a really good team, and I don't think we did that for the majority of the three quarters last night. I think we were just a little stagnant on offense, whether that was just not playing with enough pace -- I think that's something we talked about in the first, I did an interview after maybe Game 1 or 2 and I said our pace was really good and that's when we're at our best is when we're playing fast, whether we're taking it out of the basket or we're getting it off defensive rebounds. I think we can play a little faster. I think that will help us, and ultimately when we play fast it helps our defense. When you play fast, the ball has energy, everybody has energy because you're running and moving and talking, and that trickles down into your defense, as well. I don't know how many adjustments we need to make as much as it is executing the stuff we know we can do well.

Q. It sounds like you are going to be able to play tomorrow, but I was just curious how the wrist -- how you injured it and how it feels.

ALEX CARUSO: Yeah, not sure a specific play from the other night. I just noticed it was a little sore after the game and then woke up and naturally any time you have a little bit of soreness after a game or something like that it's going to be a little stiff and a little more sore the day after. Luckily we got a full day to recover and take some time to rest. Should be fine. You know, I think it's just one of those things where you get banged up and it's like knocking knees or falling on the ground. I've done that earlier this year, and it hurts for a little while and you just kind of play through it.

Q. Of course you want to win every game; you guys had won six games in a row before that loss last night. Just from your experience is there some benefit sometimes to losing a game? Does it help you kind of refocus? Can you just talk about it from that perspective a little?

ALEX CARUSO: Yeah, "benefit" is a tricky word. I don't know if there's a benefit to losing. You like to learn lessons through wins. We've been able to do that, like you said, in those six games. Even when we didn't play our best we pulled out wins.

But you know, I think for us it's really just about getting back to who we are. I think that's the biggest thing. I think the biggest thing for us is just playing more desperate and maybe losing pushes us to the edge, maybe we got a little too comfortable, like you said, winning six games in a row over whatever couple week span of playing those games you lose focus a little bit. It's human nature. But like I said earlier, we have bigger aspirations than just winning Game 3 or Game 4 or advancing to The Finals. We're trying to win it all. So for us it's about holding ourselves to a higher standard.

Q. You've become like a pretty popular player here, and I'm curious to find out if you ever happen to reflect on your journey from the NBA G League to the Conference Finals?

ALEX CARUSO: Yeah, I thought about it the other day, actually, with my group of friends I was talking to just between series. We were talking, I can't remember how it came up, we were talking about Summer League, and just how that was -- that was only a couple years ago, and now I'm here. You know, everybody kept asking me over the course of the three years that it took to get to this point, and I was like, yeah, I'm just going to keep working, I'm going to keep getting better, and every time I say it, that's just what I've continued to do, and I'm probably going to keep saying it and it's probably going to keep happening to where I'm just going to keep working and getting better and getting better and getting better and I'm just going to see how good I can get.