NBA FINALS: LAKERS VS. HEAT

October 11, 2020

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

Los Angeles Lakers

Game 6: Postgame

Los Angeles Lakers - 106, Miami Heat - 93

Q. KCP, congratulations. How does this feel?

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE: It feels amazing, but right now, words can't explain it. The emotions really are not running yet. But I'm enjoying my teammates right now. It's a great feeling to be world champs, to be even called world champs. This is a great feeling. Amazing feeling.

Q. You're known for your defense, but you were big offensively this series. How did that come together for?

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE: Like you said, I just pride myself on my defense. My defense gets my offense going. I've been playing that way since college. Just try to get defensive stops, get out in transition, easy layups, either to get to the free throw line or transition threes, open up my game. I try to start on the defensive end, get my energy going, get my teammates to either follow behind with the energy, and the offense is going to come eventually.

Q. Being in this bubble, being away from your kids, what do you think about the sacrifices to finish this season and close out this championship?

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE: It took a lot of sacrifice. The first two to three months, I was without my kids and my wife. But you know, I have my teammates, my brothers. They keep me level-headed. Did not really get into that side, but knowing my family was back at home supporting me, and I could get them here to see them, but it was just sacrificing. I wanted to focus on this playoff series and become world champs. That was my focus. I wanted my kids here, but you know, I didn't want that distraction. I just wanted to be focused.

Q. This season, your relationship in L.A. and stuff, it didn't start great this year. What does it mean to you personally, how validated are you to be able to contribute in the Finals in a big way considering kind of everything that you went through on the court this season?

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE: Like you said, my season didn't start how I wanted to. That summer, I put in a lot of work. Gave it 110 percent to my summer workouts, and for me to start that way it, kind of got me down because I was expecting it to be different. I just stayed with myself, and I knew what I could do. I knew I could shoot the ball. I knew I could play. It was just all about having a clear mind and a clear head space to go out there and play, not worry about what everybody else was saying about me. Because I know my job and I know I do my job very well.

But I knew it was going to turn around because of the work I put in. Only thing I had to do was stay with it. My teammates was behind me 100 percent, and it all turned out great for me.

Q. At what point did you start to think you'd done it, you'd won a championship?

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE: The last four minutes to go in the game, we really had to buckle down. They was making some shots and we wasn't getting stops, and we wasn't making shots. So we really had to buckle down the last four minutes of the game, and by the time Miami really started making subs before we did. That's kind of when I realized, you know, this game is in the bag. We got the dub. We came out here and did exactly what we wanted to do, impose our will, be the aggressors and get this win.

Q. At one point in the third quarter you were up by 30 and Rondo was still so intense telling people where to go and where to be. Did that reinforce a tone for you guys as a team to stay with it and not let them back in?

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE: Yes. We knew Miami wasn't going to quit. We have seen it before. Just watching their other series, they came back from down 19 or 20 in the fourth, and Rondo recognized that. And Rondo is a great, you know, coach and player on the court. He gets us in the right spots, like you said and made sure we were in the mindset of just keep attacking and finish the game and don't let up. He enforced that tonight, and we all just bought into it and we got the dub.

Q. LeBron obviously sent a text before Game 4. What was said before tonight's game?

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE: There was a message: Must win. That was the message, "must win." Also it said this is a Game 7 game. We wanted to treat it like it was Game 7, and we wanted to come out in the first quarter and impose our will, which we wasn't doing to start the series. But tonight, we came out with a fire that we wasn't going to win -- we wasn't going to be coming from behind in the first quarter, the first half.

Q. You guys are NBA Champions now. What do you think made this group so special and NBA champions?

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE: I would say the togetherness that we bring. It's always together. We do it together. We lose together. We win together. Everything we do is together, and the chemistry that we had amongst each other was tremendous. It was, you know, we’re all brothers at the end of the day and we treat it like we were blood brothers. Everybody took criticism from each other and worked on it as a team together. That's what made this group so much better from everybody. We were together the whole year. No one was outside by himself. It was together.