NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CLIPPERS VS. SUNS

June 20, 2021

Tyronn Lue

LA Clippers

Game 1: Pregame

Q. You have a number of players and coaches on your staff who have participated in the biggest stage of the playoffs in the past. I'm wondering where you think experience like that can show up in a best-of-seven series? Is it in key moments in games? Is it in-between games in terms of how you guys react or adjust? What's your impression of experience?

TYRONN LUE: I think it could be moments like you saw in Game 5 and 6 against Utah, the best player goes down and guys step up, and just make big plays for the team. I would say key moments like that.

Q. What is the biggest thing for you in this game to get off to a good start after such a short turnaround?

TYRONN LUE: I think defensively, I think having a defensive mindset to start the game. The first six minutes is going to be critical. We know the crowd is going to be into the game. They are going to be juiced up because they haven't played in a while. So the first six minute of the games, getting off to a great start, and especially having a defensive mindset.

Q. With Kawhi down, how much is Marcus's shot creation, valuable always, but specifically when you lose a scorer like Kawhi? Having him get a bucket, how important is that?

TYRONN LUE: It's very important. We had guys step up across the board, like Terance Mann, Reggie Jackson, Nic Batum and Marcus now with Kawhi being out, he's probably our No. 1 poster at our post option, posting the basketball.

We know we're touching the paint and getting to the rim, we know he's going to get open shots at the three-point line. We have to do a good job making sure we post him a little bit and make sure we feature him a little bit more.

Q. He had a half-season with the Knicks where he was a primary scorer. Was that important for him?

TYRONN LUE: Yeah, I think so and then coming here, the rules are a little different because we have PG and Kawhi but we know he has a scoring mentality to score the basketball, and he's huge for our team on the offensive end.

Q. With all the jobs open right now, are you cautiously optimistic, not optimistic, optimistic that there could be some major changes with black coaches at the moment?

TYRONN LUE: You said black coaches? I think speaking of black coaches going to the Conference Finals on both sides, three of the four coaches are going to be black, myself, Monty Williams and between Nate [McMillan] and Doc [Rivers] today. Three of the four coaches left standing are going to be black coaches, and that says a lot about how we have been coaching. Hopefully so we can stop getting looked down upon so we can just build, built the way for other young black coaches.

I think a lot of openings this summer, hopefully a lot of GMs and owners will see that black coaches are good coaches and hope they give an opportunity for the young coaches coming up today.

Q. Does that give you extra pressure to succeed, knowing there's doors that that could potentially open from your success?

TYRONN LUE: I don't think extra pressure but I do want to do well so they can continue to see that. Like I said, just learning from Doc Rivers and having a chance to be up on him for so long and see how he's carried his weight and see how he's responded to a lot of different things, a lot of criticism, winning the Championship, not being a great team. So just learning a lot from him, and hopefully I can do the same thing for these young coaches coming up.

Q. What's Kawhi's level of involvement and what does he want to know about games and stuff like that?

TYRONN LUE: He's been very involved. Even Game 6, down 22 at halftime, he came into the coaches' office, just talking about different strategies and just wanted to know our game plan, how we are going to start and what's our coverages and things like that. So he's very engaged.

Q. Obviously Phoenix has had a successful season but what's been your takeaways on the young guys being able to adapt?

TYRONN LUE: The young guys have been great. You know, they make a big deal out of the playoffs and young guys having their first time playing the playoffs, but that hasn't been the case this year. They have done a great job carrying their own weight. You see like in the Philly series with [Tyrese] Maxey, he's playing well; Terance Mann the other night. These young guys, they are fearless and they are playing great. We know [Mikal] Bridges, Cam [Payne], those guys are playing with confidence. So we have to do a good job of trying to take them out.

Q. Have you ever had a guy like Terance Mann in your career explode in a game like that? And what do you think he has to guard for coming off a game like that?

TYRONN LUE: Never had a young guy to do that, my personal experience. But he's a guy that works extremely hard from last season to this summer and all year this year just improving his shooting, and he shot 43 percent from three this year. He's done just a great job with his shot and developing his shot.

He's a confident young guy. And it's not just his shooting. It's his rebounding, his defense, his ability to attack the basket and rebound the ball and push it in transition. Biggest thing is keep playing like he has. No pressure on him to come out and score 39 again. Just be who he is, take his open shots and be aggressive.

Q. This is such a quick turnaround what's the schedule for you? You got in yesterday. Did you watch a lot of film?

TYRONN LUE: We landed in around 2:00, went to the hotel and met with the coaches for a couple hours and brought the players down at 6:00 and we watched film, personnel and we went over some plays that they run on video and then we did like a 20-minute walk-through.

Q. In the ballroom?

TYRONN LUE: In the ballroom, yes.

Q. You talked yesterday about how you are going to rotate a decent number of players in the first half. Who will be the steadying force on the court?

TYRONN LUE: Probably PG for sure. But we've just got to be careful with him. He played 46 minutes 36 hours ago, so we have to be smart about the situation. Make sure he's feeling good. Just see how he reacts on the court and kind of go from there.

Q. And also you mentioned Doc earlier. Have you and Doc been talking this week?

TYRONN LUE: Yeah, I talked to him two days ago when we won the game against Utah. We talked a little bit. Hopefully he can get it done today.

Q. Is it more just, "Hey, how you doing?”

TYRONN LUE: Just said, "Congratulations, hell of a job," and we talked about some other things, as well. You know, he's always in my corner, I'm in his corner. He gave me my first opportunity and my first chance. He wants to see me do well and I want to see him do well, as well.

Q. Looking at how Booker played in the regular season against you guys, he's a different kind of scorer than you saw from Luka Doncic and Donovan Mitchell in the playoffs so far; both got to the free throw line a lot and didn't take a lot of threes, didn't make a lot of threes. How does that dynamic change from how you had to defend the previous first options throughout the playoffs?

TYRONN LUE: We know he's a big-time scorer. So we just try to limit his touches as much as possible and try to limit the shots attempts like we did with Luka in last two games and also with Donovan the last three games.

But they are tough guys to guard. Like you say, he's smart and he gets to the free throw line. He's a great three-point shooter. He's a great mid-range shooter which you don't see a lot of today. Usually you're a great three-point shooter or a great mid-ranger shooter, but he's actually both. So he plays with a great pace. They throw a lot of advance passes and he gets it up early. We just have to try to get back and get our defense set.

Q. Deandre is a swing player in this series, especially with you guys so small, what are the keys in those environments?

TYRONN LUE: I think rebound it. I think Game 3 we played up here and he did a great job on the boards. I think he might have had five offensive rebounds in the second half, but key rebounds down the stretch. So we are going to be doing a lot of switching, playing small. We do have to come back and gain rebound, but we have to hit him first because he is a physical guy down low.