NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CLIPPERS VS. SUNS

June 20, 2021

Tyronn Lue

LA Clippers

Game 1: Postgame

Phoenix Suns 120, Los Angeles Clippers 114

Q. The Ayton problem, what were you trying to do and how do you think you did and where do you go from here?

TYRONN LUE: Well, I think there's a problem on the post-up offensive rebounds, only had three tonight. That was mostly driving and making penetration, our bigs come and help, we were not getting crack back guys. So we were getting a lot of little layups and dunks in the middle of the paint because we didn't commit fully to hit him and take him out and exit on the back side. We'll watch the tape and we'll watch the film and see what we need to do better.

Q. At 4:30 you missed a bunch of shots; did you like the shots or was this fatigue?

TYRONN LUE: No excuse. We played hard and competed. Had some good shots down the stretch that we didn't make. So give them credit. They made the shots and we didn't. But I loved our fight, loved what I saw and just seeing how they play Game 1 and what they were trying to do and how they were trying to attack.

Q. How is Marcus?

TYRONN LUE: Not quite sure yet.

Q. Was that sort of the impetus for going with Zubac?

TYRONN LUE: Yeah.

Q. What did you think of the Cousins minutes?

TYRONN LUE: I thought he did a good job, especially the first half. Second half, they tried to go to the front; we couldn't really get him the basketball like we wanted to. But I thought in the first half I thought he really gave us a big spark off the bench.

Q. Seemed like the Suns got whatever look they wanted to, starting with Devin's penetration. Do you feel like you defended his penetration well enough today leading to their three-point shots?

TYRONN LUE: I think not quite as good as we have been. He's a beast and we understand that. We’ll go look at the tape and look at the film and just kind of go from there but he did a good job of attacking. We tried to double-team, we tried to blitz, we tried to fire. He took advantage of a lot of it. He had 11 assists today, so probably a career-high in that regard. We'll watch the film and watch the tape and we'll be ready to go for Game 2.

Q. Do you feel like you played well enough considering you had 38 hours to prepare?

TYRONN LUE: We did okay. We'll be better.

Q. I know it's real quick after the game, do you feel like this is where you wanted to be and you were in position to win this game despite the quick turnaround?

TYRONN LUE: Yeah, I did. I thought, you could see in the first half, a couple guys a little tired but that's no excuse. The guys came off the bench and gave us a great lift and played well. You know, just got to look at it, like I said, look at the film, look at how they tried to attack us and what we can take away and look how we can attack them as well.

Q. How different is Booker than when you faced Doncic and Donovan Mitchell?

TYRONN LUE: They are all great players. They all present something different. You know, so it's going to be a tough challenge for us, like I said, guarding him and seeing how we want to guard him and defend him and what we want to take away and then you kind of go from there.

Q. Along the same lines of that question, how is the experience guarding Luka and Donovan Mitchell helped you move forward in this series?

TYRONN LUE: Like I said, they are all three great players and they are all great offensively. Like I said, just trying to take one guy out of the series is tough, especially when Booker is making the passes he made tonight and got his teammates involved as well. Like I said, we've got experience with Luka and experience with Donovan and now this isn't any different. Make a couple adjustments and kind of go from there.

Q. They were getting out in transition probably a lot more than you would have liked. How important is that going to be?

TYRONN LUE: Well, first, just make some shots I think. Make a couple more shots, make them take it out of the basket and get our halfcourt defense. We know they play fast and with a great pace. I thought Cameron Payne did a great job of setting the tone early, basically being able to attack, get to the paint, making some plays, so did a good job of that. But like I said, I'll look at the tape, check it out and go from there.