NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST ROUND: CLIPPERS vs SUNS

April 22, 2023

Ty Lue

Pregame Press Conference

Q. What are you looking forward to out of your guys considering everything they have stacked against them?

TY LUE: Say it again?

Q. What's the main thing you're looking for out of your guys with kind of everything stacked against them tonight, today?

TY LUE: To win. You know, go out and win. Same effort we had last game. You know, just take care of the basketball is one thing and not giving them easy baskets in transition. Be better with our fouling. You know, not fouling when they are in the bonus, but still bring our physicality and come out and do the same thing we did last game. Just do a little bit better.

Q. Curious, is there any immediate benefit to having kind of like a closed practice when things are fresh heading into a game?

TY LUE: Is there what?

Q. Curious, is there any immediate benefit to having a closed practice when things might be fresh heading into a game?

TY LUE: I don't know. I don't understand your question.

Q. Having practice like right before the game?

TY LUE: Oh, the walk through right before the game. You said closed practice. I didn't understand.

Q. I was told it was a closed practice.

TY LUE: It's a walk-through. That's the terminology.

Yeah, it is. I think just being able to show film when we first got here and then having a walk through so they can actually see it right before the game I thought was really good for us.

Q. How do you strike the balance between wanting to play faster but also trying to take care of the ball better than you did in Game 3?

TY LUE: Play faster. We just take care of the ball. We definitely got to play faster. You know, that's going to be our advantage of playing fast, advance passes, attacking early, getting to the paint, making the right passes once we get into the paint and making the right plays.

So we've got to play faster. So we just have to do a better job taking care of the basketball the best way we can.

Q. Bowens was saying yesterday that because they played six, seven guys heavy minutes, wearing them down is something you guys are trying to do, how much of an advantage do you hope that your depth, even without Kawhi and PG, can be in that regard today?

TY LUE: Hope it can be great for us. You know just keep throwing fresh bodies on the floor, continue to keep playing the way we've been playing and then hopefully they slow down a little bit. Book is playing at a high level right now, so we just have to do a better job with him.

Q. The first quarter has been the best quarter for the Clippers in this series, and what are you looking to do to maintain the way that you started these games?

TY LUE: Start the second quarter, the same way. I mean, you know, just try to do some of the same things we're doing in the first quarter, do them in the second quarter, but you know, of course the rotations are a little different. So you've got to play a different style of basketball.

But I think the biggest difference for us is just taking care of the basketball and having that physicality for 48 minutes, but a smart physicality, not get them in the bonus too early but we know we've got to put bodies on these guys and know we've got to be better defensively.

Q. Coming into the series, you spoke about X's and O's, games, limiting mistakes, all that good stuff and obviously you weren't favorites without coming in, but now without PG and Kawhi, how does the team take the floor believing they can win instead of hoping they can win?

TY LUE: Because we've been in this position before a lot of times. Our guys are prideful guys in that locker room and they are professionals as well. We played well when PG and Kawhi has been out. And I just think, like I said, having Russell, that addition with Russ, when he's on the floor, we believe we can win every night, again.

And so he's brought a lot to this team and like the guys are really getting behind him with the way he plays every single night, the way he competes every single night and the force he plays with every single night.

And so we definitely we believe he can win this game, win this series, no matter who is playing for us. We saw it last game, a couple calls didn't go our way that we thought we should have got, but you know, we're right there, and so we've got to come out and do the same thing today we did the other night.

Q. When you went small in the last nine minutes with the five-guard lineup, how do you evaluate the tradeoff between what you were getting offensively to what the Suns were getting on the offensive glass?

TY LUE: It was tough. You know, I think we got down 13 points and just wanted to give them a different look and see if we can get back in the game offensively. I like the guys being able to attack the basket, being able to score, do some different things offensively.

But we did get hurt on the glass. It just seemed like in our rotations times and time Bones kept getting called on Ayton, which he was battling and trying. Just he was too small. We've got to do a better job. We're going to go to that small layup of guys coming being and being able to hit Ayton and being able to keep those guys off the glass as best as possible.

Q. Historically you guys have not been great in these matinee games but --

TY LUE: Historically, yes. I wanted to ask you that. What, since -- Christina, what was the numbers? 7-4 this season? Okay. Yeah, history is the past, too, though. Yeah, you might be right about that (laughter).

Q. Because of how last game end and it's a one-day break, and because it is an afternoon game and the game does start earlier in the day, does it allow you guys mentally to move on quicker from a game like Game 3 where it was a close loss and hard fought like that?

TY LUE: In the playoffs, you've got to forget the last game. It's over, you make your adjustments and move on. The game, like I said, did come quick, and hopefully it can benefit us. Their guys are playing 44 minutes a night, as well, so hopefully they can be a little tired to start the game. So we'll see. We'll see who's favor it works here.