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LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCEDecember 25, 2014Jamal CrawfordBlake GriffinChris PaulWARRIORS – 86 THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. As bad as you started off offensively, you were never really out of the game. Did the defense win this game for you? CHRIS PAUL: It definitely did. I think we were shooting 17% or something like that at the end of the first quarter. I think we was down two. We just tried to stay the course. Those guys came out hot. We just tried to stay the course. Q. You missed 16 straight shots. CHRIS PAUL: Did we? Felt like it (smiling). Q. What was happening there? CHRIS PAUL: We had great shots. I had a wide‑open three in the corner. Had a few midrange shots. I think I might have missed like my first six of those. Those are the spots I like to get to. Guys had good looks, but our defense helped us win the game. Q. The significance of this win, how big is it? CHRIS PAUL: It's a good win for us. I mean, it's not like everything is right or all that different type stuff. But in the West, you're just trying to get as many wins as possible and it's a good win for us. Q. Is it a big deal to play on Christmas Day? CHRIS PAUL: This is my fourth year here at the Clippers. Three out of the four years we didn't play Golden State. We played a seven‑game series last year. I'm sure it's something the fans want to see. Q. You and Draymond going back and forth, was that a little fun? CHRIS PAUL: He was telling me Merry Christmas and he was telling me to tell Little Chris Merry Christmas. Q. You came out aggressively in the third quarter. Did you decide to take the game over then? CHRIS PAUL: Finally got a couple shots to fall. I told them I just needed to see one go in. The basket started opening up a little bit. Q. (No microphone.) CHRIS PAUL: It shows we're going in the right direction, but we got to put it together for a few games. One game doesn't do anything for us. I think the best part about it was, you start that fourth quarter, our bench got a lead for us. As y'all seen as of lately, we haven't been able to play up 10, up 15, stuff like that. So that was nice. Q. How do you get a team offensively out of whack like that? CHRIS PAUL: I don't know. We say it all the time when we go in the games: It's not about us. It's about what we do. I think we went in with a great game plan. We'll take the win. Q. (Question regarding the 16 shots and Jamal keeping the Clippers in the game.) BLAKE GRIFFIN: That's what he does.  He's done that time and time again. Sometimes he picks up the scoring slack by himself. That's how it was tonight. It was just three shots, but just to see it go in was encouraging for us. I thought our defense, first unit, second unit, whatever it was, I thought our defense was a lot more solid for longer stretches tonight. Q. At the beginning of the year could you ever have imagined shooting 16 straight shots and missing and only being down by 2? BLAKE GRIFFIN: Not at all. At a point we were shooting under 20% in the second quarter. At halftime it was like 27% and we were down by 1. To have those kind of numbers after a poor shooting half like that, it's like we have to keep the faith, keep rolling, this thing will turn our way. Q. How big a deal for you to win on this day? The NBA takes great pride in their Christmas Day schedule, who they select to play on this day. BLAKE GRIFFIN: We're just so proud to represent the NBA on this blessed day (smiling). No, I mean, it's a great win. It's great because there's a lot of distraction, especially for the home team, because you got all your family in town. You got a million things to do. To come out and get a win, take care of that, it's big for us. Especially with dropping the last two games, last three out of four, so... Q. (No microphone.) JAMAL CRAWFORD: I think there's a fine line between winning and losing. Last two losses weren't bad losses. I think there were stretches in both games where we could have put stops together, scored a couple more points, we would have won those games. It wasn't discouraging at all. Q. (No microphone.) JAMAL CRAWFORD: We definitely remember it. The season obviously goes by, you play so many games. But we were the last team they saw in the playoffs. Something has been brewing there for a couple years. For us, we just wanted to get back on track. Q. You obviously like being a six man. How much does that help you understand when you need to be an offensive spark? JAMAL CRAWFORD: Yeah, I can see everything over there. For me, certain nights, I told Sam, I was like, Tonight I'm going to be aggressive, because I could see we were struggling a little bit. They weren't scoring a lot, but tonight I knew I was going to be more aggressive because I knew I needed to get the score up a little bit. We all started making shots. That kind of changed the game, and we were able to withstand it from there. Q. Does this show you can win and beat a good team when you even miss 16 consecutive shots? JAMAL CRAWFORD: For sure. Doc has been saying that. He says, Your offense is going to fail you in the playoffs. If we get stops... They're probably one of the best offensive teams in the league. We knew if we could get stops against them, as long as we trust each other and cover for each other, we'll be all right. Q. (No microphone.) JAMAL CRAWFORD: I'm not at all. Honestly, if we're being completely honest, maybe I should have sat out some of those games. It's my shooting elbow that's been bothering me. I love basketball too much. I'll deal with the percentages, not being there. It was frustrating because I could only get so far in my follow‑through. Now, make or miss, I'm just more comfortable. I was able to weather the storm and we were able to come out with the win tonight. Q. (No microphone.) JAMAL CRAWFORD: A signature win, right (smiling)? Q. (No microphone.) JAMAL CRAWFORD: Yeah, it does feel for both reasons, obviously a signature win and defensively we're usually in offensive shootouts. Tonight was all about defense. We said if they score 42 points in the second half we'll win the game because our offense is going to get going at some point. Q. Doc doesn't want to put too much on it, but is it important to get a win like this? JAMAL CRAWFORD: It definitely is. It really is. There's games during the course of a season where no matter what you say it means a little bit more. Obviously the whole country, the whole world was watching this game. They're playing as good as anybody in the NBA. We're trying to continue to be consistent and get back on track, so I thought it was good. Q. Your thoughts on Spencer? JAMAL CRAWFORD: He stole the show (laughter). FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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