LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 4, 2021

Tim Hardaway

Postgame Press Conference

Los Angeles Clippers - 104, Dallas Mavericks - 97

Q. Obviously a disappointing loss with an opportunity to close out, but what is the mentality now of going back to a building where you've already won three games in this series and what to look forward to on Sunday?

TIM HARDAWAY JR.: Just preparing the same, make sure that we know what's at stake and make sure that we go out there and leave it all out there on the floor. That's all you can do right now at this point.

Q. Do you look at this game and feel like you guys let one get away or is this just a case of Kawhi came in and had a, just a, maybe the most dominant playoff performance of his career?

TIM HARDAWAY JR.: I mean, Kawhi did a phenomenal job. He stayed in attack mode and, I mean, he made two big threes. Hats off to that. If he missed both of those, the game could have gone either way. But he's a superstar for a reason. He's been in these moments for so long, so it's nothing new to him. But I wouldn't say we let one get away. I think the team that wanted it deserved it and we just got to move forward and pick everything back up tomorrow and get ready for Game 7.

Q. How tough has this series been just emotionally and so many ups and downs and twists of fate and how tough is that to kind of fight through?

TIM HARDAWAY JR.: This is what you live for, man, being a basketball player. You live to get to these moments, to play in a Game 7 in the playoffs, on the road. I mean, I have never done it before and it's only my first time, but just being able to watch those games and seeing my pops be in a couple of them throughout his career, it's something big. It's something exciting. It's something you dream of. So we're going to get our rest. We're going to get ready to go and be ready to go into a hostile environment in L.A.

Q. How do you think your team is going to handle the bigness of the moment for Game 7?

TIM HARDAWAY JR.: A lot of guys on our team probably even have never been in a Game 7, let alone a Game 7 on the road. So it's going to be 15 strong in there, ready to have each other's back, ready for a dog fight, and ready to do our best to go out there and come out with a victory. It's not going to be easy. This whole series hasn't been easy. But, like I said, this is what you dream about, so you got to just cherish that moment and go out there and compete on both ends of the floor as hard as you can.

Q. Knowing it is going to be probably one of the biggest games of a lot of guys' career, do you think that's going to be a factor that you guys have to take into account as you prepare the game, meaning calming each other down or having the coaches do that or do you think that with everything this team has been through it's just one more game?

TIM HARDAWAY JR.: I think it's more so of everybody just take a deep breath, making sure that they do their same routine that they have been doing, don't change anything and just be ready for all-out war. They got a lot of guys that are experienced that's been in Game 7s before, so they're going to know what it takes, so we just have to do a great job of matching their level of execution and their level of passion and making sure that we understand that we got to go out there and just bring the energy and bring the fight.

Q. This has been such a weird series, the road team winning all six games so far. Do you guys feel like you have any semblance, even though the prevailing wisdom would be home court advantage, do you feel like you have the advantage against L.A. at Staples Center?

TIM HARDAWAY JR.: Like I said, throughout this whole entire series it's going to come down to the first person that won at home before getting to this point, and none of this has happened. So now we're at a Game 7 and all I can say is that we're going to bring it, we're going to go out there and show up and show out and do our best to come out of there with a victory.