LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 6, 2021

Terance Mann

Postgame Press Conference

Los Angeles Clippers 126, Dallas Mavericks 111

Q. Terance, coming into the season, do you have imagined that you would be a finalist in a Game 7 in a playoff series and how does it feel?

TERANCE MANN: Yeah, I could imagine it. I believed in myself, so definitely could imagine it. Feels good just to be out there playing my game in a big game like in a tough environment.

Q. The resiliency you showed as a team the past couple weeks, how much can that help you guys going forward, sort of like what doesn't kill you make you stronger, sort of thing?

TERANCE MANN: It can help us tremendously. As a team, we're getting better still, you know, game-by-game. This series opened our eyes to certain things we need to get better at. Yeah, I think it will definitely help us. We definitely got better as a team this series.

Q. Heading into such a huge game, I'm curious, is there anything that either Kawhi or T-Lue or PG said to you guys that inspired such a complete team performance today?

TERANCE MANN: Nothing too specific. Everybody was just ready. Everybody knew what time it was, Game 7. You know you've got to play your hardest. It's win-or-go-home. There's no games after this. It's just one game in the series. It's the last game in the series and everybody just knows you have to come out and play your heart out. We were all kind of on the same page about that.

Q. Can you talk about the defense on Luka?

TERANCE MANN: We stuck Kawhi on him and we tried to keep the matchup as much as possible. We tried to get the ball out of his hands as much as possible. I think we did a great job of it. The other role players also did a great job. Dorian Finney-Smith had a great game playing his role, playing off the pick-in-roll, rolling, catch-and-shoot threes, making the right decisions and stuff. He made it tough for us, but our goal was just to get the ball in Luka's hands.

Q. There was that sequence in the third quarter where you fell down by five and there was a similar situation in Game 5 where you let the game get away in the third. What allowed to you keep your composure around and turn the game in your direction?

TERANCE MANN: I think just staying locked in. Staying locked in on the game plan. You know, down five, it's nothing too crazy. You can still make a lot of runs, especially in the third quarter. There's a lot of time left. So we didn't panic. We just stayed locked in and did what we had to do.