LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 10, 2021

Tyronn Lue

Postgame Press Conference

Utah Jazz 117, Los Angeles Clippers 111

Q. Just wanted to check on Nico's status. I noticed his minutes have been lower than usual. Is that a coaching decision or something with an injury or fatigue, anything going on with him?

TYRONN LUE: No, just coach's decision.

Q. You hung in there despite their strong shooting but where did this game get away from you in your eyes? What was really the difference here?

TYRONN LUE: Just the first half. You can't dig yourself a hole like that against a good team and then you have to end and all your energy trying to get back in the game and you don't have enough to finish. You just can't dig holes like that especially on the road and playing from behind like that, and we talked about getting off to good starts. Once again Donovan Mitchell got the most of a great start and they just kind of took off from there.

Q. You guys went to that zone and disrupted Donovan's rhythm and the fourth quarter you took the lead but then the Jazz hit those three threes. What do you feel like are the biggest challenge, disrupting Donovan or playing against a team that they have so many shooters and it's just tough to matchup a zone for too long because they will find those shooters?

TYRONN LUE: First of all just taking the challenge one-on-one against Donovan and when he gets the ball up, it's not just him. We are getting beat out the dribble by other guys, too. They put it down on the floor, attacking, and now we have to help and swing for three. We have to do a better job with our individual defense taking the challenge one-on-one. That's the first thing. We know they thrive on driving kicks he can which check closing out to their other guys and keeping them under control.

Q. Do you feel like you found something in that third quarter once you switched things up?

TYRONN LUE: Yeah, we found something, but just, you know, like I said we just got to take the challenge one-on-one. It starts right there and after that we can start building from there. I like what I saw resilience, like I said, fighting back to take the lead and having shots down the stretch that we just didn't make and they made them.

So just going back to the drawing board, watch the film and see what we can get better at.

Q. You've been down 2-0 obviously the last series. What was the message to team?

TYRONN LUE: No message. I really don't talk after the game. So just bring it in, let's go. We're going back home.

Q. After Reggie hits that three to give you the lead, don't make any shots for the next four minutes. Were you happy with the shot quality you guys got?

TYRONN LUE: Yes, I was happy. I was very happy. Can't -- I mean, what else can you get? Four or five wide-open threes, you know, we just didn't make. So we knew Rudy was going to help. We knew our shooters was going to be open, and we just got to step up and make shots, and we don't. We just got good shots and we didn't make them, hopefully next game, they go down.

Q. You held true to your word at the beginning of the game and said you wanted to keep your rotation down to ten men. Each of those guys played double-digits except Terance Mann. Is everything okay with Terance? Why didn't he see more time in this game?

TYRONN LUE: Because he was out of the rotation for right now.

Q. You talked yesterday about being wary of driving into that paint when Rudy is in there but tonight seemed like the best offense you guys got was from those guys and spring out. What did you see from the effort of the way you guys generated offense off your drives in the paint?

TYRONN LUE: We just talked about all series, we know when we attack, Rudy is going to -- Steph Curry, he's going to help. So our guys have to be ready to shoot the basketball and we have to make the right play. I thought especially going down the stretch, the guys executed it well. We got some great looks that we just didn't make. I'm happy with that and hopefully going home we can be able to knock some shots down.

Q. Mitchell scored 45 and 37 in the past two games. Are you planning to put either Kawhi or PG as full-time defenders on him?

TYRONN LUE: Yes, that's what we tried to do tonight as well. I thought Pat Beverly came in and gave us good lift and got into him a little bit. Pressured him, got into his handle. So it's going to be a variety of guys, but we just got to take the challenge one-on-one, and then when we guard the ball one-on-one, it makes our team defense even better.

Y'all have a nice night. Thank you.