LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 12, 2021

Joe Ingles

Postgame Press Conference

Los Angeles Clippers - 132, Utah Jazz - 106

Q. Just curious what was kind of the challenge with defending Paul George with the way that he played tonight?

JOE INGLES: I mean, the biggest difference was he made some shots. I think he's had a -- he's had looks in other games, I think, and missed a couple. Obviously, them as a team made a lot more shots tonight than the other games, I think. Part of that is on us being more physical and disruptive a little bit more, which we did in the first couple games. They came out obviously physical at the start of the game and tried to play that kind of way throughout.

So obviously a few things we can look at on the film and figure out and see where they got some. We had a few rotations and things on defense that we messed up which we weren't in the first two games. So we'll go again, look at the film, and figure out what we did and some of the mistakes. And same on the offensive end, what they did defensively. They mixed up a few different things, which we hadn't seen in the series and, again, it's a series of adjustments and we'll go make some and I'm sure they will and we'll come back in a couple days.

Q. You referenced them mixing some things up defensively. You guys wound up with a negative assist to turnover ratio tonight. Can you kind of just take us through what some of those things were that they were doing that gave you guys so many issues?

JOE INGLES: I mean, they turned it up with the physicalness and aggressiveness, I think. The one that kind of stands out is that, like the first possession of the game. Batum was picking me up and I think we still scored off it, but it showed what they wanted to do for the night, how they wanted to play.

I think the biggest difference, obviously they played a lot more small. They didn't really play their 5s as much and then the double teams with Donovan, the blitzing, and the, kind of the soft blitz when he got off the court, over the half, just to get it out of his hands. Donovan made some great reads off it. We missed some shots. But just those things, we hadn't seen them do that. We were still prepared for it, but we obviously didn't execute it. That's kind of the -- I said it last game or the game before or shoot around or something -- where we usually get better at things as the game went on and we didn't tonight.

So, yeah, we'll go watch it. Again, it's a long series we'll go and watch it and figure it out and come back and be better on the next one.

Q. Defensively, 132 points and there was only 93 possessions. Usually you guys are a lot better in kind of the half court setup. Is it their spacing? Is it just their ability to shoot from all these different positions? What is it that makes them so difficult to defend right now?

JOE INGLES: Yeah, I think they, I don't know, I could be wrong and you can tweet I'm wrong if I am, but I felt like they made a lot more shots tonight in general, whether that be on the rim or threes. Reggie Jackson started the game like 3-3, 4-4, whatever he was. Obviously PG and Kawhi kind of got theirs. So I think it's, again, like for us, I don't think we played -- they were aggressive and we needed to do that on the other end as well, which we had been doing. I don't know if they made shots and we kind of, not that we were like, not that you back up when they make shots, but they were making shots and we just weren't the same. We weren't aggressive. We weren't kind of dictating to them what we wanted to do defensively. They kind of got downhill a bit more, got in the paint. I think coach at halftime said they had like six or seven offensive rebounds, which we had been pretty good at. So they made a couple threes off.

So, yeah, obviously it starts kind of with them making shots, but that's on us as well. We can get better closeouts. Like I said, we messed up some rotations and some over-help or whatever it was on some of them. So again, we'll look at the tape, we'll make some adjustments, and we'll come back.

Q. You were just mentioning the word adjustments. So what do you think are going to be the keys to step up and get ready for Monday?

JOE INGLES: I'll let coach answer that when he comes in (laughing). I mean, there's obviously -- like I said, there's some obvious things. I think the first couple games they were kind of making the adjustments. They started big in the second game. Obviously tonight at the start they went back to starting small. Again, we're really aggressive from the jump ball. And I don't necessarily think we were on the back foot, but we, they just did that throughout the game. They were picking up, trying to deny Donovan getting the ball from after they scored and things like that.

So we'll look at it, obviously, spacing-wise. I don't think we were great today. We didn't run in transition like we had been and part of that is obviously them scoring and some offensive rebounds. So I think there's a number of things that we can go look at and be a lot better at. And, again, I don't remember who asked the question, but about the, obviously 132 points is a lot of points. So we have got to be better defensively and we'll watch it and I'm confident with the group we have got we'll come back and be better and make some adjustments.