	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: TRAIL BLAZERS vs CLIPPERS

April 27, 2016

C.J. McCollum

Los Angeles, California: Game Five

Trail Blazers - 108, Clippers - 98

Q. What would you say would be the one thing you were able to most exploit without having Chris and Blake in the game tonight?
C.J. MCCOLLUM: I think without Chris and Blake, obviously the pick-and-roll coverage is a little different. CP is a very smart defender, he understands our offense and knows when to gamble and when not to, so from that aspect, I think that changed their ball screen coverage a little bit, and looking at how to guard it with Blake, Blake is a good hard edger. He's able to get out and be more active and mobile. I think with him not playing, they just opted to switch a lot of those pick-and-rolls instead of trap.

Q. What's the mindset heading back home up 3-2 now?
C.J. MCCOLLUM: We want to close the series out. We've got a unique opportunity here to play an elimination game at home, and we want to make sure we take full advantage of it.

Q. There was a stretch of four possessions there in the middle of the fourth where you think you guys put up 11 points in four trips down. Seemed like you got a lot of the perimeter actions that you guys are known for but hadn't really executed much in this series. Can you walk us through that stretch that pretty much put the game away?
C.J. MCCOLLUM: I think we had some really good ball movement. Digs did a great job of setting screens. We did a couple dribble hand off options and kind of spread them out a little bit and I got a tight curl for a jumper. I think Dame hit a tough three and then another tough three and just tried to be aggressive and put pressure on the defense, and I think Mason made some great passes playing off the pinch post and in the middle area.

Q. Things were somewhat bleak I would say after two games, and now you've really flipped the whole series around. What's the feeling like now that you find yourself suddenly on the verge of possibly clinching?
C.J. MCCOLLUM: I think our approach was that they won two home games and we wanted to make sure we won our two home games. They say it's not a series until somebody wins on an opponent's floor, so now we won tonight, and now we want to make it a series and finish it up at home.

Q. You've seen it a bunch this year, but what's it like when Dame gets it going like he did in the fourth? What's it do for you guys?
C.J. MCCOLLUM: It's fun to watch. It takes a lot of pressure off the rest of us. When know he can hit tough shots and once he gets an open look and he gets to see that ball go in, his eyes kind of light up, and we know he's going to finish the game off, and that's what we need from him. I thought he delivered. He hit some really tough shots and was still aggressive despite their tough coverage.

Q. Game 3 you broke out offensively, but the team's defense and your defense on J.J. has been much better in the past three games, as well, so what have you seen that has allowed you and the team to be more effective shutting down their perimeter offense?
C.J. MCCOLLUM: I think we've got to guard them with all five, and J.J. is a really good player. He's smart. He knows how to move without the ball. DeAndre does a great job of setting screens for him and Doc does a great job of drawing up plays out of timeouts. Early in games they try to get him going in the first quarter, so just try and make it as difficult as possible on him, get different guys hedging out and just always trying to contest it and then offensively just attacking them.

Q. How have you seen the growth both for yourself and this team as this group goes through the Playoffs for the first time?
C.J. MCCOLLUM: I think guys are settling in and getting more comfortable. That's the biggest thing. A lot of guys haven't been in this situation before, haven't seen this type of pressure, from understanding that you're going to get open shots, they're trapping Dame and I high at half court, and they've got to deliver, and I think they're starting to step up and understanding where they're going to get shots from. And defensively we're staying in our shell. We're being active and trying to make the game fun for ourselves.

Q. The Clippers were saying that playing without Chris and Blake, emotion carried them through the first half and then by the third quarter, that emotion had left them exhausted. Did you sense that wind went out of them?
C.J. MCCOLLUM: We knew they were going to be aggressive early. They were aggressive. They played with intensity and they outworked us in the first two quarters, but once that third quarter started, we jumped on them, we got stops, and that's what kind of changed the game for us. But you could tell that they were really emotional early on, and they were playing without their leader, so I knew it was going to be a tough environment and guys were going to be ready to step up.

Q. What is your takeaway from the team that you played tonight? It was a different team than the one that you played the first few games of the series without their big two guys.
C.J. MCCOLLUM: They're still very good. They're very talented. Jamal Crawford, Austin, big fella, Jeff Green, they all can go. They all can get a bucket, and that makes the game difficult because you don't know who they're going to go to. You don't know what sets they are going to run. Obviously they're not just throwing the ball in the post so there's more pick-and-rolls, more dribble hand-offs, more one-point downs and 45s and V2s that they run, so we want to make sure that we defend all five positions, we help out on each and every body and make it as difficult as possible.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297