Damian Lillard Postgame Press Conference | 3.4.24

Damian Lillard Postgame Press Conference | 3.4.24

Hey Dam um I think PG hits a three to put them up 9690 and then you guys got six stops in a row I’m curious I know you threw the little bit of the zone at him but just what did you see defensively that you guys were able to

Put together that many stops and and kind of flip the game uh I just thought we we just had good activity you know it wasn’t um couple times they made shots but um you know we were playing physical we were flying around you know they had

To they had to earn it and I think when you make teams work like that um you know sometimes the ball is going to end up in guys hands that they don’t want it in sometimes they going to be up against a shot clock sometimes you know you’re

Going to speed them up and um I just thought that the way we defended we just lowered the shot quality that they was able to get for a few possessions and you put that with the crowd you put that with us you know gaining some momentum a little bit more pressure on those

Possessions and um you know they turned into stops um just for you offensively you get hot ear early and then it’s you know double teams and I’m curious just how do you see it I’m assuming it really looked like you were trying to stretch

It out as far as you could to half court and then make the play but I mean off of it you got a young guy like AJ Green hitting a 30-footer like just kind of what you see late I it was uh my typical experience I guess you know

For my career up until this point where you know I come out I’m attacking kind of getting what I want to get early in the game and their adjustment is to run guys at me or trap or send a double team and um I just you know it was familiar you know

So I just sometimes I attacked it and you know applied pressure to the double team so they didn’t think that they was just taking me out of the game and then they would overreact you know sometimes it would be a third guy um coming into the paint and then other times I would

Act like I was going to attack and just make them get more aggressive and pull them out of the play and then throw it back and then try to take advantage of you know the four on three and that was that was pretty much all I did like the

Game kind of slowed down for me because they got aggressive and um I know that that’s when you got to just kind of be a decoy and then trust the next play and I think um for a lot of the game we would make a shot miss a shot miss a couple

You know we didn’t always take advantage of it so they um you know they just kept doing it and I think um eventually when you just keep trusting it it’ll turn around we hit a couple shots Bobby had a you know a big time

Game um you know but I would say I just kept trusting it and down the stretch like you said AJ hit a big one be’s hit a big one Bobby hit a big one you know we just started having guys um make those big shots and make those big plays

Because they over the course of the game they was getting those opportunities instead of you know me saying I’m not going to throw it no more um I just kept throwing it and um down the stretch it it paid off doc talked about incorporating more sets for you that used in Portland like

How has that helped you get more comfortable uh it’s helped a lot I think um for a significant part of the year was just just trying to find my way you know trying to find my spaces where I would have opportunity and um you know I just think because I played against doc

So many times in the west um and he had to scout against me so when he came in he was just like you guys don’t run this you guys don’t run that like this is stuff we hated to go hard against you and uh he just started to slowly put

Some of those actions in and um you know I think it’s helped me kind of just settle in even more um especially playing with some of the guys on this team that can shoot the ball and having a guy like Giannis in the in a dunker behind the defense sometimes it’s

Like the stuff that I’ve always um run and the situations I’ve always been in should be even harder to deal with now with the players that I’m playing with what do you like most about playing with Bobby uh just his his Spirit you know I think um anytime you’re doing any something

Competitive and it’s a team thing you want to look over and see like that competitive spirit in that fight in somebody and that confidence and um that’s what he has you know he has real confidence in himself he’s a competitor um you know he thinks he’s the best

Player on the floor and I think that’s why he’s you know become the player he’s become in this league and that’s why he had such a significant role you know on the championship team when you’re going as well as yall have these last handful of games is

There any kind of carryover effect that can help you when you’re in a situation like you were tonight down double digits last minute of the third uh think you can p you can take this game over yeah I think you uh because we just trusted each other you know I think defensively we’ve

Trusted our communication um we’ve depended on the next guy to do his his job and the same offensively we’ve made the extra pass a lot more lately um we’ve made the right play a lot more lately and I think because our team is seeing uh the results that we

Getting from playing that way um even when it’s not going our way at points in the game we trust it and I I think it’s just coming back in our favor because we just doing the right things um even in the Minnesota game you know we were down

For the second quarter the third quarter and well the second quarter and then it start the third quarter but because we just kept trusting that eventually we ran off in the third quarter and we win that game um and just over my career I’ve the best teams in the league that

That I’ve played against they’ve always no matter if they was down no matter if they was up they just keep trusting they keep doing the same things you know those Spurs teams when I was younger Golden State um the teams in Miami like all of those teams the thing that I

Remember the most is whether we was beating them or whether they were losing games or winning games they just kept doing the the same things over and over and that’s that’s how you be become a successful team and I think that’s kind of um the direction that we’re going in

And just from your perspective what’s been the biggest difference on defense since doc got here why are you playing so much better defense I think we’ve uh simplified a lot of things and um you know we’ve I guess just bought into some of the the schemes U I don’t think the

Guys weren’t bought in but I think it you know we seeing that it’s working and we seeing that it fits for us and um it’s a it’s a lot of talking with Doc you know sometimes we get on the court and we supposed to be starting practice

And Doc will talk for 15 minutes straight and he’s explaining what we’re doing and why we’re doing and why it won’t work and he’s telling guys individually like this is what you like to do but we need you to do this if you do this all of the time it’s going to

Work for the team and they’re going to try to Dame they’re going to try to call you up into a switch if they do you got to jump out aggressively you got to guard keep the ball in front of you and then if they start backing down we’ll

Have somebody like it’s just a lot of talking through everything and I think with a veteran team um you got to be able to hear it you know sometimes you need to uh what we want to happen to make sense you know verbally and then we

Walk through it and then you get an understanding of it and that’s how you build that that faith and that belief and you get on the same page and you know I think he’s created an environment where everybody understands everything is clear we walked through it 10 15

Times in practice and then we able to go out there and execute it because of how it’s you know um I guess being delivered to us you kind of mentioned it earlier but going into this game knowing jannis is not playing knowing Chris is not playing just how did that uh change your

Mindset or your your approach coming in I just knew that I would uh have to be more aggressive and I knew that I would have to just control the game a little bit more um and I came out I was like I’m going to get downhill I’m going to

Be aggressive and um I’m going to make them show me their coverages and how they going to come and just try to create disadvantages and that was all I did um I was attacking downhill I was just trying to find the spots on the floor that I wanted to find and you know

They pretty much adjusted to it right away first they started blitzing and then they went to a small lineup and they started switching and then they started switching and then running a guy that switched off of me back to double me and then I just played that I played

The game against that you know so I called up the guys that I wanted to be in it um so I knew who would be in the double team and I knew who would be on the the weak side when I threw it out uh

So I just started to play that type of game but I knew with you know Chris being out and with jannis being out I would need to be like I said more assertive but I also knew that I would need to um have my thinking cap on you

Know just be able to manage the game and manipulate it a little bit more and then just to win this game you know missing those guys follow falling down 15 did that show you tell you any kind of thing about your team you know seeing this

Kind of win tonight I think it just shows um who we be who we’re becoming you know you um like I said when I think about those teams when I was younger you know the the best teams I remember the Spurs like sitting dunking Tony Parker Joby one

Time against us and it was like uh George Neil or Greg NE I forget his first name Gary Neil and Patty Mills and uh splitter like I just remember going into the game like we should beat them and we lost the game because they just

They know who they are they know how to win they trust what they do and they just do it hard you know and I think that’s kind of the direction that that we’re going in and that was the mentality that we had like nobody talked about who wasn’t playing before the game

Like it was literally like we was in the locker room doc didn’t come in there and say all right Yiannis is that out you know Chris is out it was like we went in there we talked about The Scouting Report what we need to do to win the game and that was

It and I think that just shows um what’s expected you know the standard that that we’re starting to have and um who we’re becoming as a team hey Dame uh I know Pat can be an instigator big talker defensively just what did you think of of his ability on

That end of the court today just to the energy he Pro provided for you guys and also the defense um I think he’s um Pat is somebody that just knows who he is you know he knows what he brings to the table and um you know I think if

It’s a lot of guys in our league that if they had that we’ probably see a lot better from him um but he knows who he is he knows what he brings to the table you know his Edge he’s an instigator he’s talking um you know he believes in

In what he brings to a team and um you know that belief is is more than half the battle but his physicality you know he’s disruptive he’s irritating guys out there he get a big rebound he get a big deflection he’ll hit a big three you

Just never know how it’s going to come but uh he’s always engaged and he’s always on edge and he’s always talking you know in the huddles he’s got something to say on the court he’s got something to say he talking to the other team it’s just he’s going to bring

Something to the to the game you just don’t know what it’s going to be on any given night and um I think tonight he just did a lot of things well uh you mentioned manipulating the game and you said earlier lowering their shot quality how exactly were you able to do

That considering how well they were shooting for the first three quarters um well you I think the first thing is you got to just it’s James Harden Paul George and kawh Leonard out there and even Norm you know they tough shot makers so they going to make some

Contested ones they going to make some and you know get an end one they going to make those kind of shots cuz they are you know those types of players but um an example of like lowering a shot quality is just like instead of Us closing out short to them we close into

Their bodies and make them put the ball on the floor and then when they drive it we guard them physical and it’s not guarding them by itself we got you know guys in the gaps showing their limb so where they got to drive between people and then Brooke is coming over at The

Rim when they go through two people and then when they throw it out we got guys already ready to close out to them so it’s like they having to work hard for it and they got they’re not getting anything comfortable you know nothing is Qui nothing is like exactly as they want

It it’s just like we making them work you know we making them drive into the paint kick it out we bumping them we tipping the ball um sometimes the ball is ending up in guys hands that they don’t want it in because of how we flying around and how how physical we

Are and um I think like you like I said anytime you up against the shot clock anytime you playing in the crowd anytime the ball is in somebody’s hands that you don’t want it in it’s it’s lowering the shot quality

Damian Lillard spoke to the media following Monday night’s win over the Clippers.

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