Damian Lillard Postgame Press Conference | 3.24.24

Damian Lillard Postgame Press Conference | 3.24.24

Just for you guys the connectivity defensively what did you see tonight I just think we you know like you said we connected communication was good our physicality was good and um you know I think we executed our our Scouting Report really well um from a lot of the

Adjustments we talked about um practice and and walk through um we just executed it you know our energy was right our minds was right and uh think it show what we capable of doing when we when we take care of those things we talked about the officials allowing little more

Physical defense um on your switches how much can that mean for you guys if you can be really physical on those switches uh it’s really helpful for us you know I think even as an offensive player when a team is switching soft and there’s like

Space and gaps and you can shoot or you can attack them and they kind of backed off you it’s easier to play against um it doesn’t take away any of your Rhythm so you know us switching and kind of jumping out of guys is making them takeing steps back instead of them

Coming downhill at us and we on our heels um getting into their bodies you know it’s hard to to play like that it’s hard to play against it um the more we can be like that guys can be in Tighter and they can be in help position and

Kind of deter the drive and still get back to their guy and we eliminating threes too so I thought tonight we just did a much better job of that what helped you guys with your playmaking sorry we’ve asked about your playmaking Giannis Chris as well but on nights like

This where maybe the shot isn’t falling and you and Chris were kind of in that boat in the first half but yet it was still facilitating keeping the offense moving um I mean how important is that to to do that when you probably could say all right why let me get get myself

Into a rhythm and get a couple buckets but even if it’s not in um I think you know we we got a deep enough team and a talented enough team to where it’s never going to be obviously you want us all to be making shots and us all to be rolling

But I think because of how we defended um a lot of times was able to get out and transition move the ball make the right play you know enough guys on this team can play you know so it’s going to be guys making shots it’s going to be

Instead of you know Chris having 20 or me having 25 or Yiannis having 40 sometimes it might be a couple guys with 12 16 you know 20 whatever um but I think because of how we played defensively it was like we was able to play that way offensively and still have

A you know a big league this is the first time in a while y’all had your full star five and kind of just like a full team out there um do you you have been encouraged about the stuff y’all have been buildt that it feel like it

All like clicked into place just kind of seamlessly just how how did you feel like yall played connectively obiously I thought it was great um you know it’s been uh times where I’ve been out there without neither one of them it’s been time where jiannis has been out there

With neither one me or Chris um been times where it was me and Chris out there and Yannis didn’t play and you know we just kind of got to look at everything but everybody had to kind of pull a little bit more you know do a

Little bit more um and I talked about this a couple weeks ago AG go a lot of the the teams when I was younger like the best teams that was like their their season went like that specifically San Antonio where it would be just random guys you know the team is leaning on

Them a little bit more throughout the season and then when they put it all together everybody’s prepared and everybody’s able to kind of bring something to the table and make us a more complete team and that’s that’s kind of what tonight felt like you know finally being whole and everybody’s kind

Of had to step their game up and be a little bit sharper and now we all get out there together and um you know we put together really good game something that they talked about before the thunder came in was their team chemistry but y’all seem to be off the charts

Tonight what was it that helped that uh I think the excitement of everybody being back was one um and I think us just tightening up you know as we close out the season you know our our practices our walkthroughs our film sessions everything has been um just a

Little bit sharper you know a little bit more serious and um I think we can feel ourselves getting better and we can see some of the results that we getting and everybody’s just kind of um really pouring into that and um coming into tonight I think that’s that’s why we had

This type of game well something that doc emphasizes is you guys playing mindlessly not having to think out there do you feel like you’re getting closer to that point as a team defitely um you know I think a lot of the scripted things that we do in

Practice um a lot of just the the interactions that we have how he talks to the team what he expresses to us like him expecting certain things from us uh I think everybody’s just starting to have a better understanding of it um and everybody’s becoming more and more free

And I think uh that’s been great for our team because everybody’s becoming more free but we doing it as a unit um you know and I think that’s when we going to be the best version of ourselves doc was talking about how big of a cutter that

Pat conon is and how much easier that makes it on offense how does that impact you as a one of the big three in this team to get the offense a little bit more opened up uh I mean I think if anytime you have guys that um a team is

Trying to take away um they on their Scouting Report they have guys positioned to do specific things you know a guy needs to be at the elbow to run at a ball handler the low man has to be there early to take away giannis’s dive into the rim so um when you got

Guys around that um that are just complimentary that know how to cut know when to cut um and just know how to position themselves to take advantage of what the defense is doing it just makes us a better team and I think Pat is uh

Probably the best on our team at it you know just play on that Baseline uh getting into the dunker even on the perimeter you know he he just knows how to play and I think that comes from his experience and just playing with you know really good players do you follow

Oh sorry do you follow college basketball still I know you would watch watch a lot but uh not too much I follow uh when it gets to March that’s usually when I start to kind of do my homework and I watch the reason I ask is marquette’s in the sweet 16 they haven’t

Been affected too much by the transfer portal and all that and it was different than when you played what did you you get out of your experience do you think most off the court in college and what do you think now of like nil deals and how it’s affecting all these transfers

And all that stuff do you have any opinion on that I think my I had a great college experience I think just going away from home I graduated high school when I was 17 and um the people that I was around they just I just learned so

Much you know how to be a part of a team and how to be invested in a program you know and what it was all about so I think think that’s um something that helped me a lot coming into the NBA you know I wasn’t about myself cuz I was

Invested in a program for four years and I just had a lot of people that looked out for me and it just made me you know pour more into that you know from my professors to the coaching staff you know they showed me that they cared

About me as a person as much as what I brought to the program as a athlete so I had I had a great experience um and I think as far as the nil is just um on one hand I’m happy that players are being compensated for you know what they

Bring to these universities cuz they make a lot of money off of them you know when you talk about the tournament and some of these big conferences and you know they on TV as much as we are and people recognize their names as much as

They recognize us so you want them to be compensated uh for that but um me personally I just wish that it was kind of a a better medium of you know I hate to see kids they they put him on camera and they like this kid went to Arizona and

Then he was at this school and you know it’s for schools in four years and it’s like I don’t see how that could be positive for for anybody as far as a college experience um so I just wish that it was something that they could

Put in place to where you can’t just you know hop around and I think it just takes away from the spirit of college basketball where you usually might have a few guys that’s one and done that go to the league but then you going to have some guys there two years three years

Four years that you know care about the history of the program and what the program is about and you just don’t see that no more so I think that’s that’s also part of why college basketball isn’t what it used to be so um that’s just how that’s how I feel about it Dam

This is the first time you faced this team all year so I thought probably the first question you’ve got in your mind is how they going to play me how they going to play Yiannis is that what it feels like at the start of a game like

This uh kind of I mean I was just I ask jiannis before the game like who usually guards you on this team um cuz usually the teams we play they best defender they guard me for my whole career so I was like who guards you we talked about

It um but I never really worry about it too much when since I’ve been on this team because we got so many weapons I know that I can play the game honest in the right way and we’ll have a a chance to win regardless so I didn’t think too much about it

Damian Lillard talks to the media following Sunday night’s win over the Thunder.

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