Kawhi Leonard’s blunt response to facing elimination vs Nuggets

“I thought the tough start was Jamal Murray,” Lue said after the loss. “I thought he came out being aggressive, which we knew he would. That’s why we started with the blitz against him, to slow him down, because we knew in Game 5, he would come out aggressive. He made every shot. Pull-up threes, mid-rangers. We did everything against him; we blitzed, we dropped, we switched, we did a lot of different coverages but he had a hell of a game.

In every game this series thus far, the Clippers have been vastly outplayed in the opening minutes. Through the 25 total minutes — the first five minutes of each game — the Nuggets have outscored the Clippers 76-53. LA has gone on to win the remaining 220 minutes, 493-453.

“As far as us defensively, just having that presence to start the game,” Lue added. “I think the last three games, they’ve been really attacking us to start the game early, so we have to be better with that, especially on the road. But they played well, they played great. Holding Joker to 13 points and losing the game is tough, but that’s how they beat you. If you worry about him too much, other guys can beat you. But I thought Jamal Murray was excellent tonight.”

Kawhi Leonard took positives from the fact that the Clippers only turned the ball over 10 times on the night, but their defense was the biggest problem, allowing a 131 points to a team that had struggled to score for most of this series.

“I’m glad that we were able to take care of the ball,” Leonard said. “We have to keep doing that. We just have to do it again pretty much and we’ve got to get some stops. I feel like they were scoring the ball a lot and we didn’t get no stops. We were getting down in transition and half-court sets scoring as well, but we’ve got to get stops.

Nikola Jokic recorded just 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting, but added 10 rebounds and 12 assists for his fourth triple-double in five games so far this postseason. Aaron Gordon added 23 points and four rebounds while Christian Braun scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

“Just try to get out to a better start early,” Leonard added. “I think we pretty much the whole series have probably gotten out to a great start, so just trying to stay in the game early instead of trying to make the heroic comebacks. That’s all we can do. We’ve got to fight now.”

Now facing elimination, Leonard just wants his Clippers to continue playing confident with a next-play mentality.

“Just taking it one possession at a time. Going out there, trying to start the game off in a good way and don’t get down early. But if we do, just stay poised, keep fighting, live with our mistakes, and we just have to play confidently.”

Game 6 is scheduled to tip off at 7PM PST on TNT. It could very well be the Clippers’ final game of the season, and a Nuggets win would send them to the second round, where the Oklahoma City Thunder await.