LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 7, 2020

Doc Rivers

Postgame Press Conference

Clippers 113, Nuggets 107

Q. Obviously Paul had 32 points tonight but what can you say about his effort on the defensive end?

DOC RIVERS: It's funny two, guys, we talked about after the game, PG's 32 was huge but his defense was far more impressive for us.

And then Lou, I mean, Lou made two of three steals and got involved. I told Lou, he was 4-for-11, not a great offensive game but he was a plus 20 when he was on the floor tonight because he was a playmaker and he did little things defensively. That was a tough game. Both teams I thought executed well. They had 19 more shots than us. You know, and the offensive rebounds I thought really hurt us.

Q. When Jamal Murray tries to dunk on Kawhi, and Kawhi blocks the shot with his middle finger, have you ever seen a block with a middle finger, and what did that do for your team?

DOC RIVERS: Just all our defense down the stretch. The game came down to, one of the two teams was going to play some defense, and for three and a half quarters, you know, both teams were basically scoring. And then the last six minutes it was our defense.

I thought that play by Kawhi was amazing. I didn't know it was with one finger. I thought he just blocked it but it was impressive. I didn't even know where he came from, so it was a heck of a play.

Q. That defensive effort, not only to finish the first quarter, but to end the second quarter, where was that the rest of the time when you were getting beat back on defense? Seemed like there were multiple lapses.

DOC RIVERS: Yeah, there were a lot of lapses, I think we gave up six points side out-of-bounds, three-quarter court where they threw it long and scored. Those are hard to recover from. We had our lapses, there's no doubt about that, but overall when we locked in, we were really good.

Q. (Off-mic.)

DOC RIVERS: It feels like that all year with us. It's been in spurts, you know. It's frustrating but it's not in the -- I look at the whole picture, and I realize, we haven't been together. We haven't had a lot of time together. So I get it.

But the mental lapses are the ones that are really frustrating. We had a lot of mental lapses today and we got a way with it, but you can't be great and do that every night.

Q. Lou on the other feed said they decided they didn't want to lose the game and they didn't have the feeling they had other night.

DOC RIVERS: That's good, good to know (laughing).

Q. Do you feel that moment, sort that have switch, when they get in that --

DOC RIVERS: I just coach. Like it's good that the players feel that way. I'm sure Denver felt that way, as well, though. It just came down to really we made tougher defensive plays down the stretch.

Q. Last game you spoke about kind of the starters having to set the table for the bench. Did you feel as though they did a better job of that tonight?

DOC RIVERS: Yeah, they did, I thought at least offensively, we were so much better. We moved the ball, I think we shot 55 percent, 54 points. So I thought offensively we were so much more efficient than we were the other night and I thought, you know, PG really set the tone.

Q. Kawhi had 14, and Pat Beverley had negative 13 on the plus/minus. I'm not a big stat guy, but when you see Pat Bev with a negative 13 and the effect he had on the game, what do you think about that?

DOC RIVERS: I ignore it. Pass was a plus for us. He just happened to be on the floor. You know, the thing you've got to be careful with plus/minus because there's times when you're just on the floor and the other team is making a run and sometimes that's just bad luck. Sometimes it is what you're doing.

Tonight, down the stretch, Pat was huge. Back-to-back steals for us, big rebounds, he just makes so many plays that aren't static, it's amaze.

Q. What do you think is the lesson you have to learn from this game?

DOC RIVERS: Well, don't gift points. We gifted a lot of points. Again, I think at least six points where they were taking the ball out, we didn't get back. You know, the offensive rebounds, they took 19 more shots that be us. It's hard to win a game. Can you imagine giving the team 19 more shots and think you're going to win the game. You have to be so good offensively to win that game, and basically that's what we were.

Q. Obviously Zub had a tough night tonight.

DOC RIVERS: Yeah, I thought Zub was great tonight. I loved it. He just -- he made a couple just silly fouls that got him in foul trouble. But I loved his physicality overall.