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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: SPURS v CLIPPERSMay 2, 2015Doc RiversLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Seven Clippers – 111 Q. Doc, you've‑‑ DOC RIVERS: Before I start, I just want to say, first of all, that's a series for the ages. Amazing it's a first‑round series. Tim with like two minutes left, Tim Duncan, walks up to me, this is the first round? You know, he almost took it out of my‑‑ I was thinking the same thing, and that is the classiest organization, the classiest players, the best coach to me ever, or one of the top ones, so all our respect goes to them. I mean, if we could scratch that somehow, some way in the next years, we would be thrilled to death. It was a great win for us, beating that franchise, but just their class. And then the last thing that I loved about this series, it was all basketball. It wasn't any crap. It wasn't any fights. It wasn't any‑‑ it was just two teams‑‑ think about it, playing basketball. I don't know if there was a flagrant foul in the entire series. It was clean, solid, beautiful basketball by both teams, and I'm a better person because I went through this series, I guarantee you that. Q. Could you relay kind of the events where Chris goes out, what Jason is telling you and how he was able to get into that game and perform like that? DOC RIVERS: I don't know, Jason said, hey, he did it pretty well, he's going to play, I'm going to tell you that. I told our bench, listen, just keep the game. Keep the game. That's what I told them at halftime, before half. You think about that first half; Chris is injured, Blake is in foul trouble, and we leave the half with a two‑point lead. And that's the point I've been making all year, guys. It's just somebody else. Jamal was huge. Matt Barnes was huge for us tonight. I thought that was the difference in the game, that stretch. They could have gotten away from us with our two key guys out of the game, and they didn't, and I thought that was the difference in the game. Q. You talked about the impact this had on you, but for those guys over there who haven't won a series like this, tell me what this can do for them. DOC RIVERS: Well, the one thing it did, it made them tired. That's the one thing. That was an exhausting series for both teams. Even though the Spurs played more bench overall except for tonight, that's the point I always make, those big games, everybody's benches get small, but I think just going through it and seeing them‑‑ like I think if we had have won this series against someone else, we probably would have been happy, obviously, and we would have won the series. But playing against them, it's like being taught during a competition on how to act, how to play, and how to trust. You know, they did it and then we did it. They did it and then we did it. You think Matt Barnes' three was a trust pass. Guy was covered, threw it to the open guy, Matt Barnes is wide open, he made a three. They came down, did the exact same thing. Just playing against them absolutely was a great lesson for us, as well. Q. What words would you describe as far as what Chris did within the game, and then to do what he did at the end of the game, the hobbling CP? DOC RIVERS: Well, I could say something but I'd probably get fined if I described what I thought he had. He's just a tough kid. That's it. Tough. He's just a tough‑‑ he's a street fighter. I mean, he really is. He's a street fighter. I love him to death because of his will. Q. I know there's not a long list of things to choose from, but is this the Clippers' Willis Reed moment? DOC RIVERS: Oh, I thought you meant Big Baby. Q. Him, too. DOC RIVERS: Big Baby, it's funny actually, with 10 minutes on the clock, Big Baby was still in the back doing whatever the hell Big Baby does before the game, and I yell out from the bathroom, I say, Baby, let's get out on the floor, come on, this is not going to be a Willis Reed moment tonight and then Chris is‑‑ yeah, except for Willis' was done in a Game 7 of a championship game, but that was huge for us, just the shot. I'm so happy for him. The shot alone, no balance on the shot, falling backwards, amazing. Q. Are you concerned about him in‑‑ DOC RIVERS: Yeah, yeah, very. Someone is going to have to step up. I was thinking it's funny how coaches think with three minutes left, I'm thinking, okay, if we win this game, thank God I signed Lester because now you have two guards left. We almost went big, and then we would literally have no other guards left. That was the first thing I thought. You know, I don't know. Chris may play or may not play the first game, but the game is Monday. My guess right now if I had to guess, I would say no, but I'm not sure. Q. You guys have had a lot of playoff disappointments here the last few years, even before you came. Because of how you won this against the opponent you beat, does it feel like the value is a lot more emotionally than just a first round for you guys? DOC RIVERS: Yeah, and because of who we beat, not just because we won the first round. When you play the defending champions in the first round and you win, it gives you good belief. Now, having said all that, we're just through the first round. Somehow in the next 48 hours, I've got to get us focused on Houston. They've been sitting around waiting for us, and that's going to be a brutal task. But we have to get there somehow. I don't know how. Anybody has suggestions, send them to me. But you beat a team of value in this series, and I think the entire series was decided by seven points, I think. Like I said before the game, this is the most evenly matched series I've ever been involved in. It was crazy how evenly matched the series was. Q. What kind of effect do you think what Chris did tonight in coming back and not just coming back and being on the court but the plays that he made, what kind of effect does that have on a team in Game 7 and then going forward? DOC RIVERS: You know, I don't know. I think we already knew that Blake and CP and DJ are our leaders anyway, and they all did that. Blake had a great lesson today. He picked up those three fouls and I thought early on in the second half he was playing not to foul, and finally in the fourth quarter he decided I only have three fouls still. Chris, you know, just gutting it out, us trying to give him rest here and there. You know, it was great. Q. When you're mentioning how the series made a lot of guys tired, are they basically going to have to figure out a way to play through that fatigue for the rest of the Playoffs? DOC RIVERS: We'll be able to catch up. For 48 hours it's going to be hard. I will say that. But we'll be able to catch our rest. Like I said, my staff only knows this, but before the series started, I basically told them we're going to play eight to nine guys in this series and then we'll be able to extend ourselves, extend our bench more. It was very tough to stay to my guns in that because there were times I really thought about playing more guys. I just felt like this was one of those series, short rotation, short bench, and then from that point on, longer bench. So that's how we'll get rest. Q. I know you're trying to regroup and trying to get them‑‑ DOC RIVERS: You're not going to ask a Houston question, are you? Q. No. What I was going to ask you is there are times when momentum from a game to game will spill over. Can it spill over into another series? DOC RIVERS: I hope so. You know, that's all I can say. I hope so. This series had no momentum, I can tell you that. And probably because we were so evenly matched. But Houston feels good themselves, as well, so they have some momentum and rest. But this has to make us feel like just the grind of the series, it has to make you better. I don't know how, but it has to, when you go through something like this. They make you execute. Q. You can look at a lot of those shots that Chris made, obviously, but I think the Spurs led by five and he took the rebound away from Tony and that led to the Blake free throw. DOC RIVERS: There were a lot of big sequences. I thought Matt's three was as big as they came. I thought J.J. getting hot at the right spot, and then that rebound was huge. And then I thought the Spurs are going to rebound until they made a shot. I mean, that's what it felt like. We took a huge gamble going small and I thought it got us the lead back but then I thought it started hurting us with the rebounding, and we stayed that way. That was a gamble, and I can tell you I hadn't had that in my game plan notes, but I just decided to do it, and it paid off. But that was scary to watch their rebounding against us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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