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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: JAZZ vs CLIPPERS

April 18, 2017

Doc Rivers

Los Angeles, California: Game Two

Clippers - 99, Jazz - 91

Q. Do you like the way you attacked the basket early in the game, kind of set the tone? Was that by design or the way the game unfolded?
DOC RIVERS: No, that's what we should do. That was great. I thought we got it through movement. We went downhill a lot more tonight. The guy that went downhill didn't necessarily get the shot, somebody else got the shot.

I thought also it allowed D.J. to get behind the defense a lot because of the penetration and the ball movement. I thought every time we got stagnant, they made a run. Every time we pushed the ball up the floor -- I loved -- there were times when we scored right after they scored, you know? So we had a better -- we did a better job of dictating the pace, didn't necessarily like the last five minutes. I thought we stopped with our pace, and just because you have a lead, you can't milk a lead in the NBA. It's 24 seconds, so you're not going to go North Carolina four corners. So you might as well just keep playing. That's one thing we still have to get better at.

Q. Today at shootaround a couple of your guys said this is really a critical moment for this team, a critical game. Do you think you guys responded to being down?
DOC RIVERS: You know, I don't know. We won. So I would say we responded. I liked our physicality tonight, and theirs, too. Like it was a physical game. We had 60 points in the paint and only eight free throws. That's amazing when you think about it. Not that it was fouls or anything, they just allowed us to play, both teams. That was fun.

Now, I was not in the game, but it looked fun.

Q. What are the biggest challenges that a player, an opposing player or an opposing coach faces when they have to play in Utah, especially in Playoffs?
DOC RIVERS: Well, it's a great arena. It's one of the few basketball arenas, you know. They're sitting right on top of you. The fans are terrific there. And you know, the noise is not going to be for you.

Having said that, I've never seen a fan block a shot or get a steal. At the end of the day, it's going to be only 10 guys out on the floor, and you've just got to keep your composure and your trust.

Q. Can you talk about the way Chris played and also the fight that he showed?
DOC RIVERS: He was great. You know, he was good through adversity, which I thought was really good. He got in foul trouble early, and we weathered that storm as a team, you about he had to weather the storm, sitting. Those uneven minutes for guys throw you off, and I thought it never threw him off. I thought he kept his rhythm, he kept his patience, he kept his peace, if you know what I mean. So I thought that was terrific.

Q. The play of Raymond Felton seems to be what the Clippers need when he plays well.
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, he was good tonight. You know, the scoring, he didn't do much of that. I thought what Raymond did tonight was he got into the ball, his defensive pressure. I thought Mo, Raymond and Paul Pierce were huge for us tonight. Paul was huge for us. He came in in both stretches, made baskets, got some stops, and so I thought those three guys in particular, they just came in and played, and then Jamal had a nice stretch, as well. That was huge.

Q. From the offensive rebounds to the defense inside, there seemed to be a real sense of urgency. It seemed to be special tonight.
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, I think you're right. You know, listen, we should do it every night. Obviously we came with the right amount of urgency tonight, and that's what we have to -- that's the only way we're going to win this series. They're long. They're big. They're strong. They're great defensively. The game is going to get mucked up at times, and it's going to come down a lot of times to who's the most physical and who gets the 50/50 balls.

Q. Could you tell us about Luc Mbah a Moute's game?
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, you look at Luc, and he's a +15. That's what I look at with Luc. You know, we tried to match his minutes with Gordon. I thought Gordon had one extra minute more than Luc. Other than that, we tried to match his minutes together, and Luc was terrific. He just does so many things. Even offensively he's starting to cut now. He's a wonderful player and really a great guy to have on your team.

Q. You guys didn't shoot great tonight from the outside, but you still managed to win because you did so well inside. How important is that going to be for you going to Utah to continue to really force the offense on the interior?
DOC RIVERS: Well, it would help to make some shots, you know, some threes. Six for 20 isn't that great, but then we shoot 52 percent, and we shot 52 percent because everything was in the paint. So that's good.

But we need to open it up a little bit. We've got to make some shots.

Q. How do you manage the balance between going to Jamal, who's obviously an offensive threat, versus Luc, because there are mismatch issues?
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, it's tough. Like for the most part, we're trying to go Jamal and J.J., and that's what we're really doing. You know, and so that's what we're doing more. If it's the last possession, you can go J.J.-Jamal. That's when you do it. We almost did it at the end of this one. We did it once and then we went back. So that's what we're trying to do. We just can't have -- they're too big for us to be too small, and so we have to try to keep the right amount of size on the floor. Much, much better job today.

Thank you, guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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