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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: JAZZ vs CLIPPERS

April 25, 2017

Doc Rivers

Los Angeles, California: Game Five

Jazz - 96, Clippers - 92

Q. How tough was this loss for you to take, down 3-2 in the series, knowing obviously one more win, come back, one more loss, the season is over?
DOC RIVERS: You know, it's a tough loss, but it's not like I'm going to go bury my head or anything like that. We lost the game. You know, defensively overall I thought we played pretty well. Offensively I didn't think we played well at all. There were a lot of things that I did like about the game, and there were a lot of things I didn't. I think they're all fixable.

We have to have the desperation going up to Utah and winning. We've won there before. We've won in the Playoffs there before. This team is not going to quit, I can tell you that. You can see it when they were in the locker room. We were in our own way a lot tonight, and we have to get out of our way.

Q. Was there a point where the momentum just changed, you guys couldn't get it back, that you could see?
DOC RIVERS: Well, no, because there was a point where -- it was one of those games. They got momentum and went up 11. We called a time-out. We would go on an 11-0 and we got it back. The score was tied. I thought there were some big plays. The offensive rebound that I think Hayward kept alive, Joe Johnson makes a three, it just seemed like they made timely plays and we didn't.

Q. How hard is it to defend Joe Johnson, not only when he's making those shots but when he's creating for his teammates, as well?
DOC RIVERS: It's hard, but Joe was 6 for 14 tonight with 14 points. Honestly, the way he's been playing, that's pretty good. You know, I would take that. Hayward killed us early. I thought Hayward set the tone tonight in the first six or seven minutes of the game. I don't know what he had, but I thought he was a tone setter early, and then he kind of went away, but when the score was tied, they came out, ran an iso for Hayward and he made a basket. That's what great players do, and we have to do a better job of trying to prevent that.

Q. It appeared that late in the game you weren't playing with the kind of pace that I think you want to play with; how much of a concern is that for you since this is the second time that this has happened? How much of a concern is that for you going into the next game?
DOC RIVERS: It's a concern because I do have a -- it's a tough one. I have a dilemma early on. Without Blake in the first seven minutes, Chris is the only ball handler on the floor, and that's too hard, and they keep -- they started out well. I thought Chris got tired early, and so we are going to have to try to do something about that, either put a guard in early -- I thought Austin's minutes on Hayward was phenomenal, but he's got, what, 16 minutes, so you can't do that. Other than that, it's just Luke, and we don't want to wear him out. So it's a tough call for us.

But we have to do something there. I think that hurt our offense, the fact that Chris had to bring it up literally every time, and so we have to make an adjustment there.

Q. You guys battled back from some deficits, particularly in the fourth quarter when they went up 11 but were still unable to retake the lead. Was there sort of a sense there that you had to push through something there to kind of get --
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, I think there was a sense for both teams, though. We were not the only one trying to win the game. Both teams were trying to win the game. We did push through. We caught back up, and then they scored five straight points, and again, Hayward makes a two, we come down, miss, and then they get an offensive rebound for a three. You know, it's tough because we're small, and at times we need the offense, but then we give up the offensive rebound. You're playing a dangerous game out there, and sometimes you get burned.

Q. You mentioned playing with desperation in Game 6; practically speaking, what does that look like?
DOC RIVERS: I don't know. I mean, I don't even know what that is. We've just got to play better. Listen, they will, too. You know, it's like I guarantee you Q is going to tell them they have to win Game 6, just like I will tell our team, we have to win Game 6. This should be a fun game.

Q. It seemed like at least in the first half they were getting a lot of open shots --
DOC RIVERS: I agree.

Q. Especially around the perimeter. Is that confusion in the defense or is that just being late?
DOC RIVERS: That's beating us off the dribble way too often and making us rotate. Also, we did a good job. We took the ball out of Joe's hands, but by doing that, it's like I told you before the game, by doing that they're going to get open threes, and listen, we were fortunate tonight with them being on the road, their road players didn't make some of those. I don't think we'll be that fortunate in Utah. Road players play well at home, and so we can't -- we can't give up the shots we gave up. When you look at it, defensively, they shot 43 percent, we shot 42 percent, so both teams had a good defensive night. We missed some open shots, too, by the way, but I would tell you that they had too many -- when you look at 36 threes, 25 of them were really good looks, and so we can't allow that again.

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