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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: CLIPPERS vs WARRIORS

April 13, 2019

Doc Rivers

Oakland, California: Game One

Warriors - 121, Clippers - 104

Q. Doc, end the first half you guys were tied at 51, only three minutes left, by halftime it's a 13-point lead and a couple technicals were called. What can you make of the final three minutes?
DOC RIVERS: I thought they spurred it on us. Can't happen. I did think we got some tough calls down that stretch. It was funny, I wasn't even upset at the missed calls. I was really upset at Gal's tech. It really bothered me because all Gal said was, "Where was the foul?" And without me saying any names, if one of our guys are going to get a tech for saying that, after what I witnessed in the first half from at least -- let me just say two of their guys, that was disgusting. Like that was -- that's what got me so upset.

Gal, who rarely gets a tech, didn't swear, didn't say anything, and to get a tech in a playoff game for saying, "What foul?" after I saw a couple guys on the other team cussing, swearing, pointing, yelling, and nothing? It's just not right. We have to be consistent.

My tech, by the way, and you can read my lips, I said, "All I want is consistency." That was what I got a tech for at halftime. Like listen, they outplayed us. They deserved to win. We made too many mistakes. We can't lose our composure where we're giving up a free-throw rebound because we forgot to block out because we're complaining.

So all that's on us. That's on the coaching staff. That's on our players. But we've got to have a fighting chance here, too, and like it's just got to be consistency, and I've said this before. It's an emotional game, but just like players can lose their emotions and their composure, coaches do it all the time, officials can't.

I just thought the end of that half, that swing was huge. You know, I thought Curry may have gotten fouled, actually, but I know Lou got fouled, too, and that's what started the whole thing.

They would have won regardless. We didn't deserve to win tonight. I thought we wanted to win. I thought we came to play. I thought we played hard. We have to play a little smarter. We made too many mistakes.

Q. Shamet and Beverley, total of six points. What would you like to see more of them in Game 2?
DOC RIVERS: Whenever Sham doesn't get shots, I always think that's on me. I just thought we're a movement team -- I didn't think we executed very well offensively. It's funny, I'm just looking at the numbers, and they had 121 points, which obviously you're not going to win a lot of games with that. But we were not a very good offensive team today. We didn't take -- I don't know how many three on four, four on fives, how many breaks we had that we just came up empty on, and so I want to watch the film and see why.

Q. Can you just talk a little bit about Shai and what you saw from him in his first post-season minutes?
DOC RIVERS: I thought he was up and down. I thought he was aggressive overall offensively. He'll be better in Game 2. I can almost guarantee you that. I know Shai. I don't think he's happy with the way he played. I just want him to stay aggressive.

Q. Trez and Lou kept you guys afloat --
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, they did. They were great. I thought actually in the second unit, in that first half, our second unit outplayed theirs, and that was a bit spurt for us. That's what we've done all year, though. We just couldn't sustain it.

Q. What did you think of the three young guys -- Sham, Shai, Zu? And that first quarter you went at Zu really hard and then you gave him the pat on the back. What was that exchange about with those three rookies?
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, no focus, mental execution. I actually thought Zu after that played very well. That's why I was very happy with him, because he struggled early, he missed up two or three in a row, just rotations defensively, but then after that he was flawless, and so it tells you that you can be young and have focus, and he did that.

And I told him after the game I was really happy with that. That's what we need him to do, and he earned himself more playing time because that's what you do on our team. You earn it, and I thought he did that.

Q. All three guys --
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, Sham, like I want to watch the film. We've got to get him more shots. That's on me, that's on our team. Like we've got to value him more, and I didn't think we did a good enough job. So that's on us.

Q. Doc, what was your view with the exchanges that Patrick Beverley and Kevin Durant had and the subsequent ejection?
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, it was talk. Yeah. I mean, listen, I don't even know what to say with that one. That was -- Pat is going to talk, and that's legal. You know, and Kevin can talk, too. I don't think either one of them -- I don't know, I think Eddie had to throw them out because it looked bad. So I thought that was the right thing to do, I guess. But it was much ado about nothing.

Q. Can you explain the thought process behind matching up Beverley on Durant instead of Curry? It must be a tough call.
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, you know, they're both good. You know, and we thought that Pat could take away Durant's dribble attacks, and he did that. You know, because with Durant's -- the LeBrons of the world do, when you put their same size guy on him now they have every advantage. They can beat you off the dribble, they still score in the post anyway. We do that a lot. We put a smaller guy just to take away the dribble attacks because Durant is so good off the dribble.

I thought we were actually very effective there. The problem is now you don't have Pat guarding Curry. And so one thing I learned is they're really good, and you know, you can't put Pat on everybody.

But Curry has destroyed us all year. He really has. We have to try to do a better job from a coaching perspective. We have to do something different for sure.

Q. Kind of building off of that, when Curry starts getting it going and the crowd is cheering the way it does, you said you've seen it before, what is even a coach's approach to that when a guy is making shots from that far and that high?
DOC RIVERS: Well, hopefully you can stop him. He's great. He's a great player. You know, I was telling my coaching staff, I still think Steph Curry is one of the most underrated players in the NBA. I don't even know how that happens, but he is. He's taken for granted, and all I know is when he's on the floor, he is a handful, and he makes them better in so many ways. He was one of the best rebounders today. He just does everything. He's a great player.

But we have to do a better job. He has to see us right now, and I don't know what it was, I think coming into the game he was averaging 33 against us, shooting like 50 percent. I mean, he has to see our jerseys and see red like a bull, you know. And so we have to do a better job, and that's on me.

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