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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PISTONS v CELTICSMay 28, 2008Doc RiversBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Five Q. Is Tony Allen dressing tonight? And if not, who's replacing him on the active roster? COACH DOC RIVERS: These deep, penetrating questions. No, he's not dressing tonight. He got injured, I guess, in the one-on-one games yesterday. So Scalabrine. Q. How does that affect you? COACH DOC RIVERS: It doesn't. It hasn't yet. Q. Flip alluded to three-point shots. Are you at all surprised at the fact that it has had almost no role in the series, the way teams have defended it, and even looking for it the way they would in the normal season? COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah, I think they're looking for it. I think both teams, really throughout the playoffs, the three-point shot percentages are down for the most part. I think it's better defenses. I think guys are really focusing on running you off the three-point shot and making you take contested twos or just twos. Since the invention of the three-point line, that game called the "in-between game" has disappeared. And defensively, I think me as a coach and Flip and a lot of the coaches have forced the in-between game. A lot of guys like threes and going all the way to the basket, and very few want to stop and take that in-between jump shot. The great ones do, Kobe and Paul and those guys, that's what they score on. So I think it's more of a focus defensively. Q. Have you ever seen anything that odd happen to a player twice? COACH DOC RIVERS: As far as the injury? No, not really, not in a playoff game. In the regular season there's been all kinds of strange injuries. But not in a playoff game. And we didn't know literally until an hour ago. I didn't know he was injured yesterday, so I didn't know until about an hour and a half ago. Q. What was the focus on shootaround today? Any particular thing? COACH DOC RIVERS: No, just preparing for the game. Nothing different than we've done throughout the series. No great changes are coming or anything like that. We're going to be who we are and they're going to do the same, and we're going to go out and play. Q. The number of threes in the series has really gone down, what do you attribute to that? COACH DOC RIVERS: Just better defenses. We talked about it earlier, but I just think it's the focus of defense throughout, not only just us but everyone. Q. I don't want to get too far afield, but is there the slightest possibility that this could carry over, either on behalf of you or anyone else, watching when the 2008 and 2009 season started that guys won't be left as alone as they usually are, noted three-point shooters during the course of the season? COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah, it could be. We hope they are (laughing). But it is easier in the playoffs in some ways defensively because you're playing the same opponent, you know, you have more time to prep, so you can find where they're putting the three-point shooters, the space part, and get to them, where during the regular season it's a little more difficult to do. You're so focused on stopping the best player or second-best player at the first best thing they do that you can lose three-point shooters. But historically when you look at it, those guys have been taken out of a lot of series. We're going to still try to get our guys shots behind that line, there's no doubt about that. And I'm sure they are, as well. Having said that, we have to be willing to step in and take that in-between shot. If they're going to run at you out of control, and we've talked about that a lot, then that gives you a driving lane, and we have to take advantage of that. Q. Would you include Rip Hamilton in that group of in-between shooters we talked about earlier? COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah, he's as good as anyone in the league, and he does it off of movement without the ball, which is even more rare. Most of the guys, the great in-between players, do it off the bounce, and he doesn't. He can, but he does it without the ball, and catch, one dribble, and does it, which is really rare in our game. You don't see it a lot. You haven't seen it historically a lot, but he does it as well as anybody. End of FastScripts |
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