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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PISTONS v CELTICS

May 29, 2008

Doc Rivers

DETROIT, MICHIGAN: Practice Day

Q. I just wanted to ask you first of all about Tony Allen. How is he doing today?
COACH RIVERS: He's doing good. I haven't talked to any extent to him or Eddie Lacerte yet. He was in this morning getting treatment, and we'll find out tomorrow.

Q. When you look at the fourth quarter of last night's game, are you concerned about getting a better finishing kick in Game 6?
COACH RIVERS: Yeah. You know, I would like to have that same lead going into the fourth quarter in Game 6 first. We earned that lead. So I would like to get that first, and then once we got that, we clearly have to finish better.

Q. What in your estimation was the reason why you didn't finish better?
COACH RIVERS: Well, I thought, one, we turned the ball over; but more importantly, I thought our defense was a letdown, as well. They hadn't been getting threes, besides Rasheed all game. They hadn't been getting quick buckets or quick layups, and they did both during that stretch. I thought defensively we let down a little bit and offensively instead of running what we had been running to get the lead, we stopped attacking and we got kind of cautious, and you can't do that in a playoff game; you can't do that in any game.

Q. With relation to your rotation with the bigs, is that something that was a game-time gut decision, or was that something leading up to the game you saw that was going to be more beneficial for the team?
COACH RIVERS: Leading up to the game. We talked about it -- we actually do give these things thought (laughter). We meet as a staff and we talk about stuff before we go into games, and we just wanted to limit and shorten the rotation as much as we could. The key for us was trying to keep Kevin or Perk in when Rasheed was in. That's basically what we were doing.

Q. Is that something that you were happy with the result of?
COACH RIVERS: Oh, I was happy with the way Perk played, so yeah. Will we do that again? We may. But we did it for a specific reason.

Q. Obviously the Pistons have a sense of urgency because if they lose, they're going home. How can you kind of get a sense of urgency for your team even though you have the cushion of a Game 7 back home?
COACH RIVERS: Well, because we don't want to go to a Game 7 (laughing) would be the number one thing. We want to win this now if we can. They're not going to let us win it. We're going to have to come in and take it. They've been in situations before. They're a tough, mentally tough, team, and we're going to have to play the game of our lives to go up there and win, but I think we're capable of doing that.

Q. I want to go back to a comment you made a couple minutes ago. You said, "We actually do give these things some thought," referencing the rotation of the big guys, which makes we wonder if you've heard or read any of the criticism about your coaching style this year and last year, and if you ever want to tell people to kiss off.
COACH RIVERS: Well, I would love to, but I just don't think that would be the right thing to do (laughing), I'll put it that way. I like what we've done. Obviously it hasn't affected me because I clearly do -- I coach the way I coach, and I'm not going to let -- I've always laughed at some of the criticism.
I was joking with someone the other day, and I told them, just answer me this: Why would someone listen to a guy that hasn't played, hasn't coached? Some of the guys have never even been reporters; they're bloggers. And not listen to a guy in his own staff who his played and coached. Who's the fool, me or the people listening to him?

Q. Would you agree that it's not as simple as, well, we've got good players now, because most people agree that Terry Francona's talent is he can manage a team with lots of superstars and keep the divisiveness out of the locker room. Wouldn't you say it's also difficult to coach good players?
COACH RIVERS: Yeah, I would say this year as far as that goes, it's been easier actually in some ways than in the past. I've always thought the toughest part for coaches, and that's probably why very few coaches, or none would be the number, are successful when you're all young and rebuilding is because everyone is pretty much equal. So that's the tough part in your locker room in those situations.
Last year and the year before that were very difficult because everyone is equal. It's tough to sell to a guy, why is he playing and not me, and we're still losing, where this year is pretty easy. You look at our record, who can complain in our locker room. Everybody kind of -- when you bring in Kevin, Paul and Ray, roles are pretty much filled out with these. Now, you've got to get everybody to buy into the same boat and no individual agendas, but the more talent you have, it does become a little bit easier as far as guys accepting their rotation and their roles, where with young guys, you see it league-wide, and it never changes; it's almost impossible.

Q. Speaking of fools or others, you know, some think Flip Saunders might be in trouble if the Pistons don't get out of this series, and I know you don't necessarily have sympathy for him, but can you just talk about the coaching job he's done in this series and over his three years in Detroit?
COACH RIVERS: Yeah, I think he's a great coach. I think he's one of the best coaches in our league. I haven't heard that talk. Honestly I haven't read much or looked at much, so I didn't know that was even out there. But that would be a shame; that's all I can say. I'm just going to focus on me and our job right now, so I'm not thinking about that, to be honest. But I can speak for Flip as a coach all day.

Q. You're playing on the road for Game 6 and at home for Game 7. Do you feel like you've been here before?
COACH RIVERS: Yeah, we have. We have a chance to end it. But you know, we're playing good teams, and good teams in their place, and they're tough to play. We just have to come in and have great focus and play. We can't worry about if we win or if we lose. We have to just focus on the game and just stay there.

Q. Related to an earlier question about coaches, the Lapchick study just came out today and it indicated -- it gave the NBA some laudable marks for its diversity with 12 coaches in the league, but now you've seen some of that eroded a bit where there's only nine African-American coaches after the loss of Avery Johnson and Isiah obviously have lost their jobs. How do you feel about the marks that the NBA has gotten in terms of its diversity?
COACH RIVERS: I think they've been terrific. I've always said since I've been in the league as a player, when you want to win, color doesn't really come into play. I think our league understands that as much as anything. We have GMs, we have minority owners, in ownership groups, coaches, obviously assistant coaches. I just think through the league office, I just think it's been great, and not only about blacks but with women, as well. I just think our league has done a terrific job of hiring the best person, and I think that's what we have to continue to do.

Q. You guys have -- like last year you have the lead and have stopped doing your stuff in the fourth quarter. How do you deal with that? Again, you've got a lead going into Game 6 for the third time.
COACH RIVERS: Well, you just keep talking about it. You keep showing them on film what we did right and what we did wrong, and then you try to correct it. But you've been around the game long enough. It comes down to mentality. You can't hold onto a game. You have to secure it and go get it. That's basically what I was saying in a time-out. We can't wait and think that the time is going to expire. We have to go play. We have to play through the game. When you get a 10-point lead, you can't have the mentality of thinking, let's win by ten. You've got to think if we've got it to 10, we can get it to 20 and let's get it there. That's how we've play, and I don't think we've done it twice already in this series.
Give them credit; they've pressured, they've trapped, and we've succumbed to it a little bit. We have to be stronger with the ball and make better decisions.

Q. Last night you went -- you said after the game that -- you told Rajon Rondo he wasn't coming out somewhere to a game in the Cleveland series, Kendrick played about 40 minutes. Are we late enough in the season where you can go to the well on that a few times, or is that something you can do once and then you have to ease up on it?
COACH RIVERS: No, you can do it more in the playoffs obviously because you have the day in between of rest and you're not really going hard in practices now, it's more adjustments. So you clearly can do it.
As I told you before, the only guy I really have concern doing it multiple times would be Kevin because the energy level that he plays at. Other than that, I think any of our other guys can handle it. Kevin would be the one guy that if I did it two games in a row, I would be concerned.

Q. Just wondering, I know you guys have been showing them film from Muhammad Ali fights and the theme is "Keep going forward." Does that relate at all to these fourth quarters, where you guys are kind of like maybe being a little tentative or cautious, as you said, and is this what you'd like to see them do, keep going, straight ahead?
COACH RIVERS: Yeah, it's related to the fourth quarters but it's more just related to us as a group and as a team, and the mental mindset actually that you have to have in the playoffs. You're obviously going to hit some in the playoffs, but you're going to get hit and you're going to get hit hard, and the key is how many times can you get hit and still move forward. That's basically the real theme of it is how many times can you get hit and keep moving forward, and that's what champions are made of and that's what we talk about.

Q. Just following up, have you showed them a Hagler or Hearns fight?
COACH RIVERS: No, because they quit too early. It was three rounds (laughing).

Q. But they were haymakers?
COACH RIVERS: Yeah, they were haymakers.
I think the best one for me obviously, and guys who know me know I love fights and I love Ali, is the Forman fight where he took the punishment for eight rounds and then got off the ropes obviously. And then the Thrilla in Manila, you don't even have to use words. Just show the fight. That to me is the greatest fight of all time, where two men basically took a brutal punishment, and Ali was the guy who stood up, and that's why he was the greatest champ.
That's my preview for the day, guys. Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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