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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v MAGIC

May 16, 2010

Doc Rivers

ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Game One

Boston Celtics 92
Orlando Magic 88

Q. Doc, just your overall thoughts on coming here and getting first victory in the series?
DOC RIVERS: Great, obviously. I thought defensively in the first half especially we were terrific. Did a lot of good things. I warned them at halftime, you know, I think, I might be wrong in the numbers, they might had two or three threes in the first quarter. They had eight in the second quarter. That's not a good sign for us because they didn't make them but they got them. Eventually they would make them. That was a concern.
I thought the overall defense, really from both teams, it was a defensive game. We like those. That was good for us.

Q. Doc, talk about the job that Kendrick did but also the job Rasheed did coming in on Dwight Howard.
DOC RIVERS: Kendrick, Rasheed and Baby. I thought all three -- Dwight Howard is not going to be -- one, two, three, maybe four guys at the end of the day that has to guard him. And we were leaving him on the island. So that's very difficult. The one time we trapped, if you noticed, they got a three. That was not a trap we were supposed to do. But we did. And they make it. They hurt you so well with their passing. And so when you have enough bigs that can just try to stay in there and take the pounding, it's a good thing.
But all of them were great. Rasheed was phenomenal defensively tonight. He's been good in the series, in the playoffs for us. And that's what we wanted from him when we signed him.

Q. Doc, could you talk about your ball movement tonight. Particularly the way Ray Allen was able to kind of get going early and keep it throughout the game?
DOC RIVERS: Well, you know, I heard Stan say the same thing: When you have two good defensive teams, you're not going to win off the dribble. You're not going to win dancing with the ball. You're going to win with ball movement. I thought we came out the first quarter and the ball movement was as good as it can get. Then from there I thought we played in spurts with it. I thought the run they made in the fourth quarter because we got away from ball movement. We got into the old iso, hold the ball, wait, and they just load up too well. So the trust thing in the past will be the key to the series for us. And probably for them as well.

Q. Doc, how essential is it you taking Dwight Howard out of the game offensively to you winning?
DOC RIVERS: Well, you know, guys, and I said this earlier, I think Dwight is mislabeled. He doesn't have to score to create offense. And I think everyone keeps looking at Dwight's numbers and they say he has four or six points, that he didn't have an offensive impact. But the reason he has an offensive impact is because he draws so much help. You have to double-team him. He gets offensive rebounds and he throws them back out for threes. So we did a good job as far as his scoring numbers.
But I thought we could do a better job, quite honestly, in helping on Dwight in getting back. They did get some looks that we can't -- that we have to do a better job. You know, you think about the J.J. Redick drives, those are all Dwight Howard-generated. No one wants to leave Dwight allowing their guards to get all the way to the basket. That that's what I mean we have to do a better job. They scored 30 points in the fourth quarter. I thought it was mostly Dwight-generated.

Q. Doc, how have you been able to get your defensive rotation so tight in the playoffs after such a difficult time just getting your players on the floor together over the course of the regular season? How big an achievement is it that you think your defense is just playing so tight as a team after all you've been through during the season?
DOC RIVERS: Well, we are old. So I think a lot of our guys during the regular season with the injuries and stuff, very difficult. You know, the guys -- you've been around and covered us, it's tough to work on your defense when you don't have a lot of practice. And it's tough to work on your defense when you don't have eight guys to practice a lot of times during this regular season. Everybody's healthy. Everybody's focused. Everybody everyone's listening and everyone is buying into the defensive schemes. When you get that, with the health, you have a chance.
Quite honestly, so far in these playoffs with the days off and the rest and the games in between where you can prepare, it's allowed us to prepare defensively. We had it in us. We did it the first 28 games of the year. We were terrific out of the gates defensively. And then we got away from it. I honestly say we lost ourselves during that stretch. And now we're finding ourselves again.

Q. Doc, for whatever ups and downs you had with Rasheed during the season, the validation of why you brought him in is for the playoffs and you're seeing that now.
DOC RIVERS: No doubt. Because of the ups and downs you had to remind yourself of that. Everyone else was reminding me of what he wasn't doing. One thing I'll say about Rasheed and he said it throughout, "Doesn't matter what I do during the regular season I will be judged for what I do in the playoffs." I didn't want him to take that literally throughout the season.
But he's been terrific. He's a knowledgeable big who has a lot of game. I thought today defensively he did some old tricks that were just terrific.

Q. Doc, could the factor of rust be overstated in the postseason? It's not just they hadn't played in a week, they really haven't been challenged much a whole lot lately. Is that something you guys looked to exploit?
DOC RIVERS: No, we didn't talk about it at all honestly. If it was going to be there, it was going to be there. There's nothing we can do about it. I thought that may have hurt them in the first quarter with some of the shots. They'll be better Tuesday. We know that for sure. I don't know what the days were, I think one of our guys said they played eight games and they've had 21 or 22 off. That's a lot. I will tell you in our case, I would take it. You know? But I don't know if that hurts you or helps you. You can't judge it.

Q. Doc, can you talk about that three-shot foul that Paul got in the third quarter and in general how crafty he is to get that shot up.
DOC RIVERS: It's only a great player move. LeBron got two of them in the last series against us. Vince does it as well. I don't know how they do it. They hear the whistle and simultaneously they have the athleticism to grab the ball and throw it before you -- you know, the rule is it has to touch the floor. I jokingly told one of our guys, I don't think there's 15 guys in the league that can do that. But unfortunately Vince is one, Paul is one, LeBron is one.
It really is an amazing play. The instincts to do that is terrific. And it got us three shots.

Q. They haven't lost in a month and a half. 14 straight games. Does it help you guys that they don't have that feeling of invincibility anymore?
DOC RIVERS: It can't hurt us, but it might help them too. I'll say that. Because I know us, if we had won that many in a row, anybody who covered our team, we haven't handled that well at all. So I've already talked about for our case, you know, Game 2 is just another one game. And for them obviously it's more of a sense of urgency.

Q. Doc, just to follow-up on Dwight Howard: Granted he does give his team more than just points. Did you sense his frustration level starting to mount when he wasn't getting his points early on?
DOC RIVERS: Not really. Wasn't focused on it, to be honest. If it was there, I didn't see it. I hope to see it on film. That would be great. But I didn't see that. You know, he does his job. He really does. He knows that he can score. But he also knows he has to create scoring. So I don't think it's a factor for him.

Q. Were you happy with the hands, with the deflections and the slapping and stuff?
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, big for us. Because of their pick-and-roll game, I think that is one of the underlying keys for us defensively is the deflections and active hands. I don't know if you saw early in the game, I think it was whoever got a shot, the whole team came down with their hands up because no one had their hands up. They were trying to remind themselves. So that was good. That's good.
Thanks, guys.

End of FastScripts

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