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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v MAGIC

May 22, 2010

Doc Rivers

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Three

Boston Celtics 94
Orlando Magic 71

Q. Doc, just talk about the energy, the effort that your team came out with and the way they were able to sustain it throughout the night.
DOC RIVERS: It was that. I mean, we had two good days of practice, but the focus and energy they came out to start the game with, when you come out with that type -- with both, it's tough to get beat, at least in that quarter. And the fact they were able to sustain it was terrific. So hats off to them.

Q. Doc, what was the most impressive aspect of the defensive performance for you? Was it forcing turnovers, the rebounding? If you can put your finger on one thing tonight.
DOC RIVERS: I just thought the rotations. The multiple efforts. Orlando is such a good team as far as stretching the floor. And to be able to stop one action and then get back out to another action, and that's what they do, it takes an amazing amount of effort. We say multiple effort. Because you have to bump and then get back out. Our guys did that. So to me that's what stood out.
It's not a glamour thing. You don't really see it. But the coaching staff sees it. And it's huge.

Q. Doc, I know that Rondo is still getting better, but is he starting to do things that you've never seen before?
DOC RIVERS: Well, listen, what he's doing is he's leading the team. He's playing with great focus. He has a great sense of what to call offensively. Some are called and some are his calls. And now he's giving an amazing effort to the loose ball, to plays like that that he's making. Never giving up on any possession. When you have that speed and then you have that heart, you become a pretty good player.

Q. Doc, in addition to winning the game, do you feel like you broke their spirit a little tonight?
DOC RIVERS: No. It's the spirit in doing the game for a stretch. Overall they're going to come back in the next game and they're going to give us their best shot. So I don't see that. I think it happens during games at times and maybe for moments, but they're a competitive group. And we know that. Quite honestly, we're not good enough to let up. I can tell you that. And they're good enough to get it going. And so we have to be very conscious of that.

Q. Doc, what you've seen from the Cleveland series into this series with your group right now, does your team look every bit as dominant as it did in '08 when you guys were rolling to the playoffs? Does it look a lot the same to you?
DOC RIVERS: I don't know. I've been asked that a couple of times. I try to stay away from it. We haven't scratched what we did in '08. We won some playoff games as far as I'm concerned. Our defense is starting to pick up like that. I can tell you that. And that's good. Because we've talked about it all year. We are a defensive team. I don't care -- we were really good today in the first three quarters offensively, but at the end of the day we are a defensive team. When everybody buys into it, we become that. But the '08, I try to keep it as separate as I can.

Q. Doc, obviously a lot of Celtics played well tonight. Can you talk about how Big Baby seems to play big in the big games.
DOC RIVERS: Well, I hope he continues to. He does. He's comfortable in big games for whatever reason. You know, who knows why. But we know that, and we like it. He's not in awe of the moment at all. And he's been great off the bench for us. He's ready to come in if Perk or Kevin gets in foul trouble. We're asking him to guard all kinds of positions. Guarding Dwight Howard and then going out and guarding Rashard Lewis in the same game is very difficult, and he's doing both. He's been great for us.

Q. Doc, you were worried about just kind of keeping them in a little vacuum away from all the distractions. It seemed like there were more distractions in this layoff than last time. Talk about the focus and the response.
DOC RIVERS: We learned a pretty good lesson the last time; we lost by 1,000 to Cleveland. So, you know, it wasn't hard to get them to at least see that. That doesn't mean they weren't going to come out and play well. I thought they all talked about it, we talked about it on the first day of practice when we got back, what happened. So still, like I said, it doesn't guarantee anything. But we did have a pretty good working model on what not to do. I thought we did it. Now we have to do it again. We have to resist the temptation of looking forward and we have to play. We have to win a game here. It still means you have to win four games to win a series.

Q. Doc, you mentioned that Rondo loose-ball play. Did you sense any kind of bump in energy from that play? Any guys talking about that?
DOC RIVERS: If that doesn't give your whole team energy, nothing will. I don't know if it bumped our energy; we were pretty high at the time. I didn't think he could get to it. It was him and Jason Williams. He's thinking, I got a chance with my speed. But it was just an unbelievable play.
I don't think Jason Williams thought he could get to it, honestly. That's probably why he got it. I don't know how he got it. It was a great play. I think it's great for our whole team to see that.

Q. Doc, Dwight had 30 in the last game. What did you guys do or was it just a product of your overall defense against their offense?
DOC RIVERS: We didn't make any changes. Our guys just did a better job of digging I thought. We did get burned a couple of times trying to dig down on Dwight. He found Jameer and someone else, J.J., for a three. We didn't like that. But really Perk and Rasheed and Baby, they're doing a heck of a job. They're taking a lot of hits under there. Dwight is a load. And we told them that it's not going to be easy. It's going to be hard. If you're willing to do the hard, then you have a chance.

Q. You mentioned the Rondo play, a couple of other plays. What is it about this team now, the mix, the timing that you're getting that kind of effort out of guys on those 50/50 plays?
DOC RIVERS: I don't know. The regular season is long and it's tough to see anything when you talk about a big picture and they're thinking we have 50 games left and all that. I think this being an older group in a lot of ways, it's probably easier for me to get their focus in the playoffs. You know, the goal is right in front of them. So I think, you know, it allows them to bond together. But our overall chemistry is phenomenal. We just got to keep that.

Q. Doc, your offense, you guys don't need one single guy to go off to be successful. How much of a luxury is that and how much of a pain is it do you think for other coaches to try to defend that?
DOC RIVERS: As long as we trust it, you know. We have single guys that could go off, but I've never found that to be an effective way to play offense. I think it's very predictable. When our guys get the trust -- we had a possession in the game tonight in the second quarter where the play broke down and I think Kevin Eastman who counts the passes, I think we had eight passes with no dribble, and Kevin ended up with the shot. I mean, that's just unselfish basketball. We keep talking about let the ball find the open guy. You don't have to find it yourself. The only guy we want dribbling it eight times is Rondo. Other than that, we want ball movement.
So I think they trust each other. That's good. Thanks, guys.

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