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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v MAGICMay 23, 2010Doc RiversBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Practice Day DOC RIVERS: Last night was great. The energy and the focus, the execution on both ends. We started offensively, and the ball moved. We scored. As I told them, last night is gone. Today is today. And we have to get back to film and preparation for Game 4. And we've got to try to keep the same focus that we had in Game 3. You have to expect their best. (Indiscernible) They may establish that, and they are not going to go quietly. That's what we're trying to relate to all the guys. Q. (Indiscernible)? DOC RIVERS: It is. You have to win it. You have to win a fourth game. And we haven't done that yet. So we just have to be prepared. Q. (Indiscernible) DOC RIVERS: I think that's always whenever you lose a game, you go back and you know you have to say something. We've been there too. And we know when we lost to Miami in the one game and to the Cavs a couple of games, it is -- it comes down to focus and all the little things. So, no, I'm not surprised by that talk. But also know that that's in that game and that's one single game. We can't hang our hats on that. Q. (Indiscernible)? DOC RIVERS: (Indiscernible) it's what wins games. You know, we talk about it all the time. If you look at all the wins anytime in any sport, it doesn't come down to the gaudy things. It comes down to all the little effort plays. Q. (Indiscernible)? DOC RIVERS: It should be. I know you guys will make it. So I don't even have to worry about that. The greatest part and probably the toughest part about playing sports or coaching sports in Boston is the history. Everyone is going to remind you of the good history and everyone is going to remind you of the bad history. And so in some ways it can be a benefit for us. Q. (Indiscernible)Do you have to again remind them it doesn't matter? DOC RIVERS: No, it doesn't matter. The history stuff, all that number stuff, we should go jump Elias Sports Bureau for throwing all that stuff out. Because every time now a series goes 2-0 or 2-1 or 3-1, you hear all these stats. I guarantee whoever that coach is, he's cussing at the TV. Because there's nothing you can do about that. It is what it is in the numbers. You still have to play the game. Q. In February, March and even early April, did you think this team would play the way it it is now? DOC RIVERS: I hoped. We did early. I kept saying during February and March that we were 23-5 to start the season. We had the best record in the NBA for that short time. And then we let it go. But there was a reason why we let it go. Now we are healthy and we're playing better. But like we told them today, we're better. We can still be better. Q. What happened back then -- DOC RIVERS: We had injuries. It wasn't that hard. The injuries started it. After that, from injuries the road and all that stuff, and we lost -- we kind of lost our rhythm. We talked about that. Q. Is that the reason for the recent winning at home during, and during the regular season (Indiscernible)? DOC RIVERS: Let's hope. We hopefully have solved that problem during the playoffs. I think we've lost one game at home. It was an awful one. And, again, it was due lack of focus and taking our eye off of what we should be doing. Let's hope we've learned. Q. What was -- how do you lose your focus -- DOC RIVERS: I'm just saying in the one game in the playoffs. During the regular season, I don't know what happened. Obviously if I did, I would have hopefully been able to fix it. We absolutely didn't have it. We were too comfortable. And this team has shown whenever we get comfortable we're not very good. It's funny, we're an older team. And a lot of older teams can play at that comfort level. We're for whatever reason not one of them. We're an older team that we have to have our edge. Q. Doesn't it surprise you with the practices and the shoot-arounds and (Indiscernible) night in and night out have been able to maintain that -- DOC RIVERS: Well, I don't know if I'm surprised. I'm happy about that. We've identified that as the level we can play. Again, you can see the Lakers and you can see even Orlando at times, they have the ability to win games, when comfortable. We just aren't that team. I don't know why we're not. I wish we actually were, but we're not. We have to have an unbelievable focus as a group to play well. Q. Where does that start? DOC RIVERS: Preparation is key for us. Q. Are you surprised it's been so relatively easy in this series, that you guys are playing that well? DOC RIVERS: We're playing well, Mike. There's no doubt about it. It hasn't been easy. Game 1 and Game 2 was hard. We had leads and we got out to good starts. But it came down to single possession games. When a ball bounces one way or another, all of a sudden it's different. We know that. We told them when you look at this series, after tomorrow they have more games than us. We have to keep our focus. Q. (Indiscernible)? DOC RIVERS: We're playing well. We're playing well. We're playing as a group. There's a lot of individual defenders on our team. Rondo can be terrific. Kevin and Perk. But the reason we're playing well is as a group we're doing it together. We're doing it in a system. And it's funny -- and we reminded them today already how good Orlando is -- we made three mistakes on our traps. All three were threes they made. They beat you every time you make a mistake. And we just can't afford to make them. Q. Is your defense better now than it was during the regular season? A. It had to be. During the regular season teams were scoring 110. I think we went on that stretch -- and I don't remember it, I'm sure someone here does -- Q. Elias. DOC RIVERS: Elias does. Six or seven games in a row plus 100 scored on us. Was it eight? Thank you. We clearly are different than that. Q. Can you talk about your bench in this series. DOC RIVERS: Our bench has been great. I think Orlando has one of the best, if not the best, bench in the league. Our bench has stood up. We're not as deep. We don't go very deep. But the guys that have been out there have been phenomenal. Glen Davis and Rasheed, particularly, yesterday were terrific. Q. (Indiscernible)? DOC RIVERS: Well, we haven't finished. We have a lot of film to watch, to say the least. I think our rotations defensively, we have to stay focused on that. Q. Do you think it's easier to game plan against a team that has first-team all-star LeBron James or Dwight Howard, or against the Celts, who have such balance? DOC RIVERS: I don't know that because I don't have to game plan against us. We do try to make a point of making it so balanced that you just can't focus on one area. Cleveland, you can see they clearly focused on Paul and we could go somewhere else. Each series each team, it seems, focuses on that one guy. Early in the series I think it was Paul again. But it got loose. I just think for us that's what we have to do. Q. Have you seen a transition in the level of respect for Rondo throughout the season? DOC RIVERS: Yeah, I guess. I think it's been all year with Rondo, though. I think he's played well all year. I just think we haven't played well as a team. So nobody really focused on Rondo or our team. I kind of agree with them not focusing on us. It's good to see him get his due. He's worked on it and he's earned it. End of FastScripts |
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