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NBA FINALS: CELTIC v LAKERS

June 6, 2010

Doc Rivers

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Two

Boston Celtics 103
Los Angeles Lakers 94

Q. Talk about Ray. He was just so hot, and Rajon, doing what they do, also.
DOC RIVERS: They both were terrific. Ray in the first half when he gets into those zones, I was happy. Our team could see it and you could see they were doing everything they could to find him. They got him open. I thought most of them for us was in transition, though. We talked about it after Game 1. The only way to be able to hit Rondo in transition, we had to get multiple misses, multiple stops. And if we did that, our bigs ran, we though we could get our shooters open.
Rondo did a terrific job of finding him. He saved us in the first half with Kevin in foul trouble, Paul struggling. We needed points and Ray gave them to us.

Q. When a guy has a first half like that, like Ray did, do you want him coming out in the third quarter and shooting the minute he steps out of the locker room? Did he do a good job of not forcing it in the third quarter.
DOC RIVERS: They did a better job of guarding No. 1, and to start the third quarter they were scoring. By them scoring we were not running anymore and we couldn't get them in transition anymore, and the multiple stops, that's what we're talking about. We wanted to establish Ray and Paul coming out of halftime. You know, we got into that same pace the first six minutes of the third quarter that we were in in Game 1. They were scoring every time, we were turning the ball over, we were walking the ball up the floor, and we lost our tempo.

Q. Just talk about the turnovers, 12 in the first half, two in the second half.
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, well, the last couple were brutal. We had a chance to go up, be up nine or 12 to end the half. But we weathered that storm, and I thought in the second half we played with great composure because you knew they were going to make a run, and they did. They made several of them. For us to weather that storm with guys in foul trouble, we had to use every big. I'm just really proud of all of them.
I thought the seven minutes or six minutes that Nate Robinson played for us was huge. Rondo was exhausted. We needed offense. Ray was exhausted in that period, in that stretch, and we put Nate in and just one pick-and-roll and he scored, and he created scoring, so that was big for us.

Q. Talk about just managing the game, particularly when there was a time-out called. How big was that?
DOC RIVERS: I guess it was big. We had one second left. You know, I'm glad they saw me. I don't think they had a choice but to see me. I was past them. (Laughter).
The guys got a kick out of that. You know, it was funny, as big as that little moment was. I actually thought that the bigger moment was all the players were laughing at me and it allowed them to breathe a little bit, and I thought that helped us.
The execution out of that was terrific, though. We spread the floor and we told the guys, move the floor, they'll double, and if we keep moving we may find a lay-up, and we got one. So I was just proud of the execution.

Q. On that time-out play had you looked at calling a second time-out?
DOC RIVERS: Yeah. What we were doing was going to count to 4, and if Rondo didn't think that he could get it in, we were going to call another time-out and advance the ball. But I wanted to see if I could get it in first so I could save the time-out. I thought I may need it.

Q. You mentioned Nate's play in the fourth quarter but also the reserves in the third quarter when you guys got in foul trouble --
DOC RIVERS: The bench was huge, all of them. We were in foul trouble two games in a row now, and our bigs -- Kevin, really he only played six minutes in the first half, and the fact that we had a lead was huge for us. The rhythm for us offensively is tough when all your bigs are in foul trouble. We have a certain rotation that we want our bigs to play, and obviously it was blown up within four minutes of the game because of fouls.
I thought Rasheed was huge. You could see him struggling with the back, but he gave us as much as he could give. And Baby was huge.
Yeah, the bench was terrific.

Q. Rajon got so much publicity, that big number triple-double against Cleveland, but has he ever for you done more different things to help win a game as he did tonight?
DOC RIVERS: No, tonight was unbelievable. He made the big shot. He made the elbow shot. I'm thinking Mark Price is somewhere celebrating. He took a million of those shots this summer, and he didn't hesitate, and that was my favorite play for him.
He just did a lot of things, the blocked shots, the steals. He's our quarterback, and he does a lot of stuff for us. He was special tonight.

Q. What's it like watching just the purity of Ray's shot go in?
DOC RIVERS: Well, it makes me a better coach, I can tell you that. (Laughter).
And when you draw up these plays and he makes them, you feel a lot smarter. He's a perfectionist. If you watched him yesterday and the last two days, he took a million shots. It's no coincidence that the great shooters are great shooters; they work on it more. You look on the TV early in the game, you see Kobe before everybody is out there shooting. Ray shows up three hours before every game, he's out there shooting. There's a reason they can shoot. He believes in it and we believe in it.

Q. I don't know if you saw the record, but eight is the record. Better than MJ's six in the first half and Scottie's seven.
DOC RIVERS: Well, I didn't know that. We needed every one of them. I can tell you that. It's amazing when you think about we had a player that had 27 points in the first half and we were only up six. That's how close the series is going to be.

Q. Can you talk about just what the Lakers are doing defensively. They have Kobe on Rajon and putting a smaller guy, Derek, on Ray. Is that helping Ray out?
DOC RIVERS: We were talking about it. Teams have done it all year, so it's nothing new putting a big guy on Rondo and a smaller guy on Ray, and every time we do that we feel we can give Ray shots, and that's what happened. Obviously it's a lot better when he's on the floor. Ray couldn't play the last game. He was in foul trouble the entire game. Tonight he was able to play. He stayed in his rhythm, and we got him great shots.

Q. I don't know if you saw the little smirk he had after he hit one of them. Is that about as hot as you have seen him?
DOC RIVERS: I have not seen him much warmer than tonight.

Q. Even if the Lakers were dominating inside, do you plan to change something in Game 3 the way you played Gasol and Bynum, the way you played defensively against those guys?
DOC RIVERS: We're good. We're going to keep it the way we kept it. If we don't turn the ball over in the first half and give up some offensive rebounds. I mean, they shot 40 percent, 41 percent. We'll take that every night.

Q. With Kobe playing so much in foul trouble, does he become a player to attack offensively whether he's Kobe or anybody else?
DOC RIVERS: Well, as long as it's in rhythm, that's what we kept saying. I could hear my players talking about it when we were in the time-out. I kept saying, guys, stay within the rhythm of your offense. I believe when teams try to get that sixth foul, they lose the rhythm, the ball stops moving and you usually don't score or get the foul. We would have loved to have got his sixth foul, but we were not going to do it out of the rhythm of our offense. We would have loved to have fouled him or attacked him, but we were fine with that.

Q. Do you feel there's any trend or a key trend when a star player has five fouls in an important game? Are the prospects of him fouling out, greater than usual?
DOC RIVERS: I'm going to just let you say that. Whatever you think. That's the way I'm going to end that one --

End of FastScripts

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