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NBA FINALS: CELTIC v LAKERSJune 10, 2010Doc RiversBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Four Q. At this point of the season you know there's at most four games left. Is this like the end of baseball season, pitching out of the bullpen, people get stretched out as much as they possibly can because one way or the other the end is coming up in a week? DOC RIVERS: Yeah, it's somewhat like that. In this game you can do it more because there's days off. But after this game, you really can't afford to do that anymore, even though there will be only three games or two or whatever. You have to be careful because if you use all your guys and then there's a day off and play, then you don't have anything for the next game, at least with our team. We have to be very careful with how we manage our minutes. Q. Can you talk a little about Clifford Ray's role with your team and his impact on your big guys. DOC RIVERS: Well, he's terrific. He was with me in Orlando for my first couple years, maybe first three years, and then I brought him here because we had so many young bigs when I first took the job, Al Jefferson being one and Perk. But he's not only good with the young guys, I think he's a good voice for the veterans, as well, a good guy to bounce things off of. So yeah, he's been absolutely fantastic, works tirelessly, and that's what you want him to do. Q. I've heard it said that he was one of the best ever in terms of pick-and-roll. Has he been able to contribute that way to your team? DOC RIVERS: Yeah, especially just teaching the bigs rolling and pick angles and then defensively the same thing, getting lower on defense. So he's biased, he loves his bigs. He's the guy in my ear on every possession. Ray Allen could make ten shots in a row and you could hear Clifford Ray saying, "Get it to the bigs!" on the next possession. That's why you love him, though, because he believes in his bigs. Q. Can you just describe what would be a good start for you today? DOC RIVERS: I don't know what a good start is. I thought we had a good start the other night. I think everybody wants a good finish. A good start is nice, and we proved that the other night, but a good finish is more important. You can tell certain things with the start of games, whether it could be a score discrepancy, that doesn't matter. But you can tell when your team's focused on the game plan early. For me that's what I look for. Q. Are you worried at all about Rasheed's back? DOC RIVERS: No, he's fine. Rasheed is going to be fine. He's feeling a lot better today. We can't worry about it anyway. He'll be fine. Q. That was actually my question on Rasheed's back. How much has his back affected anything you guys have had to do in terms of minutes or rotation? DOC RIVERS: Just the minute part of it. It's not as much his back anymore, it's his conditioning. The two weeks or three weeks of literally just playing in games, they catch up to you conditioning-wise. But I think over the last four or five days he's been running every day, ran yesterday, just trying to get his wind back to sustain it more. Rasheed is going to be fine. We anticipate playing him a little bit more tonight for sure. Q. With Andrew Bynum's knee concern, are you expecting to see Lamar Odom more tonight? And if you see Bynum are you going to attack him more knowing that he is -- DOC RIVERS: No, we're just going to play. I think the reason you saw Lamar Odom the other night is because he was playing well, and I think it's who's playing better. Same thing with us, with Perk and Baby and Rasheed. There's no difference with them. It's clear when Odom is playing well, they tend to like to finish the game with Odom and Gasol on the floor because it spreads the other team's defense. They like doing that. Having said that, if Odom is struggling then Bynum will be on the floor. And that's basically what they're doing. Q. You guys have played good defense on Kobe. Just what have you liked about the way you guys have defended him these first three games? DOC RIVERS: Well, I thought Game 3 he took some tough shots. You know, I don't know if it was us or him. I thought he saw the importance of the game, and he was trying to push his team forward, and when he does that, at times he takes tough shots. But he also makes a lot of them, and in that game he didn't. We're trying our darndest to keep him out of the paint, and when he gets to the paint not foul him, make him make shots. We didn't do a good job in I think it was Game 1 or 2 of that. We did a pretty good job the other night. End of FastScripts |
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