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NBA FINALS: CELTIC v LAKERSJune 12, 2010Doc RiversBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Practice Day Q. Considering that you really haven't had all three guys function offensively over the first part of the series, how do you get that together? DOC RIVERS: Well, you just hope it comes together. I mean, like I said yesterday, both teams were really good defensively, and they're going to take something away from you. You know, I think the willingness of our guys, and I think it's stuck on trying to get that going and just go to the next part of it is actually more important as far as I'm concerned. You know, it would be great if all three and Rondo and everyone got it going in one game. I'd feel very good about that game if that happens. We're certainly going to try. Q. Talking to Mr. Ray about some of your big men, Sheed, one T away now, Perk one T away now. How does that affect things? DOC RIVERS: We're just going to play our game. We're not going to worried about it. If it happens, it happens. I'm hoping obviously there is no Game 7, but if it happens, let's let it happen in Game 7, then we're fine. There's no other game they can get suspended. It's really only two games they have to get through if you think about it, it's not three. Listen, I don't want them to be less emotional. I want them to play their games but also have some discipline. That's about all we can do. Q. If not Baby could just play the whole game by himself then? DOC RIVERS: Someone. It's an issue, we know that. Q. I just wanted to follow up in that Perk has actually done a pretty good job of sort of biting his tongue -- DOC RIVERS: Yeah, he's been terrific. I thought in the last game, even though they say they didn't, I thought Gasol -- I thought there was a lot of extra stuff going on. And they're right, obviously, we put ourselves in this predicament with Perk, and I thought Perk did a great job of walking away. It's clearly the new Perk. I hadn't seen that side of him. The good news and the bad news is, the good news is we know he can do it, and the bad news is now we know he can do it, we're going to expect him to be one of those type of guys. Q. Considering the sacrifices you made - you win the championship in '08, you're supposed to win because you guys were anointed the team to win with the trade - what's the significance of what you've been able to accomplish this year, not the team's significance, but for you personally? DOC RIVERS: Well, I don't know. I don't ever look -- I don't ever look at it as mine, I look at it as our staff and all the players. I just like the fact that in some ways this journey has been far different, as you know. We were counted out early after All-Star Break, and being a fourth seed, being here is nice. But I keep reminding our guys, our goal is to win it and not to get here. Just because people's perception of our team changed mid-year, ours never did. So what I take out of that is that they kept believing that, and that we were able, and I would guess I was able to continue to get them to believe that. Q. How difficult was it, because we've always had this discussion on what's more difficult, getting a team to go 41-41 like you did in Orlando and you're Coach of the Year or getting a team like the Boston Celtics to believe that they're still one of the better teams in the league? DOC RIVERS: Well, this one was more because that team was just a great group of guys, not a talented group. But to go 41-41 with that team was awesome. Still probably goes down as one of my favorite teams, if not my favorite team. But this one was far more difficult because we had such high expectations. And then we went through a lot of stuff in the second half of the year, and it was -- you had to show them a lot of positive stuff when there was a lot of negative stuff going on. The only way you're going to get anywhere, and you've been on championship teams you understand this, is a team has to really believe it. They can't think maybe. So we've done a lot of stuff as a staff to just engrain in them, just push them to it. So this was far more difficult. Q. What would you say if Fisher said he learned from you how to flop? DOC RIVERS: I would be very happy. Q. Because you never did that as a player, right? DOC RIVERS: I never flopped as a player. I was the cleanest player ever (laughter). In our generation, we all did. We were all good at it. And I do think that's part of the game. It's funny, what I was saying about Fish the other day, I said he flops, he's good at it. I think guys, they understand that, and there's certain guys who have perfected it. To be a great flopper you have to be a great charge taker, too. Do you know what I mean by that? They do both, and that's what makes it so difficult. Fish and me and John Stockton, you can go through the list, they took charges and flopped on half of them, too. It's tough. It's a tough call. He's good. Q. You've coached a variety of different teams in your career, you mentioned the upstart team in Orlando, the really young team in Boston, now the veteran laden team here. Do you have to reinvent yourself as a coach each time the personnel changes that significantly? DOC RIVERS: I don't know if you have to reinvent yourself but -- you don't change your system but you have to tweak it around what you have. You have to go into the year understanding who you have. When you have a young team, you know it's going to be longer practices, it's going to be a lot of technical teaching, and if you have veterans on that team, you know they're going to hate it because you're teaching stuff that they already know, and that's the toughest part. The years we had the four or five high school guys on the team and we're going on how to actually set a pick, and you've got Paul Pierce sitting there, like, can we move on, can we get to the next thing, and we couldn't. Where with this team, with a veteran team, you go more on continuity. You've got to get the continuity right. You've got to get them to think your way as far as how you're going to do things and do it over and over and over again. The monotony of that is boring for them, as well, but for a veteran team, you've got to teach a veteran team how to be a team, how to play together, and with a young team you've got to teach them how to play. Q. Is it more challenging to coach a team with more veterans on it? DOC RIVERS: I don't know. I think everyone has challenges. I just think everyone is different. A lot of times, guys, it's just the emotional aspect of your team. This is an emotional basketball team, so this one is just a different team in that way. It's one thing we have young guys that are emotional, it's a whole 'nother thing that we have young and old. We have the gamut on this team. It's been fun in a lot of ways with that, too. Q. You've said that you'll address your future in the off-season as you usually do. Do you give yourself a timetable for that, and then given where your kids are athletically and in school, how much different is that this year than previous years? DOC RIVERS: Well, I don't know. There's always a reason with the kids, so I don't give a timetable, number one. I just kind of get away. I know one thing you can't do is make a decision a week after a season. Whether you win or lose, you can't. You just can't. So you know, usually after Summer League is all over and a couple weeks after that, Dan and I sit down and just do what we do. So far as work, I'm still here. But the kids are always -- that's the issue each year, do you want to see -- I've got to see them play at some point. Q. When you found out first about Baby getting in the fight and then he missed the games and all that kind of stuff, were you disappointed? Did you have to be supportive, or what was the initial kind of reaction? DOC RIVERS: I think just like, you're too young, but what we all would be as parents. Of course you're disappointed. And then you have to get over that and try to teach him what he did wrong and get him to see it and the responsibility of it. Those situations are no different than what a parent would go through with their kid. You're upset at him, you're mad at him, and then you have to get over it and then you have to make him see why you're mad at him. And I think that's important. Q. Was there ever a point where you wondered whether he would turn the corner? DOC RIVERS: Well, you never know. I know he wanted to, and one thing I kept saying, he's not a bad kid. And so that always gave you hope that he would. He still has to turn corners, you know. Honestly he has to turn a corner tomorrow. Can you have a big game and then can you have another one? And that's for all of them, Nate, as well, and Tony, as well. Are you going to be a one-hit wonder? What is it going to be? And is it a corner that our bench and the young guys on the bench will have to turn? Q. You kind of put a stop to that Tony Allen is stopping Kobe Bryant talk yesterday -- DOC RIVERS: Yeah, I've been in that situation before, so I understand how that is as a player. Q. The last thing you want is a superstar hearing more doubts how they're giving him more reason to want to prove something? DOC RIVERS: Yeah, but honestly -- definitely that's one, but you also know it's a Game 5 and it's 2-2. I don't think there's anything either one of us can say that is going to rile us up any more than being in a Game 5 in The Finals tied 2-2. But yeah, Kobe is pretty competitive from what I hear, so there's no doubt that the more you talk about it, the more the target is on. But that's fine. The one thing I know about Tony, he's not going anywhere. He'll be there. End of FastScripts |
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