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NBA FINALS: CELTIC v LAKERS

June 15, 2010

Doc Rivers

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Six

Boston Celtics 67
Los Angeles Lakers 89

Q. Just how surprised were you by your team's performance tonight?
DOC RIVERS: Oh, very. I thought we would play better, obviously. I thought they were ready. I just thought the Lakers played harder, better. They executed, they trusted more. I thought we played an individual game tonight, really on both ends. You know, they jumped on us with 50-whatever points in the first half, so we never had a chance to get into transition to get Rondo going, which I thought hurt him. And we never gave ourselves an opportunity offensively because we didn't trust tonight. Everybody was trying to make their own plays.
You know, when we've done that this year, we've lost games. We've been blown out in some of those games, and if you do that against a team like the Lakers and a team like the Lakers who are really ready to play and play desperate, you're going to lose, and I thought we did that.
I was really disappointed with our defense in the first half because I just thought everything they did was harder than us. So that was tough.

Q. And do you think Kendrick will be able to play in the next game? What's the story with him?
DOC RIVERS: I don't know. It doesn't look great, but I don't know.

Q. Is it his knee, is that it?
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, I'm not even sure. I know it's his knee, but I don't know what it is.

Q. Are you and your team somewhat shellshocked because you trailed for most of the contest?
DOC RIVERS: No, we had enough time to get over it, you know, because it was all game. Probably the first quarter or by the middle of the third I thought we were pretty good, at least I was. I was already thinking next game, honestly.
But I was disappointed. I just thought we'd play better, and we didn't, and it happens. You know, listen, our play has allowed us to have a Game 7, as well.

Q. Talk about going into a Game 7. You've coached them before. This is Phil's first. Talk about what to expect on Thursday night.
DOC RIVERS: Well, I'm hoping both teams play great and the best team wins, and I'm hoping that's us. The effort is going to be great by both teams. It's really going to come down to the trust, it's going to come down to the execution. You know, one team will do that and one team will question it at some point in the game. We'll see.

Q. At this point in the year after the way things have gone all year, are you kind of resigned to the fact that whatever you get out of the season it's going to be the hard way?
DOC RIVERS: Well, we've done it that way. I wasn't resigned to that fact before the game, now I have no choice, if you know what I'm saying. It's like someone asked me that before the game. It's going to be hard for both teams, really.
Before the year I'm sure if you had asked the Lakers would they take a Game 7 at home, they would say yeah. They would have taken a Game 7 anywhere for the championship. And we would have said yeah, as well. We would have obviously loved it at home more, but we're not there. So you know, we're both probably in a game that we'd like to be in. If you told the teams that that's where you had to be, I think we'd both take it.

Q. Do you ever allow yourself to expect what's going to happen or what your team is going to give you on a night-to-night basis?
DOC RIVERS: No, but we've been pretty consistent through the playoffs. We haven't had many clunkers. We had the one at home against Cleveland. Other than that we've been pretty good.
You know, it happens. We have a day and a half to get over it and get ready for Game 7.

Q. How do things change without Kendrick in the game?
DOC RIVERS: Well, another body. No size. Honestly tonight it wouldn't have mattered the way things were going, but it would have been nice to have him on the floor. He's one of our guys that I think gives us great spirit, gives us a lot of toughness and gives us size. You know, I hope he can play. It would be tough if he can't. Somebody else is just going to have to step forward.

Q. He's one of the guys who does a lot of rebounding for you --
DOC RIVERS: He's a guy that cleans the paint up, let's say, and not having him there made the Lakers awful long. It also I thought allowed them to rest Bynum even more in the game.

Q. How much did not rebounding hurt you guys tonight?
DOC RIVERS: Well, there's such a long laundry list, but rebounding was number one. I just thought the 50/50 game at halftime, I think it was 18 to 3. I don't care who you're playing, 18 to 3 in the 50/50 game, on the road, you have no chance to win that game.

Q. What are some of the ways that you do start coaching for the next game, apart from substitutions? Are you almost trying to set guys up to keep them involved?
DOC RIVERS: No, in this one I wasn't. I was more concerned about injury honestly, so I took Kevin right back out. There were a couple guys that I wanted to give minutes to because we may need them. Not knowing about Perk, I wanted to make sure we played Marquis and make sure we played Shelden because if Perk is not there, one of those two guys may have to play. And so I just wanted to get them as many minutes in the fourth quarter once I knew the game was decided as I could.

Q. I know this is impossible for you to address really, but the idea of a Lakers-Celtics seventh game I think is just the ultimate for fans.
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, well, I'll let you guys all enjoy that. Like I said, I'm sure we'd both take it. I'm sure it's not what we wanted, either one of us. But it is here, and it should be great. I hope we embrace it. It should be a lot of fun.

Q. You talked about it before the game and the first thing Phil said when he came out is the cross-country flight took a toll on both teams.
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, we were old tonight because we lost. If we would have won, we would have had more experience. You know how that works. I think it took a toll on both teams. I thought you could see it in the play. I thought it was ragged. I think the two extra days - tomorrow and then the game - everybody will have their legs back and be okay. At least for the Game 7, I think you're going to get both teams' best. Really that's what the fans want.

Q. There's that question of effort from the Laker fans and the readers. It didn't look like they gave the effort the last couple of games --
DOC RIVERS: That's not true.

Q. And you look at tonight with the Celtics --
DOC RIVERS: It's other things. It's never an effort thing.

Q. What is it, confusion?
DOC RIVERS: It's just mental. Sometimes you come out and you want to do well and things don't go well, and then it's not a panic word, but things don't go well and you don't react well to it. And it does look like effort. It's more frustration. When you get frustrated, you don't move as fast, you don't move as quick, you're thinking, and then it looks like effort. But it's never effort.
You know, in the regular season there are guys where guys just don't put any effort. In the playoffs, I think everybody comes to the game to play well and play hard. Things go bad for them, they get frustrated, they start walking around thinking like the other team is moving and confident and quicker. I think it's more that than anything else.

Q. How about the travel? I know both teams had to travel --
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, I think it hurt both teams. I don't think any team had an advantage, but I think it didn't help either team.

Q. If Perk is unable to go in Game 7, will you start Rasheed Wallace? And how is that going to change perhaps your outlook for the game? And also if you could talk a little bit more about the struggles that your front court had in scoring today after Perk went down.
DOC RIVERS: The whole team had struggles scoring. I haven't given that any thought yet on who we would start. It's pretty easy to figure out, it'll be one of two guys, Rasheed or Baby, but I'm not sure. We've got to get better play out of Baby, and I told him that after the game. We do. He has to come with that same spirit he came in the famous Shrek and Donkey game. We need that again, and we need that from everybody.

Q. Let's face it, there is no momentum, only the moment, and it seems you guys embraced the moments in Boston Games 4, 5 and the Lakers embraced the moment tonight, so who will embrace the moment in Game 7?
DOC RIVERS: Well, I know who I hope and I know who you hope, I can tell you that. (Laughter). I'm hoping it's us, but somebody will. And maybe both teams will and you'll get a great game.
It was too easy, I had to. (Laughter).

Q. We'll get rid of the word "effort" and we'll go to "activity" --
DOC RIVERS: They were terrific. They cut harder, they were absolutely terrific tonight. I just thought their movement, their trust -- you know, I think most people, and I will say not us, but I think most people assumed that Kobe would come out and take 1,000 shots, and I thought he did the exact opposite. I thought he came out and trusted his teammates, and every time they needed a basket in that first quarter he made one. But I thought they just showed great trust. And the more they got it going, the more everybody got involved.

Q. How surprised were you of the Lakers' bench performance tonight? They came out and --
DOC RIVERS: Well, like Phil said, I said it, too, before the game, on the road -- usually the home team's bench plays better, and they were at home, and I thought their bench guys were comfortable. Bench players are typically more comfortable at home and stars play well everywhere. There was a lot of that tonight. I thought their bench was terrific. I thought their bench gave unbelievable energy. Every single guy. I didn't think there was one guy off the bench that didn't give them great play.

Q. What about the disruptive defense of the Lakers? How much did it throw off the chemistry of your offense?
DOC RIVERS: Well, I thought their offense threw off the chemistry of our offense. Every team needs stops and multiple stops to score. I don't know, at one point it felt like they were shooting 70 percent in the first quarter and the second quarter. Everything was half court for us. You know, with the shooting we have on the floor, we need to get in the open court a little bit more. So we need to get stops.

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