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NBA FINALS: CELTIC v LAKERS

June 16, 2010

Doc Rivers

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day

Q. We were just talking about the Game 7 shootout between your Hawks and the Celtics --
DOC RIVERS: That's not anything I want to talk about.

Q. My actual question, it's my experience, would it be your experience that Game 7s are ones in which the players generally show the weight of the expectations and the pressure?
DOC RIVERS: It's the ultimate players' game. The one I was in -- unfortunately I've coached in a lot of them over the last few years, or fortunately. I've always thought Game 7 is the ultimate player game. It's the game that all the things you've worked on all year, you have to do it and execute it and trust and play. You know, there's going to come a time maybe where a timeout is important and an adjustment may be important.
And Chuck Daly always said it's the make-miss game. The league is a make-miss league. But especially Game 7. It comes down to makes and misses. And on the misses, on their misses, make sure they don't get another opportunity to have a make, and that's what they come down to.

Q. You're in such an up-tempo mood today, is this the mood of your squad considering what happened last night?
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, last night happened last night, and today and tomorrow is what's in front of us. We obviously would have rather been in another place today. An airplane would have been nice. But we're not, and we're responsible for that. We accept that, and so we have to move on.

Q. You guys have had three Game 7s over the last three seasons. Kobe was saying once you go through that experience you just come out different. How has your team emerged from having all those experiences?
DOC RIVERS: Well, most of them we emerged standing, and that's the most important part of it. But listen, those games are different in the fact that I just talked about it. It really is the game where the players have to get back to remembering all the things they've worked on and then execute it. And you find out a lot about your players in those games, as well. We do have a group that a lot of the guys have been in them - Rasheed with Detroit, and our group together, Michael Finley sitting on the bench on our team, he's been through them, as well. That's one thing we do have is a lot of guys that have been in these type of games.

Q. It's the NBA, rosters change year to year, but as a core you and this group have been together pretty much three years. Is there any sense that this is kind of the last roundup tomorrow or the last time you'll all be together?
DOC RIVERS: Well, I hope not. Obviously I'm not sure. I do think, and I've said this before, that I think we're going to be better in some ways next year because Kevin will be healthier, if you know what I'm saying. It's always a year removed from surgery that you have your best year. You know, we obviously have to sign Ray. Rasheed has to come back and all that stuff. So there's a lot of variables.
But I think we should always view it that way, I'll put it that way. You know, you can never take for granted a season, a game, and especially a Game 7 of a Finals. You never know if and when you're going to be back in that position. And so when you get in that position, you want to take advantage of it.

Q. As much as it's obviously about the whole team, it seems like whenever you guys have looked really bad this postseason, Rondo comes back the next game and does something pretty spectacular. Do you need him to be great tomorrow?
DOC RIVERS: I just need him to be him. I don't need anyone to be great. Obviously Rondo is important to our team. First half we really just couldn't get any pace in the game because they just dominated the game so thoroughly in the first half. They made every shot, and when they didn't make the shot, they got the rebound. So we have to create some kind of pace for him.
And then he has to create a pace. I thought he was looking for too much stuff instead of being aggressive. One of the things we told him -- Rondo has the best instincts that I've ever coached in the open court, and he has to allow those instincts to take over tomorrow. I thought he allowed his thinking to take over yesterday. He was trying to run stuff, trying to get guys in stuff. And with Rondo, he has great instincts and he has to let those take over tomorrow.

Q. A lot of wackiness has gone on in Game 7s of this Finals rivalry. Do you believe in leprechauns?
DOC RIVERS: I do. I didn't about four, five, seven years ago, but now I do. I don't know, I believe that we have to play well at the end of the day. You make your luck. And the more you prepare, the luckier you get, and that's what you have to do.

Q. I assume you'd rather be lucky than good tomorrow?
DOC RIVERS: I'll take good for sure, yeah. But I'll take both if I can get it.

Q. How about the match-ups without Kendrick in there, if he can't go or isn't close to 100 percent obviously?
DOC RIVERS: Well, he's not going to go. I'll tell you that now. We'll figure out the match-ups later.

Q. What tests did Kendrick have this morning and what led to you guys deciding he can't go?
DOC RIVERS: Well, it's just a sprain. Well, we don't know that actually. It's a multiple ligament sprain. We're not going to do an MRI until we get back because once they did the tests that they did -- I don't know what tests they did honestly. Once they did the tests that they did do and they realized he couldn't play tomorrow, there was no reason to send him to an MRI, too. That'll come and then we'll make a determination what we have to do.

Q. You said last night you were debating between Glen and Rasheed, being a veteran. What way have you decided to go?
DOC RIVERS: I haven't decided. We'll just wait until tomorrow.

Q. How will Kendrick's absence in general affect the team's play?
DOC RIVERS: Well, it just takes a seven-footer, a very valuable player off the floor for us. It's like I told our guys this morning, somebody has a great opportunity tomorrow, and that's the way we have to look at it.

Q. With Kendrick being inactive, who will be active? Will it be Scalabrine? And if so, what kind of a role might he have in that game?
DOC RIVERS: You never know. Listen, we're going to do whatever it takes to win. Scal has -- he can spread the floor for us, he can do things for us. There's a lot of options for us. They may not look like there's a lot, but there's more than you'd think in some of the rotations or lineups that we can create, that we may have to create. We're going to work on some of those today.

Q. Just belaboring this, but are you grateful that you seem to have some of those options? You have professional coverage in a sense at that position, A? And B, Kevin Garnett, any limit on minutes tomorrow night?
DOC RIVERS: No, 48. It's funny, with Kevin, there's still always a limit with all your players because there's only a limit that they can take and play well. You know, whatever that number is, I'm going to try to get to that exact number. If it's 40 minutes and still be productive -- let's say if you played him 42 and it took away from being productive, then you're playing him too many minutes. We're going to stretch that to the limit, I can tell you that. I don't know what that number is, though.

Q. At your disposal you have Rasheed Wallace --
DOC RIVERS: And Baby will be great, and just get back to just playing. I think Baby the last couple games has been doing way too much thinking. Baby is an instinctive intensity player. When he starts playing with thought, you know, that's not what you want. Boy, that sounds terrible. I don't mean it that way. (Laughter). But it does sound terrible.
But he's an instinctive player and I think he has to get back to playing with the energy and the instincts instead of thinking what I need to do. That happens. We predicted that a little bit for him.

Q. Can Rasheed physically give you 25, 30 minutes tomorrow night?
DOC RIVERS: It's tomorrow night. We're hoping he can.

Q. You guys have come this far with him, and this is the reason in a lot of ways why you got him. What are you expecting out of him?
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, I'm very happy at this moment that we have signed him, there's no doubt about that, because we're going to need him. We're going to need him big tomorrow. His experience will help. You know, and we'll just see how many minutes he can go. Him and Baby and Shelden and Scal and Marquis, we'll figure it out.

Q. He has not been able to stay out of foul trouble in some games. Is that a huge thing for him tomorrow, to not get those fouls?
DOC RIVERS: Well, it's nice. You would hope, but he has been in foul trouble most of the games, so you have to go into the game anticipating that, really, and being ready to adjust if that happens.

Q. I realize it's obviously not ideal, but last year the Rockets, when Yao went down, gave the Lakers some trouble because they did some things that the Lakers hadn't really prepared for. Can there be at least in a one-game situation the type of deal where maybe you guys can do something that they're just not prepared for maybe because you haven't even necessarily tried it yourselves?
DOC RIVERS: Well, it could be. I wouldn't bank on that. But yeah, there could be a lineup we can throw out and there's probably one we'll work on today that we haven't shown. I can probably guarantee you that.
Honestly I hope we're not using it. I'll put it that way.

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