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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v HEATJune 1, 2012Doc RiversBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Three Miami Heat 91 Q.  Do you feel better about the way they played tonight? COACH DOC RIVERS: Well, the difference was our defensive energy, which allowed us to run. We ran in the space. I thought we had terrific ball movement for three quarters offensively. Fourth quarter obviously not our best. You know on film we just watched so many times where they slipped and rolled down the middle of the paint in the first two games. I thought our guys had active hands in deflections. And I thought that was the key. And I thought we kept it on the entire game. But our bench played tonight as well. Marquis was phenomenal tonight. Keyon Dooling was phenomenal. Every guy actually that came off the bench contributed for our basketball team. And we needed it. Brandon got in early foul trouble, and he was playing well at the time. We had decided before the game to go small if‑‑ at the beginning of the game, because we thought it was our better lineup for us. Quis is a great passer. I thought the high and lows to Kevin were really good. Q. You talked about getting Kevin more involved between games. That's there when they front him, is it a matter of just staying with it? COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah, we got to keep the discipline in staying with it. Listen, this is exhausting. You get guys grabbing you and holding you, and you're trying to roll and they're fronting you. It's exhausting. But I thought we made terrific passes in the first half. Every time Kevin rolled. One of the things we kept telling them at the end of the day, throw it up. There's nobody taller than him on the floor. Throw it up in the air, Kevin will go get it. I thought he did a great job. I thought it was hard in the fourth quarter. I thought fatigue‑‑ it wasn't as easy to just throw it up for him to just go get it anymore. But overall, I really liked our passing. Q. Doc, you just touched on the fourth quarter. Rondo obviously didn't have the monster game, but in the fourth quarter tonight he was really‑‑ COACH DOC RIVERS: He stabilized us, really. We were trying to do something with Kevin, and we needed to give him a blow in that one stretch. We couldn't score, but they scored every time. When they do that, then the game does become a half‑court game. I just kept telling them‑‑ it was funny, I thought they were concerned about not scoring, and I was more concerned about Miami scoring. I thought, guys, we get stops, we can beat them down the floor, but we have to get stops. Q. Doc, you said after last game, you wanted to get Kevin the ball in better places. Obviously you must have been talking about the rim. COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah. Q. Was that really the difference, instead of giving him the ball, to make a move where you can get him the ball where he could finish. COACH DOC RIVERS: In the middle of Game 2 they went to switching. In my opinion, we never did anything about it. We didn't take advantage of it. We kept stressing it, but we never did. Watching film today we showed a lot of it, and he had ample opportunity to do it. Tonight he did it, and it was terrific. Q. How concerned were you really going into this game about the team's ability to recover physically with all the talk after Game 1? COACH DOC RIVERS: You know, honestly, and I think I told someone yesterday, Gary or someone on the phone, I thought our confidence was higher, honestly. Listen, we got our butt kicked in Game 1.  Game 2 we felt like we played well. We felt like we missed some makeable shots in the fourth quarter and in overtime. And we never felt like we took advantage of Kevin in that game. And I thought we also saw defensively we should be better than what we were in that game. And I thought we did all those things tonight. Q. Doc, you talked earlier about how the bench is a defensive unit. You count on their defensive energy, but they did score tonight. COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah. Q. How important is that going to be going forward? COACH DOC RIVERS: Gravy. MP missed a couple of threes early, and he was really down. I said, listen, your defense is what's going to get us this win. And if you make ten or miss ten, you won't see any emotion come out of me. But it's got to be through our defense. I thought what the second unit did was they came in with a defensive energy that changed the game. And they scored off the defense. They got stops, they ran the floor, Marquis cut and got to the basket.  Marquis made great passes, and then we posted him up a couple of times as well. But I thought it was more from that. And that's who they are. Listen, they are not going to put up great numbers offensively, but they know exactly who they are. They accept that, and they are comfortable with that. Q. Doc, you said before the game tonight you looked to go to that small lineup even before you guys started the game. What made you decide that? COACH DOC RIVERS: We have really done it for every game, we've gone to it at some point. We really didn't think we were going to go to that that early. Brandon got in foul trouble, Kevin needed a blow, so we just did it. We talked about doing it. We thought we would do it more than half the game. We just did it a little more than that. We basically stayed with it from that point on, except for the beginning of the game. The end of the second I think we went back big, and beginning of third. Other than that we were small. So are they. Shane Battier is a 4‑3, 3‑4. So it's not like we're going smaller than them, we're just in some ways matching up to them. Q. Doc, did you have any conversations with Rajon after the 44‑point game to differ his game at all or change his approach? COACH DOC RIVERS: No, I'm like a pitcher throwing a no‑hitter, you stay away from that joker. The guy scored 44 points, what can I possibly tell him? I didn't tell him a word. I was asked a lot. I told him to keep running the team. Keep running the team. The only thing we told him offensively was we had to get Kevin involved. Other than that, just go play. Q. Doc, the second‑chance points had burned you guys in pivotal spots in the series. Any point of emphasis coming into tonight? COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah, it always does. I just thought our defensive energy overall was good. Our rebounding was terrific in stretches. They didn't get up on to the slips to the basket and the rolls to the basket, like they did in Game 2 in the second half. And so it was in a lot of ways an iso game for them, and they missed some shots. But it was iso, we contested, and that's what we had to do. Listen, it was great energy all night. And now we have to come back and do it again. Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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