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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v HEATJune 2, 2012Doc RiversBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Practice Day Q. Doc, you guys were able to get Kevin closer to the rim than ever. He's rolling more. They are fronting him, obviously. COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah. It's easier to post him out of a pick‑and‑roll than it is just straight post. Straight post they are fronting. And their weak side is so athletic with LeBron or Wade that it's difficult to try to throw a pass up in the air. But at the end of the day Kevin is still the biggest guy on the floor, the longest guy. But it is better in the rolls than it is just straight post. Q. Can you talk about their aggressiveness throughout Game 3 and how much you expect or hope to see that tomorrow in Game 4? COACH DOC RIVERS: Well, we have to. I mean, we've only won one game. We have another one at home. That's where we want to play. We're still down one game in this series. So we've only done one thing. We've won one game. We have to come back and we have to play better. I still think we can play better. That's the first thing I told them after the game. I said it was a great win, but that's still not our best. We have to play better, and we can play better. Q. Was that what you want defensively, in terms of what you guys were looking to do? COACH DOC RIVERS: In the second and third quarter. In the first quarter I thought we were poor defensively. And in the fourth quarter we were poor defensively. So that's the point I'm making. I mean, we played well. But there's a better game in us. And we know it. We'll see it on film tomorrow, and we have to do it. Q. Can you specifically talk about how you guys defended Dwyane? COACH DOC RIVERS: We just defended him. We didn't do anything different than we did in Game 2. Haven't changed their game plan much. He just missed some shots. Good for us. Q. Can you describe your philosophy on practicing on off days in the playoffs? COACH DOC RIVERS: We're just too old. We're tired and old and banged up. I just really‑‑ honestly I just look at it if I have a choice between the legs and the brains, I'm going to take the legs every single time. We need those. I don't know what I could accomplish honestly by bringing them in here today. If it weren't for you guys, they wouldn't be here at all. At least some of them. Most of them would come in here anyway, because half of them are in the training room with treatment. So they would be here. Q. It's not traditional to be able to make it this far to the Conference Finals without having any of those traditional practices. What does that say about you guys? COACH DOC RIVERS: It says we have to do whatever we need to do. Every team is individual. You know that. I think we've had one practice maybe since the Atlanta series. Or during the Atlanta series. I don't know if we've had one. It's not by choice. I mean, it's by need. It's what we have, so we have no choice in the matter. Q. You guys were in a similar situation last year. You lost the first two. Kevin has a big game, you win Game 3. This year is it a matter of sticking with what works? COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah, it is. And we're a different team than last year too. But again, that's part of what I'm saying, Steve. We've won one game. No reason to pat ourselves on the back for it. We did what we were supposed to do and what we expected to do. And now we have to do it again. Q. How do you feel like Rondo managed the game? COACH DOC RIVERS: He was terrific. He was terrific. I kept telling him in time‑outs, just manage the game. I'll manage the time‑outs, and you keep calling the plays on the floor. If I want something, I'll signal it to you. But I kept telling him I trust your instincts. Call what you see. If you need help, just look over. And he did that. Q. In the fourth quarter, Kevin was kind of out of gas. Did he just know that was when to go‑‑ COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah. First of all, we want to run. And I think people think we don't want to run. We do want to run. And when we do that, we're really good. The only thing we didn't do in the fourth quarter, we started milking the clock. I think Miami is just too good defensively to start your offense with 10 seconds on the clock and expect to score. They're just too good. We need extra passes. So we have to start our clock anywhere between 18 and 16 on the clock. It allows us to get to that second side of the floor. It gives us extra passes. If you think you're going to play a low clock against that defense and that athleticism, it's not going to happen. Q. Doc, you lost in overtime in Game 4 last year to Miami. What do you remember most about that game? COACH DOC RIVERS: I don't, really. I know we lost. I think that's the game Rondo got injured. But I'm not sure. Q. It was the game after that. COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah, it was Game 3. I don't even remember. That tells you what I remember. I know we had‑‑ we had opportunities clearly. We had a couple of great shots. I think we had a terrible possession, now that I think about it, before overtime, our last possession, if my memory serves me correct. Q. Paul took a shot, but it wasn't supposed to be that play. You left him on a high‑‑ COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. I thought you were better than that. Q. Doc, you're a big football fan. In‑game adjustments are big in football. You know that. How big are they in a series? COACH DOC RIVERS: They're big. But they're not a lot‑‑ in football they have a whole week, number one, to not only make adjustments, but to prepare for them. We have one day. So it's a little bit of a difference. But the minor ones you do make sometimes turn out to be big. Sometimes they turn out to be wrong, and then you have to adjust back. You just have to be careful with them. Q. Do you have to change the looks for guys as talented as LeBron and Wade? COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah, yeah. We've done it every game. And we're going to continue to do it. Q. Are you seeing a more consistently aggressive KG (Indiscernible)? COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah, yeah. But we've had to be in the series that we've had. He's had an advantage post‑wise in all three, and we had to take an advantage of it. Q. Paul got off to kind of a sluggish start in this series. It seemed like a lot of times he was caught 25, 27 feet from the basket. COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah. Q. Last game, especially the last game, is that stuff he's doing or are you trying to do things differently? COACH DOC RIVERS: It's always more the player. Really, honestly, I mean some of it is us. We want to post all of them. That's one of the points we made before the game and in film in the morning. Not just Kevin. If they keep switching, wherever they switch, let the ball find them. And we want to post anybody, any mismatch we have, instead of trying to take advantage with the dribble where they can sink and help. Throw it in and then see how they react. And I thought we did a better job of that. Q. Did you talk with Paul about being more aggressive, getting more involved‑‑ COACH DOC RIVERS: No. You know, listen, Paul has a tough job. He has to guard a pretty good player, a pretty physical player. And then he has to go and try to score 20 for us as well. So in both games‑‑ in Game 1 he got an early foul that I thought threw him off. In Game 2 he was in foul trouble. Last night he didn't have to worry about fouls. And so he can be more aggressive. Fouls affect an offensive player just as much as it does on defense. You don't want to drive anymore. You're worried about offensive fouls. It takes you out of your game. I thought the fact that Paul had low fouls allowed him to be very aggressive. Q. The guys say they want to play inside‑out. We saw it last night. Do you think, guys, how come we can't do this? COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah, but it's just sports. It's basketball. It happens. Sometimes the defense takes things away. Sometimes you make a couple of early shots. Sometimes it's the worst thing that can happen. You fall in love with that, and you just got to try to keep them in that rhythm. Basketball is very rhythmic. And you have to try to keep them in the right rhythm. Q. As good as they are defensively, you guys have scored 100 on them at least four times this year. COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah. Q. Obviously you've found a lot of things that work. Why? COACH DOC RIVERS: Well, we move the ball, number one. And against them it's very, very important to do that. We get stops against them at times. And when we can get stops we can score. You can see in the fourth quarter when we didn't get stops, our offense comes to a halt as well. So I think that has a lot to do with it. Q. With the in‑between game adjustments, how much input do you take from the players? COACH DOC RIVERS: I take a lot. I listen to my players. They are the ones on the floor, honestly. I can only see so much, and so can my staff. I talk to them all. Either right before the game or after the game, rather. And tomorrow morning. Some will text. We have an open communication. I always kid them, I usually say when you want to make an adjustment, it's usually your guy is kicking your ass, so you want to try to change the coverage somehow. And I joke and say only team adjustments will we make. Not individual adjustments. We laugh about that a lot. Thank you, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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