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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v HEATJune 5, 2012Doc RiversMIAMI, FLORIDA: Game Five Boston Celtics - 94 Q.  Honest question: How are you doing this? COACH DOC RIVERS: Well, we're just hanging in there. Man, I tell you, they jumped on us at the beginning of the game, and we just told our guys, just hang in there. Just hang in there. Don't overreact. Hang in there. The longer we're in the game, the better we'll play. It was reallynice. I thought our execution down the stretch, defensively and offensively, the different lineups we threw out on the floor, going back to man and zone with guys that hadn't been in those positions. I think I asked a lot of our guys, maybe too much at times, and they came through, and that was terrific. Q. A couple of years ago you told Nate Robinson he's going to help you win a game with his shooting. Did you ever say the same thing to Pietrus? COACH DOC RIVERS: One thing you know about MP is he's going to shoot it. He's been down this road before. He played with Orlando, made big shots, had big defensive stops, was very comfortable. The thing I loved he didn't hesitate on either one. Actually slowed down a little bit to gather himself and took two big threes for us. I thought the play Rondo made for us was absolutely sensational to get MP the one three. It was on a long rebound or blocked shot. And Rondo not only saved it, but he saved it towards one of our shooters. I thought that was maybe the biggest play of the game. Q. Obviously, MP made some pretty big shots tonight, but can you just talk to us about his defense on both Wade and LeBron, what that does for you guys. COACH DOC RIVERS: It really helps us, because number one, fouls on Paul, on Rondo, on Ray. He's able to guard twos and threes for us. It allows us to go small with Paul at the four, MP at the four, whoever you want to call the four. And it's been terrific for us. Q. Can you describe what you were doing defensively in terms of switching defenses and everything else down the stretch, especially. COACH DOC RIVERS: We just went back man to zone. The last couple of times we went man but we switched everything to honestly try to make it look like a zone, but it was a man. They had a great rhythm in the first eight minutes of the game. So we had to do something, honestly, to just try to take them out of that rhythm. They still got some good shots that they didn't make. That's one of the things we'll have to fix, because we can't rely on them missing open shots. You know, so that was it. We just kept mixing it up. Q. Doc, how would you describe the way Kevin is driving play when he's in the game? COACH DOC RIVERS: I don't know if he still has it, I'm assuming he has to have the best plus/minus in the playoffs.  He's just amazing. Doesn't have to score. Obviously we need his scoring. That's important, but he just‑‑ he's our life. I mean, he really is. He just does so many things that don't have numbers to it. A lot of it is with his voice. He's in a strange way a calming effect on some of our guys, if you can ever call Kevin that, he is. He's just been terrific for us. Q. Doc, Rondo seemed to play kind of a strange three quarters. The back‑court violation, it was kind of in and out it seemed like. In the fourth quarter he decided to attack the rim. Can you just talk about his fourth quarter in comparison to the first three. COACH DOC RIVERS: Well, really, he kind of mirrored our whole team. I thought we were‑‑ I don't know, we wanted to win in the first three quarters, but we didn't play very well. We were sloppy at times. We just hung around enough to get to the fourth quarter. Honestly, in the first quarter that's kind of the way as a staff we felt like‑‑ we just got to try to hang around this game somehow, because things are not going well. You could clearly see that for us. I thought we were out of rhythm at times. I thought we were even tentative, all of us. I don't know how many balls we bobbled back to them when we had steals. But I thought that in that third quarter when Ray had to go in and get treatment on his foot, didn't know if he was coming back. MP, we make a couple of shots, I thought that gave us belief and life again. Q. Doc, in the last quarter you had to take Kevin out with like seven‑something to go. COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah. Q. Was he just gassed then? COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah. Q. It looked like it almost took everything he had to get off the bench and come back in. COACH DOC RIVERS: It was tough, too, because I really needed a game stoppage. I only had I think three time‑outs left. I was about to burn one just to get him off the floor because you could see him struggling. Fortunately they called one, and that was big for us. Because he had to come off the floor. We knew that timeout‑‑ the mandatory was coming anyway. We wish we could have got him out about 40 seconds earlier to use the whole timeout. We only gave him a minute and a half, two minutes. That was huge for him; he needed it. Q. He felt fine afterwards? COACH DOC RIVERS: He kept saying he felt okay. I think this is a low‑minute game. He played 35 minutes. When I took him out, I told him, "You have a minute and a half, and don't put your stuff on." But of course he doesn't listen to that. So it was good. It was good for us. Q. Doc, after it was 2‑0, you told us on the conference call you thought you were getting closer. The inference was as you got closer there was more and more confidence. After all you've been through this year, all the injuries, down 2‑0 when you left the building the first time, where did all that confidence come from? COACH DOC RIVERS: I don't know. We're just a good team. A close‑knit team. They talk that way. We have a lot of positive talk in our locker room a lot. And I think it fuels from them. Honestly, they believe they can win, and we just got to keep hanging in there. I told them, we've done nothing. We're playing a heck of a basketball team. So just because we're going to Boston, I told them, we have to play. They're not going to give it to us. We have to go get it. Q. Doc, since apparently it wasn't the biggest play of the game was the Paul Pierce three‑pointer the second biggest? Could you talk about that. COACH DOC RIVERS: He was great. I kind of wanted him to drive, honestly. I've been around Paul long enough. Right when he gets into the footwork, you knew he was going to shoot it. At least I did, because I've seen him enough. Didn't know if I wanted that shot. Honestly I thought he was going to drive it, but he made it. That's what players like Paul do. It really is. He's a big shot‑maker. He always has been. Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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