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NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS v HEATJune 7, 2012Doc RiversBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Game Six Miami Heat - 98 Boston Celtics - 79 Q.  Was this a matter of too much LeBron or was it more to it than that? COACH DOC RIVERS: Well, it was a matter of too much LeBron. He was absolutely sensational. Made every shot, set the tone for their whole team. I thought he gave them comfort in the way he played tonight. We, on the other hand, never really established what we wanted to do offensively. I thought they played with more force for most of the game. Every chance we had to makea run ‑‑ we did miss a lot of open shots. Having said that, I really thought it was fool's gold. I didn't think it was the shots we wanted, even though they were open. And give them credit. That was part of their defense. But I thought it was a lot of us. I thought early on offensively for us we didn't play like us. Each guy wanted to win the game for us, which is a good trait, but the bad trait is there was no ball movement. The ball just stuck for most of the game. Listen, it's one loss against tonight a great player against our defense. And I think our guys should take that very personal. Q. Doc, you just mentioned that you guys weren't yourselves. The magnitude of this game, what you could have accomplished with a victory tonight, is it surprising that you guys were so out of character? COACH DOC RIVERS: That's basketball, man. Sometimes you show up and‑‑ I don't think our guys were thinking the magnitude of the game, honestly. Guys wanted to. I don't think one guy showed up tonight and said you know what, I'm not going to play well. You know? I think every single guy showed up, and he wanted to play as hard and the best he could. Sometimes it doesn't happen, even when you want it to happen. The good news is we get to do it again. So that's the good news. The bad news, we have to do it on the road. We're comfortable on the road. We've been comfortable. But we're going to have to play a hell of a game. Q. With LeBron just a big night he had, did they do anything scheme‑wise to free him up or anything like that? COACH DOC RIVERS: No, not really. He made some fantastic shots. I didn't think we played him with a lot of force, though, honestly. Listen, he made great shots. But we can play better defense. Q. Were you okay with the shots that LeBron was‑‑ COACH DOC RIVERS: Some of them. You mean, I wasn't really okay with those dunks at the basket and things like that. Some of the turnaround jumpshots, we've been living with that and we're going to continue to live with that. But he made a lot of tough ones. But I still didn't think we guarded him with the force that we have to guard LeBron. I thought he brought it to us, and we never gave it back. Maybe that's a better way of explaining it. I hope now you guys will stop talking about LeBron and that he doesn't play in big games. He was pretty good tonight. Now that's to bed. We can go ahead and play Game 7. Q. Did you see anything different with Pierce or Kevin, just the way shots weren't going down? COACH DOC RIVERS: I don't know. We clearly didn't have the right energy. Like I said, you never know why. Obviously, they came and they wanted to have it. Listen, when a guy comes out and throws a barrage on you like that, that takes some energy out of you. And maybe it's as simple as that. I don't think so, but you just never know. Q. Doc, you know, in a game like this, on your home court, where you've only lost one time in this postseason, where you've only lost once against this team in the last 16 meetings, what kind of opportunity did you leave on this floor? COACH DOC RIVERS: We left a huge opportunity on the floor, but we still have another opportunity. And that's what playoffs are about. Clearly we're at home, you want to win. You always want to win. Did you hear our crowd the last three minutes of the game? What other crowd in the NBA does that? It's a terrific place to play. The fans were unbelievable. They did their part tonight. We just didn't do ours. Honestly, that was a great opportunity, but we have another opportunity. We get to play another game, Game 7. I would say most of the people in this room would have said, wow, they're going to get to Game 7, we'll take it. That's the way we have to view it. We won a game at theirs, they won here. Now we get to play for all the marbles. This team has not done it the easy way this year. Maybe this is justified for us, go in there and do it. Q. Doc, you guys struggled again with the three ball tonight. COACH DOC RIVERS: Yeah. Q. And have been during this series. Are you happy with those looks you're getting from out there? COACH DOC RIVERS: Half of them. I thought some of them were forced. Especially early on I thought we tried to answer their shots. That's what I meant by our offense. I just didn't like it. Didn't like the way we played offensively. And we have to do‑‑ first start with me, I have to get us some better stuff. But we have to trust the pass. We didn't do that tonight at all. I thought we did a fabulous job in Miami in the fourth quarter of doing that, and for whatever reason tonight we didn't. A lot of them, give them credit. It had to be some of their pressure defensively. I thought all night they were into our airspace. And we allowed it. Q. Doc, what did you see from Paul tonight? And how do you expect him to bounce back for Game 7? COACH DOC RIVERS: He'll bounce back. Paul is a big‑game player. Game 7s are the biggest that you can possibly have. What I saw tonight was I thought he was ready for the game. He just didn't have a great game tonight. We don't look into it much more than that, at least I don't. He was down. Kevin was down. The whole locker room was down. But you can see their resolve in the locker room. They're not just going to pack for Sunday. They're going to bring suits for Tuesday, and they're going to bring suits for Thursday. And that's the way we're going to plan to do it. Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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