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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND ONE: WARRIORS v CLIPPERSApril 24, 2014Doc RiversOAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Game Three Clippers – 98 DOC RIVERS: We did survive. Give Golden State credit, they made a hell of a comeback at the end. You know, you knew they weren't going to give up; you knew they weren't going away. They have so many shot makers on their team. I was not happy with our defensive execution down the stretch. But we let their guys get loose and that bothered me. But overall, I thought, listen, we did enough to win. I didn't think we played great. I thought we played good. But I thought a lot of guys gave great efforts. Blake tonight was just the man. He was awesome for us. You know, Chris was struggling and then down the stretch took over for us, and that's basically what we need. Q. On the road in the playoffs (No Microphone) do you feel you got over a little bit of a hump in that regard? DOC RIVERS: Well, we won the game. We did have some turnovers. I can't wait to watch the film, because those three pointers, every time I see one go up in the air, it's a dagger for me because that is the line I want to defend and they got loose on a couple of them. So a lot of them were broken plays though and couldn't do anything about those. But, yeah, winning on the road for this team is good. It's a good thing for us. Q. I was wondering you've had a lot of regular season success, (No Microphone)? DOC RIVERS: No, I just tell them a lot. There is no individual stuff until we do team stuff. You know, I look at even D.J. with the defensive award. If we go deep, you know, then, yeah, he'll get something. But we've got to do that. Enough of talking about it. Right now I just want us to focus on Golden State. That's our opponent, and that's all we need to focus on. All that other stuff follows. Q. Can you talk about how Chris is fighting through? DOC RIVERS: Yeah, it was a stretch. I was going to take him out. I think it was in the middle of the third. I saw him grab his leg twice. I had actually gotten up to call for DC right before he picked up that fourth foul. It was late in the third. I just told our trainer, I think, that's it because you could see him. He was laboring. He kept every time guys were‑‑ he kept grabbing the back of his leg. When he came out, he said, "I'm good. Just trust me. Please trust me," and he was good. So he's just a tough kid, a tough, tough kid. Q. (No Microphone)? DOC RIVERS: Very, very. I mean, it was‑‑ in some ways I had decided to, and the way the game was going, J.P., the trainer told me no, he's good. You can put him back in. That's what allowed me to put him back in. Q. You've seen Blake at a high level all season long, but the last three games even with the foul trouble in Game 1, offensively does it seem like he's at another level right now? DOC RIVERS: Yeah, he's just been great. He's making jump shots. The bank shot that he's added to his game facing the basket has taken him to a different level because it's very difficult now to guard him. If you get up on him, he goes around you. You back off of him, and he can use the glass. But, between, I keep going back to his work‑‑ tomorrow we won't do much, but he'll be in the gym. I can guarantee you that. It's just who he is. He's very hungry. Q. Offensively (No Microphone)? DOC RIVERS: At times. I thought they did a good job of forcing it out of him. We didn't get it to him in the spots we wanted to at times, and even then he scored a couple, so I was really happy with that because those are broken plays. Q. This game follows the old NBA unwritten rule: You don't win playoff games from the outside; you win them from the inside. DOC RIVERS: Yeah, absolutely. Q. They were 6 for 31 on threes. DOC RIVERS: Yeah, they're going to keep shooting them because, honestly, if anyone breaks the mold, it's them because they are a great three‑point shooting team. So you've got to be who you are. They're great at it. If I had those cannons, I'd fire them every time down the floor too. We're okay at it, but we're great at posting, so we have to do what we do. Q. Could you talk about how Jordan has kind of forced the lead, either rushed the shots or taken shots out of position that he doesn't really want to take? DOC RIVERS: Well, D.J. is a great defender. He protected the basket tonight. I mean, he did such a great job tonight. We always forget about his rebounding, which I think he's been dominant at as well. But the blocks, the mode to change shots or the quick releases because he's around has been great for us. It's been great for us all year, and he's just doing his job. Q. Just a follow‑up to the question, Coach, how about the pace of the game? Is it to your liking? DOC RIVERS: No, not for us. I don't like our pace. I liked it in stretches, but I thought it's funny. If you're going to post the ball, you actually have to play at a higher speed, not slower, because it takes you too long to get it down there. We started walking the ball up the floor, and then by the time we got it to Blake, it was five seconds on the clock. There's no time. So we absolutely have to play at a better pace than we did. We did it in stretches, but I thought down the stretch we lost our pace. I thought it almost lost the game for us. Q. What did you think of Chris's defense on that last play? I think a few in the stands might have thought there was contact on it? DOC RIVERS: No, I think it was a great play. I think Steph just jumped up into him to try to draw the foul. I don't think the ref's going to bail anybody out on that play. You know what was really big is we had that foul to give. That was huge. They didn't have another timeout. We knew that. We had the foul to give and we gave it. Usually the teams run the same play, and Chris was able to make Steph go another way to get open. I thought that was huge for us. Q. Did he ask for that assignment? Did he say I want Steph? DOC RIVERS: Well, he's had him all year. Yeah, Chris Paul, and I've said it all year, he always guards the best guy. He doesn't hide. Every night he's guarding the point guard on the other team, and that's what he does. That's why ‑‑ who votes for all‑defensive team? I'm just‑‑ okay. I'm just wondering. Now that D.J., I'm just hoping now. But Chris Paul, he's a phenomenal defender. I think we all know that. Oh, we do? Oh, then he's on. Q. Coach, you now have the home court advantage back to you. Do you feel a little better now? DOC RIVERS: No, we have to play better. I told our guys that after the game, and they will too. I keep saying that, they're going to play better. There is going to be a game soon where both teams play well or both teams play great. That is the game that we have to get. But we played really well in stretches, but we could be better. I know that, and I know that for a fact. Q. This being such a puzzling game (No Microphone)? DOC RIVERS: It's beautiful. Yeah, winning ugly is beautiful to me. But as a coach, I know that there's a better team in us, and I have to get that out of us. Q. For a stretch they went small and you stayed with the Blake‑DeAndre lineup, and other times you've downsized to match when they go small. What is dictating those decisions? DOC RIVERS: I have no idea, really. I stay big most of the time to be honest. At the end of quarters I'll go small because I'm thinking we can get a match‑up on the other end if we can get a stop. But for the most part because of the ability of D.J. and Blake to be able to switch even on smalls, we stayed big 95% of the time. Q. It got pretty chippy in the third quarter and then again at the end of the game, couple flagrant fouls. Can you talk about the physicality and the nature of the rivalry at this point? DOC RIVERS: Yeah, it's a good rivalry, I guess. The physicality is whatever. Flagrant fouls is not being physical. You know what I mean by that? Physical is rebounding and defending and grinding. That's physical play. The flagrant fouls are not being physical. That is something else. I guess we had one. They had one. I don't like either one. I don't like them because that could lead to some other stuff, but I don't correlate that stuff with physical basketball. Q. Coach, with long stretches of domination, were you upset by the fact that the Warriors could have won it with their last possession after all that? DOC RIVERS: I just didn't think we closed it out well, for sure. I think we have to do a better job. I thought we earned the game because we played better overall. But we have to be able to close games out better than we did tonight, especially on the road. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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