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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND TWO: CLIPPERS v THUNDERMay 11, 2014Doc RiversLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Four COACH RIVERS: I would like to say happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Now you can ask questions. Q. The pace this season went up a whole other notch with you taking over. How did you get them to do what they were doing at a higher level? COACH RIVERS: I love the way they played. I thought they could be more efficient at it. I thought a lot of it was a spacing issue, if you want to be honest, to simplify it. One of the reasons I brought in Alvin Gentry because I thought he was great at that in Phoenix and thought he could help me with that. He has done a great job. Then the ball movement was the other thing. We still do it at times. When a ball sticks, we're not very good. When a ball moves, I think we become almost unguardable. It's reared its head in the playoffs as well, but it was basically ball movement. Q. What was your perception when you came in of the team? COACH RIVERS: I didn't mind the style. I think you can run in the playoffs. I think you can space the floors in the playoffs. You can attack in the playoffs. The only way you can do any of those things is you have to get the ball. You need the ball to do it. That's where the defensive part comes in. You have to be a solid defensive team and you got to be a good rebounding team. When we've done both of those things, we've been good. That's what we're struggling with here. Q. The rebounding has become more of an issue for you lately. Also you were the best team against three‑point shooting teams in the league. COACH RIVERS: We're getting beat off the dribble for three‑point shooting. That's one of the things we stressed. If you want to be a great three‑point shooting defensive team, you got to control the basketball. If you don't control the basketball, the ball gets into the paint, you're going to give up threes. I think we have not controlled the basketball. They're living in the paint right now. Thus that opens up everything because it puts you in help. I also think that is tied to our rebounding as well. Early in the year we were struggling with rebounding, then we fixed it. We didn't fix the rebounding, we fixed controlling the ball. So they're both tied together. Q. You talked yesterday about the difference between panic and urgency. Are there specific things you're going to see in the first quarter that will tell you where your team is at? COACH RIVERS: No, I'm not looking for panic. Not like I'm going to go into the game saying I'm looking for one of the two things. Q. What would be the things that would show you your team is playing with the right sense of urgency? COACH RIVERS: Getting stops. It's not like this big thing you're looking at. If we're in the right spot, doing the right stuff, I think it will show we're playing the right way. I think you'll be able to see it, too. If we're getting stops and pushing the ball up, playing in transition, we're probably in the right place. Q. As much as you wanted J.J. Redick, as much as he's helped you, how difficult was it to trade Caron? COACH RIVERS: I didn't know Caron. Wasn't like I had a relationship with him or anything like that. It wasn't that difficult at that time. I think it's much harder when you have a relationship with a guy. We had enough threes at the time. I did want his veteran leadership. That was the only thing that I was wrestling with in not doing it because I like veterans. I think he would have been great here in that role as well. But we just needed more shooting, more shooting off movement. I thought it was very important. It's why we've been good. Q. How do you account for someone like him to prevent something like Game3 happening again? COACH RIVERS: Control the ball. I mean, I swear it's all tied together. When our guys are pulled in, trying to take care of the ball in the middle of the paint, that's why guys are wide open. The fact that Caron didn't have to take a dribble to score tells us we're not in the right place. Q. I know you're in the middle of the series right now, but do you have any idea going forward how you view your relationship with Richard Parsons? COACH RIVERS: I don't really. We've just had a talk. I envision it's going to be very good. He's a very smart man ‑ smarter than me, I can tell you that. I'm looking forward to that. I'm really looking forward to learning a lot from him. He's had a lot of life, if you want to say that. I love being around people that have experienced a lot of life, not just in sports but outside of our world and in other worlds. He's met some really interesting people. I plan on trying to learn from him. Q. Do you have any sense of how the decision making will go? COACH RIVERS: No. Just our brief talk, he basically said, Listen, you're doing the basketball, I'm doing the business. Let's make that clear. I jokingly said, Yeah, you're going to be doing some basketball, too. We're going to need him to make some decisions in that area, too. I'm looking forward to building the relationship. Q. Will he talk to the team tomorrow? COACH RIVERS: No, we'll be gone. Q. Can you talk about where the team is emotionally? In terms of the defensive breakdowns of the last two games, is there a weariness that's set in? COACH RIVERS: I've heard that talk a lot over the last two days. I just don't want to hear it. I'll put it that way. Listen, the playoffs are emotional. Obviously we've been through some other stuff. We can't run from that. But you just got to get through it. I don't believe in that. We have to be mentally tough. I think we'll be fine. But, you know, there could be a factor there. I don't think it is. Q. They've out‑rebounded opponents 10 straight games. How much of that is Westbrook? COACH RIVERS: It's a lot. Coming into the series, I don't think I've ever come into a series ‑‑ and my biggest fear is point guard rebounding. I don't think I've ever said that in my life. Yet in this series, the number one thing on the board with our team as far as lists was Westbrook rebounding. He's a freak of nature, he really is. He's one of the few guys I've ever seen that can take a shot and get his own rebound. I'm talking about a three, get his own rebound. He knows where the ball is going. He's very aggressive. We have to do a better job of trying to find him and put a body on him. Even if you're there with him, and we've shown that three or four times, if you're just there with him, he's going to get the rebound. You have to put a body on him, otherwise he's going to get the rebound. Q. Aside from what you said about Westbrook, is there one single key to victory today? COACH RIVERS: Transition scoring. That's where Durant has hurt us, in transition. That's where Westbrook has hurt us. That's another area they've gotten some of the threes is their transition offense. It's a powerful break. When you get the ball to Westbrook coming at you, the pull‑up threes, attacking the basket. Then the guy that no one talked about in transition is Durant. We have to load better. The guy guarding the ball is doing average. It's the other guys are low defense that we're not doing a great job with. So that's the key. Thank you, everyone. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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