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NBA PLAYOFFS ROUND TWO: CLIPPERS v THUNDERMay 11, 2014Doc RiversLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Game Four Clippers – 101 Q. Do you have a statement you want to make or... COACH RIVERS: I want a beer (laughter). Q. You're down 22, down 16, you won the game. What did you learn about your team? COACH RIVERS: I don't think I learned anything in that way. We've done this several times this year. Remember the Dallas game. You know, it was one of those games, the game started out where we missed wide‑open shot after wide‑open shot, then I thought we pressed. That's how they got the stretch. I thought before the halftime, getting it to 12, that was important for us. I just thought we hung in there. We searched for combinations. We went completely unconventional.  We went ultrasmall. We put Danny at the four. His numbers won't show it, but Danny Granger was huge for us. He kept guys from getting rebounds. I thought his length was a factor. Then obviously Jamal and DC, in that small lineup, that won the game for us. I'm not sure we ever used that lineup. But that group won the game for us tonight. Q. Was it brilliant coaching or was Paul has to cover Durant? COACH RIVERS: It was neither. That's called desperate coaching. You're looking for any combination. Yesterday as a staff we said Durant was beating us with his dribble. If you put a guard on him, you could make him more of a post‑up player. Q. It clearly disrupted the way he played the game? COACH RIVERS: He just missed shots. Q. You're not going give Paul credit? COACH RIVERS: No. I'll say that after Game 7. Q. How important is it for Chris Paul to get aggressive in this series? COACH RIVERS: Very. He's such a point guard, and in this series, the way they're guarding, he's going to have to be a scorer. We won Game1 because he was a scorer. In Game2, the guilty point guard, I got to get everybody involved. But he's coming off the picks open. We want him to pull up and take those shots. In the first quarter, I was like, Let's shoot the ball. I know you're trying to get guys involved, but this may be one of those series where he's going to have to be aggressive as a scorer. Q. With all the things that your team has had to go through this year, talk about the crowd. COACH RIVERS: They were great. We needed anything. I think they sensed us coming back. You could definitely hear them. They were phenomenal. Good to see them rejoice, as well. But that's why you have home crowds. We go to Oklahoma City, their crowd is going to be amazing there. Ours hung in there. They could have gone the other way and they hung in there with us. Q. Chris was on Durant late in Game 3, and Durant got a good look. Any comments on that? COACH RIVERS: We trapped this time. We probably should have the last time. We worked on it and we didn't do it. Tonight, whenever he got it, we sent an extra guy. At the end of the day, Durant is going to be able to get a good look over CP, that's why we send help. Q. You kind of beg your players to play at pace and with energy. Seemed like D.C. finally gave it ‑‑ COACH RIVERS: D.C., you don't have to tell him much as far as pace. I think the small lineup allowed D.C. to attack because there was no help at the rim. They only had one big out on the floor. We were bringing him up to the floor to set picks. We still have to run pace. We had one in the first half where CP threw it ahead to Jamal and he got to the basket. They're long. They're a hell of a defensive team. We can't keep walking it in and letting them set their defense. Their defense is too good. Q. Talk about the physicality between Serge and Blake? Did you get a good look at the punch? COACH RIVERS: You thought it was a punch? Q. Yes. COACH RIVERS: Okay. Mark says it was a punch. Everybody write that tomorrow (laughter). I didn't see it. Coaches were yelling in my ear. I don't have a replay. I'm sure I'll see it. I don't worry about all that. I love the physical play. I think they should just keep playing physical, let them play like that. If a guy throws a punch, the league will take care of it. Q. Do you see Chris on Durant as a momentary thing, a situational thing? COACH RIVERS: Situational. Situational. We do like it because CP's hands, he's pretty strong. But I don't like it because then you're taking a lot out of CP. That's not a matchup we are going to live with, I can tell you that. Q. You talked about getting stops down the stretch. Touch on that. COACH RIVERS: We really had no choice. We were down. We had to score and get stops. We did that. I thought the trapping was great. I thought our guys did a great job. It was something we had worked on. So it allowed us to know where everybody was at. Sometimes you trap just to make yourself aggressive. That's not why we did it, but that's actually what happened. I thought by us trapping we became more aggressive defensively, so maybe we should have done it earlier. Q. Going into the fourth quarter, you're down 12 points, what do you tell your team that you haven't told them already about stops? COACH RIVERS: I didn't tell them anything. I really didn't. I just told them to keep playing, hang in there. The only thing I told them was don't try to do too much. Right at the end of the third quarter, each guy tried to do too much, you know, take a quick shot. I said, Guys, keep playing your game, don't do too much. Do what you do. Don't try to step out of that. I thought we did a good job of that. I thought we pretty much stayed pretty calm. Q. Your largest comeback this season was 17 until tonight. How does this affect the series? COACH RIVERS: It just makes it 2‑2. It makes it an even series. Going to Oklahoma, they have home court. So now it's a three‑game series for both teams and they have two at their place. Q. Blake with foul trouble, you being able to pull him out, bring him back into the game. COACH RIVERS: Baby was great. D.J. was great. We played Blake, I almost got away with it, a good chunk with the four fouls. But we were just down so much, you couldn't worry about anybody fouling out at that point. If he fouled out, he fouled out. I told Blake when he went back in, Play like you have one foul, not like you have five fouls. We need you to be aggressive. I thought he did that. Q. You talked about the Thunder having a sense of urgency because of their playoff experience. Did you feel in the first quarter your team might have been lacking that? COACH RIVERS: No, I think we got attacked. I think they smelled blood in the water. They jumped on us. I thought we missed some great shots. J.J. is a great shooter. He missed three point‑blank ones, Chris missed one. Then I thought we started pressing, and that allowed their force to take hold, and it did. Q. How critical is it for your team to match Oklahoma's intensity in Game5? COACH RIVERS: We better. They're at home. They're seething right now. They had an opportunity to go up 3‑1 and now it's an even series. We were almost on the mat and we got off of it. We didn't get pinned. We're back up and now we're all even. Q. Very efficient on offense. A lot of that was transition. When you weren't in transition, what was working? COACH RIVERS: We found a set. Over on the bench, we were sitting there looking at all my play calls. We finally stumbled on one. It's one we've run a lot. With the small lineup, Blake being the only big, with his athleticism, you can't switch it. You can punish it. If you don't switch it, CP is going down the paint. With Jamal, all the shooting on the floor, it made it difficult for them to score. I also thought we trusted down the stretch. Even if we though were running the set, if the option wasn't there we went to the second option. We didn't try to do it ourselves. Like I said at the beginning of that quarter, Don't press, do what you do, don't try to overdo it. Just trust. Q. Do you feel Collison disrupted them defensively? COACH RIVERS: Yeah, a couple times he overpressured Westbrook, which is the last thing we wanted him to do. Once Westbrook gets his shoulders in front of you, he's a locomotive going down the train tracks. Other than that, he was phenomenal. Our thought was get up in pressure, see how many seconds you can use before they get in their set. I thought that was big for us because instead of them starting their offense with 22, they were starting it at 14. That allowed us to trap. Then there's not enough time to swing the ball. Q.  It seems as if you're okay with Russell beating you rather than KD. COACH RIVERS: No, I'm not okay with it, to be honest. It's funny. You were going to say, Seems like you're letting him. I look at it that way, too. He's very aggressive, playing well right now. We have to do a better job. What we're not doing is trapping him. We're playing him with one‑on‑one defense. But he's hurting us. He's playing very well. Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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