Doc Rivers Practice Media Availability | 04.26.25

Doc Rivers Practice Media Availability | 04.26.25

Now, last night you had, you know, when asked about Dame, you talked about rhythm and and playing and obviously he said, “Look, the more I can play.” Is there, I mean, you’re in it, right? You’re you’re game to game. Is there a way you can manufacture rhythm? No, no, no. Cuz we did we uh you know, we ran some really nice step-ups for him. I mean, he missed a couple shots that he never The one in transition, I think Brooke set a half court step up. He just walked into a three. Uh, I mean that’s that’s money and I mean we’re laughing like that ball had no chance of going in last night. So, but part of it is not just rhythm. It’s also uh conditioning. You know, you’re you’re probably a little more tired than you normally would be. Uh, it’s timing. It’s it’s everything. So, I wish there was a magic wand that you knew when it’s going to click. It’s going to click and I think it’s going to click soon, but I just don’t know when. I guess speaking of that, is there still like the idea that they’re covering Damen Miller. Yeah. Like it feels like you can still get downhill. So, so for you guys is that like, hey, if you don’t feel super comfortable, like still get down. No. Well, the downhill attacks against them are the key to everything. And I thought Giannis set the tone. Uh thought Dame did it, Scoot did it. Uh and our roles, we had roles that it’s the same thing as a downhill attack. Someone has to take them. So, yeah, we have to keep doing that. And I thought Dame that was Dame’s biggest adjustment. Um, also not just on pitch, just attacking and going downhill. AJ Green did it. I mean, we we have to keep doing it. When you looked at it though, what do you feel like you guys found, especially defensively that I just think we found what we should have been doing. Um, if you want me to be just blunt like, um, we didn’t just let them catch the ball. We didn’t just let them DHO, we blew up DHO’s. uh our bigs. Brooks, Brooks set the tone early in the game. Um you know, Turner caught the ball and Brook went up and guarded him. Um watched the first two games and this is all of us. He catch the ball, we stay back, they just dribble him. They just I mean and I told our guys it was like they were having a shoot around, you know. Uh and then last night it was like they were playing in the game. And so we have to be better at it. We made a lot of mistakes, made a lot of uh switch mistakes uh that that we got away with. All right. So, we have some improvement to do. How did you feel just about your you made some rotation adjustments last? Yeah. Yeah, I like what we did, you know, uh it was more, you know, starting GT obviously, you know, that was better than that was awesome. Uh but I just I don’t know if we changed our rotation. We were quicker with them, you know, like we didn’t like some, we changed it. And um we have to do that in this series. You mentioned that obviously there will be co coaching points. There will be mistakes always, but you like felt like the effort was always there. So even if there were switch mistakes, there was we covered. Yeah, we pulled the trigger. Uh that was one of the things that we showed a lot. Like listen, it’s a human game. You’re going to make mistakes. But when we do make a mistake, if there’s a next guy there and there’s a guy open, it’s okay to pull the trigger, you know, and we hadn’t been doing that. We would watch and stare at guys taking shots. I thought we were early to pull the trigger last night and and we have to do even a better job. Uh after a win, is it harder to coach then like keep that? No, no, it it shouldn’t be. Um I think after a win, you should coach harder and that less I think is the easier. They’re more receptive. Uh people are really receptive on win because everybody’s in a decent mood. Um our film today was it was a it was a good film session. like we we showed a lot of stuff that we have to do better. Uh third quarter, there’s possessions where Gary’s like perpendicular. Yeah. And really forcing that. Um was that something that you guys were hoping to do earlier in this? Yeah. Yeah. We we made some changes that I’m not going to talk about, but uh yeah, we were into the bodies up and we’re trying to keep them out of the paint as much as possible. Um, you know, we we turning Hallebertton, uh, trying to get him not to be such a great passer. Uh, uh, and and being directional was very important. Kevin shot hasn’t fall yet. Yeah. Six assists though, four rebounds. We didn’t see the gambling out. Yeah, he had a couple. He had a couple like a jab on a rebound, uh, which created a three-point play. Um, but what he’s doing is, and what he’s learning at the same time, because we do forget how young he is, uh, is how to be a point guard and not a scoring point guard. Um, you know, coming off, he came off a a a double pick and roll where he just pulled it. He wasn’t going anywhere. He just pulled it. And it’s what we talked about and that created a three for AJ Green. And we showed that today like that’s that’s scoring. Uh, you know, some guys don’t understand that you just scored. You didn’t score, but you just scored and and that stuff’s really important for our team and we got to keep doing it. Did you feel he settled a little more because obviously game two? Yeah, I thought he was way better. I thought his emotions were better and I the one thing he’s done throughout that uh probably doesn’t get enough credit defensively. He’s been great uh when he’s not gambling, but he’s such a solid defender. I thought he had a couple possessions on Seiakum which was phenomenal, you know, so we need him to keep doing that. probably game two. Yeah, we didn’t think that was going to happen again, you know, especially being home first with the emotions, right? Uh but that end of the third quarter where it felt like he kind of settled. He settled down. He settled down. Yeah. I thought he was going too fast early. You know, I told our guys in the first half, this is not a selfish thing. I think, you know, when you people hear us say we got to move the ball, people think guys are being selfish. This is I I’ve coached a lot. This is the least selfish. I mean, they’re they’re they’re so unselfish, this basketball team, but they also have this will to win that gets in their way. Um, and I thought in the first half, every single player was trying to do it themselves. Everybody was, you know, we showed a ton of that. Like, and in the second half, it was the exact opposite. They made the right read, the right play. Um, sometimes you have to get out of your way of yourselves, and I thought we did that from the first half to the second half. Thank you guys. All right.

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