Doc Rivers Postgame Press Conference | 12.03.25

Doc Rivers Postgame Press Conference | 12.03.25

Um I guess just to start, do you have an update on Giannis? Not that Chad. He’s doing MRI right now, so we’ll know more um hopefully by the end of the night. Okay. Uh obviously, I mean, the last time he was injured, he walked off the court. Um not an easy thing to see. So just I guess just were you able to talk to him at all or just see? No. No. I um I didn’t I didn’t know what it was, you know. So, I just wanted the trainers to attend to him and uh right when they brought him in, they they took him uh to the hospital. Um and then I guess just I mean you guys were been searching for victory. Um it’s been a struggle, but to kind of have that emotional Well, we’ve won two out of three. Yeah, you can you can frame it that way too, you know, but it was it was it was a hell of a um win. Uh we get down early. We missed wide open great shots, but we just couldn’t get anything to fall. Then Giannis gets hurt and I think we’re down like 18 and to fight back uh it just shows uh a lot of stuff about this team. Um you know, we put all kinds of combinations out on the floor. Uh went zone for two and a half, three quarters, which we’ve never stayed in it that long. Um, and I thought we got better at it as as we played it. Uh, we kept seeing every possession you can see weak spots and, you know, we kept correcting. I used two timeouts just to slide guys over. So, uh, strategically, you know, zonewise, it was a fun game. Um, just for Jericho to come up with that big play late, it felt like he was kind of a just on the glass. It was huge. And we need a roller, you know, uh when Yiannis is not on the floor, it takes our rollers off the floor. Um and when Jericho’s ability to roll, um his ability to rebound and his ability to defend, we just felt strongly by by throwing him out on the floor and keeping him out on the floor. And then he makes a free throw. I’m not even sure which hand he shot it with. Uh but it it went in. That’s all that matters. Um, just the combination of Ryan and Kevin, it felt like one could go for a little while and then when that was tired, you give it to the other guy. Yeah, it’s a combination. It’s It’s funny. We We did a a lot of work with them two and Giannis today in the three-man game and u you know, when Giannis went out, it’s a great example of not having enough time to work on things. We hadn’t worked on it with anybody else with those two. Uh, we threw Jericho in it once, we threw Bobby. We’re searching like who can fit those guys and and we think we saw some things that we can use uh moving forward. Ryan’s defense against Kade down that that was awesome. Um you know if you go by uh like the preseason game and then our first game it was like he was at a beach you know he just he just went everywhere uh because we were trying to put size on him. And then today I said let’s let’s put our point guard on him. let’s just pressure him up the floor. Uh, and if he gets in the paint, let’s go help. Uh, and I thought that was very effective all game. The zone and and Ryan’s pressure and Scoot’s pressure on him. Yes, man. The way this game started, losing Giannis down as much as you were in the first quarter, it could have gone really south. Yeah. What was said at the end of the first quarter? Nothing. Nothing. We just stuck with what we were doing. We went zone. Um, we kept telling them, “Stop trying to uh just two points at a time.” That’s all we kept saying. Uh, you can’t get it back with one shot. Just two points at a time. Uh, let’s keep cutting the lead. And then once it got to a seven, eight point game, it was back to a game. Uh, I know you said you’re doing more tests tonight on Giannis, but guy goes down with no contact like that. Do you have you guys ruled out Achilles? Is that something you’re still testing on? Yeah, I think we’ve ruled that out honestly, but I don’t think it was no contact either. I thought the bump uh if you watch the bump drive. That’s what threw him off balance. You know, he got bumped in and then someone landed on on top of him. So, I I thought the bump was what made him lose his balance. Uh and then it looked like he was there was no one around, but I thought it was the bump that threw him off balance. And then just I want to go back to KPJ again. Uh just the way he was able to sort of lift you guys and sort of shot creation. Is that kind of what you think you guys were missing? You alluded to a couple. That’s what we’ve been trying to tell everyone, you know, we haven’t had him all year, you know, and then, you know, having him and Giannis out for that long stretch explains our record, you know. Um, now we’re back at it, you know, we we have him back now and we may have Giannis out. So, um, we just got to figure out a way of winning games when all these guys are injured. And if we can get healthy, and I keep saying that, uh, I like our team. I just do. Um, we just can’t catch a break on health. Uh, AJ has those two back-to-back threes. Yeah. Both contested, both pretty tough shots. Just what have you seen from him in the last couple weeks to be confident to take control? Yeah, our guys have been great. Uh, you know, uh, Jack and Spencer, uh, I mean, they really, uh, just we’re pushing them to take tough shots. Uh, he makes them. Uh, and he’s starting to believe that and he’s starting to do it. Obviously, Miles Turner was in in foul trouble, but what can you just say about Bobby’s performance, scoring 13 points in the second half? Second half, Bobby was great. His energy, you know, it’s funny. Bobby had great energy in the first half. He just couldn’t score, you know, but his energy was right. And, you know, we talked about that today. Um, the guys who play with the energy are going to be the guys who play. We’re not just going to give you minutes. Um, we’re going to play guys who are playing the hardest and guys who are playing with energy. And and we the other thing we talked about is offense will never bring a team together. It’ll be your defense. And if you play hard enough on defense, all the other stuff will take care of itself. And I thought that happened tonight.

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