Doc Rivers Quotes (120 Quotes)

That was such a great game. As a player I couldn't wait to play it.

You knew they were going to come at you. It was a no-brainer. I don't think we understood that. Last night we came out ready to play and we were focused. We talked about that tonight, but they did it.

Because they go pick-and-roll we wanted to go man-to-man on them and force them to beat us off the dribble or make a shot with a hand in their face. I didn't want them to go to the bucket, cause contact (from a helping big man), and put it in someone else's hands to let them do it at the foul line.

When he tried to go, he hurt it warming up before the game. We're really short-handed at that position, we're going to have to try to figure out something if he's going to be out.

I do understand putting them all in at the same time is dangerous. I don't really care. I'm still going to do it right now. I think they need to get out there and play minutes so I'm going to keep doing it.

I said it the entire time I was here I don't think people understand the effect of not having Grant Hill on the floor. They don't. They didn't when I was here, and they don't now. And it's too bad.

That was a great win for us. We had control of it at times, but you know New Jersey is going to fight back because they are so talented. I thought it was nice that when they did fight back, and took the lead, we kept our composure. We kept fighting, and good things happen when you do that.

It fell apart. They attacked. I thought they were the aggressor and I thought we went back on our heels a little bit.

I don't know if it was vital to get the win, but it was big. We needed the win because I look at the whole picture. We still have a lot of work to do, but it was nice that we just played better. We played solid basketball.

Obviously a home game against Atlanta, you hope you can win. We're not playing well right now. It's frustrating to lose this game.

I figured the fans were here. Give them something.

He's worried that it'll affect his knee. He said he didn't feel good at all out there.

It's not about who we play, but about keeping up the tradition, about maintaining the streak.

I thought that was the difference. We missed a quick shot then he made six in a row and that gets it to nine. You hate them making a run at the end of a quarter because you have to sub and it just gets worse from there.

We got great shots and didn't make them, but that might have been because of last night (in Miami). Last night was up and down, and tonight was slow. I liked tonight's tempo, because we didn't have the legs to do it again.

The biggest point for us was when we went deep into the bench in the second quarter. We kept the lead and we actually extended the lead, and you see how young the bench is. Gerald was fantastic in the first half.

I thought we really lost our intensity. We started watching them play for a while, and I thought that really hurt us.

Paul gave a superhuman effort for us to get back in this game. You'd rather have a balance, but I'd take 40 from Paul.

With our bad passing and turnovers, we are putting so much pressure on our offense that it's impossible for us to hold it. We have to be better with the ball and better defensively.

I asked one of their coaches what was the difference between here and, like, Minnesota. And he said 'No one cares who scores. If Chauncey scores 40 one night and Rip has two, Rip could are less. And that's unique. That's a coach's dream.

Obviously whenever you can improve your team you're going to do that -- with a veteran or a young guy. But we're in games.

The difference now is that he keeps his teammates involved. He scored 36 in the flow. The guy's in the third year of his career. To understand the game the way he does, he should coach.

We never had any rhythm. In the second half the defense was much better and we cut into it a little bit. But when you spot a team (19) points, and that team has Kobe, you know eventually during your run that he is going to make a shot.

He's just been engaged. We've been engaged with him. Mark and I, we've had a couple of good conversations this summer one right before the season started. We basically talked about a lot of things. I told him on my half I will just try to communicate better, but on his half the body language and all the other things have to be better. And if we were in a grading system he'd be an A-plus.

You just got to feel at some point, it's going to turn our way. I felt horrible for them. They fought their butts off. I thought other than the middle of the third quarter, when we stopped playing for one stretch, I thought we played just great basketball.

It wasn't designed for me, ... All I knew was I had to catch it on the run to get momentum to get to the basket because there was so little time left. When the ball left my hand I knew it was good, but I thought it was a swish. I was not trying to use the glass. But it happened and luck was with me.

Beyond the obvious benefit of playing time, it gives us the chance to see where he's at. It will be interesting to see what happens when he gets the consistent minutes. I want to try and fit him into as many situations as possible.

Ryan Gomes still surprises me. Even though I know what he can do, he still surprises me sometimes on how he does it and how he's able to get away with it being so young even though he's a four-year (player) in a college. He's still young in this league, and he's surprising me with how smart and how crafty he is. I mean, he's supposed to be a rookie.

We played really hard tonight and I thought our defense was phenomenal. On most nights it would have been enough to win.

They're struggling now, but when you think of Bosh, Villanueva and Joey Graham, it's not a bad future for them, ... I remember the experts on draft day ripping Villanueva. They should all line up now and apologize.

As far away as we are, we are still very close to becoming a good team. When we decided to break this team down last year, letting Antoine (Walker) and Gary (Payton) go, we understood what that would mean. We still hoped to make the playoffs and that's disappointing, but I think this team will be better sooner rather than later.

I thought the difference in the game was that we had two turnovers in the second half, after going for a record it felt like in the first half. We scored 29 points off of turnovers ourselves and that is why we won the game.

I thought some guys gave good effort tonight, but some have their luggage in mind on the plane already. Turnovers and shot selection killed us.

I don't think you're going to draw much from this game at all, it was not a beautiful game in any way. I really thought it was tough for both teams, you could see early on, to get it going.

When you look at his progress, you definitely have to give him strong consideration for the All-Star team. He's deserving if he makes it.

I had no intentions of playing him. I didn't think he wanted to play. But he ran into my office with his shoes in his hands saying he was ready to go. The only reason I played him was because he was starting at me every freaking time out. I told the coaches, we have to put him in, or he's going to drive me nuts.

We're trying to run more stuff, and more importantly down the stretch you can see we were just trying to create stuff on the fly. Every time there was a break, I had to bring Wally over.

I told them before the game that I thought the team that went and took it was going to win the game and I thought that was the difference. I thought we got very timid down the stretch, stopped moving the ball, which was very clear. And they made plays.

The bottom line now is that every game is a must-win game the rest of the way. We're down four games to Philadelphia with 13 to play. It's not going to be easy, but it gives us something to chase after the rest of the season.

Ricky will search for a shot, you don't have to worry about that, whether he's making it or not.

There's nothing going on. Nothing today.

We're not out of it. But it's going to be nearly impossible, obviously, to get in. We need to have a total collapse of two teams (including ninth-place Chicago) now.

If I was a betting man .... You can't even joke about that any more. If my wife was a betting woman ... I'd say Al would be back first.

He's given us great hope and he's given us great confidence. I didn't see this out of him this year. I just thought it would take next year before he got his legs under him. Benefit number one is his health.

We knew with that team we weren't going to win an NBA title.

It was an interesting game, I'll say that. I was really happy besides the ending. I was just really proud of our young guys. They just kept fighting. I obviously thought we had a chance to win the game. I just wanted to teach execution to the young guys.

Obviously to end the game the way we did with 10 points wasn't in the plans. They attacked and I thought they were the aggressor and I thought, when we were attacked, we went back on our heels a little bit.

Notre Dame and Wisconsin were the two biggest games when I was in college,

I thought, for whatever reason, our spirit was broken in the third and fourth quarters.

After Tuesday's practice, I was going to activate Marcus, at least I was thinking strongly on doing it. Then, after yesterday we thought we'd wait another day of practice.