On Dame’s Crucial Late-Game Performance
Reporter: Can you speak to the close game, with Dame having a rough night but still finding his way to the rim on that possession? What did you see from him late?
Doc Rivers: Dame just has great courage. He reminds me a lot of Ray Allen in that way. Ray didn’t have a lot of bad shooting nights, but when he had one, if you had one shot to make, you still wanted to go to him. That’s how you feel about Dame – whether he’s on fire or not, he just has this thing in him that he believes he should take the last shot and make the last shot. He does it over and over. I don’t know how many he has, but he has to have more than everybody in the league over his career. It’s just amazing.
On Critical Defensive Plays and AJ Green’s Performance
Reporter: The defensive possession before that, Giannis gets switched onto Fred VanVleet for about 15 seconds, peels off, gets the block…
Rivers: That was a tough block. That’s the Giannis – when he’s that active and good, we’re just great. And it’s funny, the defensive player of the game was AJ Green all game. I thought he was phenomenal defensively tonight, and we needed it.
Reporter: What did you see from AJ Green defensively that you liked tonight?
Rivers: He just slid his feet, stayed in front of the ball. They kept trying him – we’re like, you’re picking on the wrong guy, this guy can defend. But they didn’t know, he’s young, they don’t know his name, and they decided to attack him. It went in our favor most of the time.
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On the Final Defensive Possession and Brook Lopez’s Impact
Reporter: Speaking to the other part of that final possession, it looked like AJ and… a little bit of miscommunication on the switches?
Rivers: Clearly, but I haven’t seen it yet. I just know that guy was not supposed to be open. I think it was Dre who got his hands in there, which was great, but I haven’t seen it. My coaches were saying someone messed up a switch, so we got lucky on that.
Reporter: Prior to that, Brook Lopez’s effort today, I mean offensively to kind of keep you connected early…
Rivers: It’s funny, we were talking about Brook today, and I made the comment you just can’t ever lose faith in him because you know he can shoot the ball, and eventually, it’s going to happen. Just like Gary Trent. I came into the facility yesterday evening, I’m the only one in there watching the Bears about to get the field goal blocked, and Brook was the only other guy in there shooting. It was funny because after they got it blocked, Brook walks into my office and says, “I’m shooting, and I see you with your head down on the table. I just want to check on you.” It was a really cool thing just watching him shoot over and over and over again, and it came through today.
On Injury Concerns and Officiating
Reporter: That fall was in front of your bench, that was scary…
Rivers: Even one of the refs, I think he was at the game in Oklahoma, he mentioned that. He said, “Man, that’s a hard fall.” I was concerned because it looked like he landed right on his butt, which is never good, especially for a 37-year-old seven-footer.
Reporter: There were two Giannis offensive fouls that looked like tough ones…
Rivers: I could see them because both times the guards were way down under him. I got to look at it closely. I don’t know what you’re supposed to do – if he’s down by your waist, you have to be able to turn. The second one especially, I didn’t think it was, but I have to look at them.
On Gary Trent’s Impact and Team Development
Reporter: You mentioned Gary when you were referring to Brook, but just what can you say about the spark he provided with those four threes tonight?
Rivers: He’s been great. It’s another guy, and like you could tell now he’s here, he’s got his rhythm. He knows exactly what we need of him. You can see the confidence – it’s just a different Gary, and it’s good to see. Really like him and Brook, but really him because he was really strong. Just so proud of guys like that who just keep working. They know things aren’t going for them, and they just hang in there. He’s done that.
Reporter: This is the third straight game it’s gone right down to the wire. What are y’all kind of learning about one another from playing tonight?
Rivers: I was disappointed. I’m very happy about the win, but the way we ended the last six minutes of the third quarter – we had bad offensive possession after bad offensive possession, one-pass shots, turnovers that got them back in the game. Those are the things we still got to take a step forward on. That can’t happen. I thought if we had played the way we had played from the middle of the first on, we could have gone into the fourth quarter with a 12 to 14 point lead. Instead, we were down one, I think, or tied or a one-point game, and that was on us. That can’t happen.
On Rotation Decisions
Reporter: Just a couple rotation questions – Andre starts the game and then doesn’t see the floor again until late in the fourth. Just what did you see from him tonight?
Rivers: They were just not playing him. They put Sengun on him, and it just wasn’t working for us. And then Pat was not playing – that actually just happened because we liked what the guys were doing defensively, and we just stuck with guys longer. This is not a Pat out of the rotation thing, it was just tonight I thought it was the right thing to do.
