Sports Radio Interviews

Doc Rivers: “You win 25 games and row and someone says that’s bad for you…I don’t get that.”

The Boston Celtics have won eight in a row and are now 17-4 and tied with the Orland Magic atop the Eastern Conference at just past the quarter point of the 2009-2010 season. The Celtics are getting offensive contributions from the usual suspects, but it’s the collective play of the defense that’s propelled them to victory, particularly in the their last five games where they’ve allowed an opponent to reach 90 points just once. It’s a long regular season of course and piling up all these wins really means little outside of keeping pace with the frontrunner’s in the Eastern Conference, namely Orlando and Cleveland.  

Doc Rivers joined WEEI in Boston with Dennis & Callahan to talk about the nice winning streak his team is on, worrying more about improving than wins and losses, the return of Big Baby Davis from injury, and on the Tim Donaghy scandal, which of course is back in the news this week.

On if he’s worried about pushing his team too hard during the regular season:

“No, I don’t worry about that. I hear all that talk and I really think it’s almost silly sometimes. You know let’s say you win 25 games and row and someone says that’s bad for you. I say, I don’t get that. I’ve never gotten that. You know, obviously if you’re playing your guys 40 minutes a night or something like that, then that’s different. But if you’re playing them their normal minutes and you’re winning games – isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?. You want to improve. Any team that doesn’t improve during the year is not going to do much in the playoffs. So, that’s what the regular season is for.”

On emphasizing the need for the Celtics to improve rebounding the ball, particularly on the defensive glass:

“You know, I was telling someone, we shoot the ball so well right now. And the ball movement is so good  that we’re not going to get a lot of offensive rebounds if we continue to play on that pace. So those numbers will be down. I’m not concerned about that. I’m more concerned obviously about our defensive rebounding. Too many teams – we won a game on the road guys early in the year on our trip, against San Antonio, where we gave up 20 offensive rebounds. That’s not going to cut it.

On the red hot Kevin Garnett:

“He’s on fire, I tell you. It’s funny what some film work will do every once in awhile. Earlier in the year, besides the fact that he was coming back from injury – it takes time to get his rhythm – he is about two steps further back off his spot. You know, everybody has spots on the floor. And you cod clearly see it with Kevin. And we said it and he started looking at it, and now he’s made a point of getting to a point on his shots and I think it’s huge. That New York game..it was funny, we were talking about it before the game and at halftime we brought it back up. You’re further out than you normally shoot. The back of your heels are on the 3 and your toes are usually on the elbow; and that’s a big difference.  That’s two or three steps in. And I think he’s done a great job of that.”

On if he’d characterize Kevin Garnett as being ‘angry’ out there on the court when he’s doing his whole intensity routine:

“No, it’s more his look. He’s not real angry, he’s intense. He’s a tough guy to describe because off the court he’s one of the more wonderful people you could ever be around. But on the court, he’s into a zone that, I got to tell you, as a player I don’t think I ever got to. It’s an amazing state that he gets himself in to. You’ve probably seen him before games and talked to people. I mean, he has more game preparation than any athlete I’ve ever been around and I think it allows him to play at the level that he plays at.”

On if he had any idea that Donaghy was corrupt:

“No I didn’t guys, and like I told you before, I had no idea I just thought he was an awful ref. I really did, and I don’t say that often. You know, he’s the only official that I requested to have a meeting with – because I thought it was personal. And it got to the point where they actually obliged to that. And he told me it wasn’t personal. Then I find out all this other stuff and I realized it was personal to the least! I smelled it out early as far as him being a bad ref, I didn’t realize that was what he was bad at. It’s a shame though guys, really. Listen, I get on refs as much as Pop and all the other guys do, but they work their butts off. I know they do. I see them working at it, when you walk by their locker room, you can see them with their computers on working their butt off. You know, there’s a of guys – Danny Crawford from Chicago – there’s a lot of guys who grew up wanting to be officials and now what they do is coming in to question. And I just think it’s unfair that we keep giving this guy who obviously has character problems and honesty problems a forum. It does bother me. I will say it bothers me also – you know, I heard him talking about it’s entertainment. And that really pissed me off when I heard him say that. Because I’m thinking, I have a torn knee, a torn meniscus, a broken thumb, a broken nose, a broken wrist. And to me, that was not entertainment. That was competition. So when I hear that from a guy like him, it really bothers me.”

Listen here to Rivers on WEEI in Boston

Tags: Big Baby Davis, Boston Celtics, Doc Rivers, hottest teams in NBA, Kevin Garnett, Tim Donaghy, WEEI