Sports Radio Interviews

Doc Rivers Had No Problem with the Fans Booing the Celtics off the Court

Remember when the Celtics were the class of the Eastern Conference?  Remember when Paul Pierce was the truth?  Remember when Kevin Garnett was one of the best big men in the NBA?  All those things seem to be a thing of the past in Beantown, especially after getting routed by the Grizzlies and getting booed off their home floor.  I thought at the beginning of the season that the Celtics, if they could stay healthy, were the team to beat in the Eastern Conference.

Upon further review, the Celtics are no longer an elite team.  They continue to show their age as the season goes on and are the fourth best team in their own conference in my opinion.  While they still have one of the better records in the conference and they still have one month to get their act together before the playoffs start, if Paul Pierce doesn’t return to the form that he showed two years ago and K.G. doesn’t stop dragging his leg around, the Celtics could be in danger of being one and done in the Eastern Conference playoffs and Danny Ainge will have a lot of questions to answer in the off-season.

Doc Rivers joined WEEI in Boston with Dennis and Callahan to talk about being booed on their home court last night, whether or not he thought the team gave up against the Grizzlies, and what it will take for his team to once again be one of the top teams in the NBA.

On whether or not he thought his team gave up last night against Memphis:

“No.  I thought they gave in as the game went on.  You can call it quit or whatever, but I don’t think they mailed it in when they showed up.  You look at the first eight minutes of the game, I thought we competed and we missed every shot…every wide open shot, but that’s again why you watch tape.  You look at how you performed early on.  When things went bad I don’t think we had a lot of resolve to fight it last night and that was obvious.  But when you watch the beginning of the game, the ball was moving, we missed wide open shot after wide open shot after wide open shot at the basket and outside the paint, Paul had that one shot, Ray had great open looks and they didn’t go in.  What bothered me about it again is as we missed shots, we hung our heads more and more and that’s something that we have done several times this year.  You’re not gonna play well offensively every night, but you can still defend.  I thought on the other end is where the breakdowns came.  As the game got worse, I thought our fight got less and that bothers me.”

On what things the Celtics need to fix before they are once again one of the top teams in the league:

“I think there’s too many things.  I think a couple of things that has to happen for us to be a viable candidate in the playoffs, is we have to get Paul going.  We have to re-establish him as our go-to guy, our best offensive player and to do that we have to play him through getting healthy and getting his rhythm back and that’s tough.  But we have to do that.  Then number two would be the same thing with Kevin.  At the end of the day, being in this as long as I have it comes down to your best players playing well and being on rhythm.  The better they play, the better all your role players play and that doesn’t change anywhere probably in any sport.”

On whether or not he plans on throwing chairs and going crazy on his team:

“Well I plan to when I need to.  That sounds great but I think that’s more for media than anything else.  But have I had my screaming moments?  Absolutely.  I’ve had about 20 of them this year probably.  People want to see passion and all that stuff.  Trust me it’s there and I try not to show it as much on the floor as I do behind the scenes.  That is so overrated it’s ridiculous.”

On whether or not he has considered changing his rotation and if so, how different it may look in the near future:

“It won’t be much different.  I’m not sure if I will or not.  We have been discussing this for a week now.  You can’t overreact to anything with this team or with any team.  You gotta look at the big picture.  And you look at the big picture and as bad as we’re playing, we’re still tied with Atlanta or one behind and we’re right next to Orlando, who if you look from afar have had a sensational year.  We’re not that far off.  We’re just far over the last couple of weeks.”

On whether or not he has ever heard boos like last night in Boston:

“Yeah, that was pretty good and deserving.  I’m not a fan of booing anything.  I’ve told you guys that before watching my favorite teams and all that.  But that was frustrating for the fans as well.  Last night was so bad that I had no problem with it at all.”

Listen to Doc Rivers on WEEI in Boston here

Tags: Boston Celtics, Celtics booed at home against the Grizzlies, Doc Rivers, Eastern Conference, NBA, WEEI