LOS ANGELES — He’s in his seventh season removed from the Celtics, but Doc Rivers is still throwing glances at the team he led for nine years. And he likes what he sees nowadays.
“Well, yeah, I mean, they’re healthier, No. 1, up until when Gordon (Hayward, broken hand) got hurt,” Rivers told the Herald on Wednesday afternoon before his Clippers met the Celts. “But last year you had Gordon and Kyrie (Irving) both coming back from being out. Gordon hadn’t played the whole year before, and Kyrie hadn’t played in a while either, so they hadn’t really played together. And they just never could get their traction.
“The rest of it, I stay out of. I’ll let y’all deal with that.”
Rivers wasn’t testifying before Congress or anything, but no one really needs to be reminded to put two and two together on this one. He’s pleased for the people he worked with in Boston and also for Brad Stevens, the man who replaced him on the Celtic bench and has become a friend.
“I think Brad said it to me last year, and now I can say it back at him this year,” Rivers said. “Brad told me last year, ‘Man, it’s so great to watch how happy you are coaching.’ And I feel the same way watching the Celtics games now. I’m happy for him.”
Last year was difficult for Doc when he tuned in. The Celts had peaks and strange valleys in the regular season before bowing out ungracefully in the second round of the playoffs.
“I didn’t watch them enough, but you just knew what they were going through, and that’s tough.” Rivers said. “That’s tough. The whole world picked them to win the East, right? So you had that and then the team’s just not playing well.
“It’s a great lesson for all of us. Chemistry is so important. Chemistry and youth, you know, they had both going at them. They were expecting guys in their second year to just take over, and sometimes that takes a little while. It’s just good to see them playing well now.”
So are the Clippers, who came into Wednesday’s game with a 9-5 mark but were expected to get Kawhi Leonard and Paul George on the court together for the first time. George is in his fourth game back from injury, while Leonard has been dealing with a knee contusion.
Earlier, Rivers and the Clippers received criticism for holding Leonard out for “load management,” a practice Toronto used to great effect last year on its way to the NBA championship.
“I’ve always believed in load management,” Rivers told the Herald. “You know, we load managed when we had the Big 3 (Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen). People forget that we went on a road trip and we didn’t even take them. There was no science to it then; it was just me saying we have a long road ahead of us and we need to rest those guys.
“Some of it is rest, but some of it is guys have nagging little injuries. So how do you get them to have those go away? You sit them.”
The Clippers figure to need all their players ready for a long postseason run. It’s the second time Rivers has a title-worthy crew under his command with the Clips. But Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan are a trio of the past now.
“It’s different this time,” he said. “I mean, that time there were other teams, too. We weren’t the odds-on favorite to win the world championship. We were one of the teams. But this is a whole different group, different mindset. They don’t have the negative baggage together. Like, when I got to the Clippers, there was still negative baggage, you know what I mean? This is a fresh, new group.”
One could say the same about the Celtics.
"Happy" - Google News
November 21, 2019 at 05:16AM
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Doc Rivers happy to see the change in Celtics from last year - Boston Herald
"Happy" - Google News
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