MY ACCOUNT
Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers hit back at reporters on Wednesday, defending his playoff resume from the insinuation that he is responsible for some memorable collapses.
The 76ers are a team under pressure against the Toronto Raptors in their first round series, as they strive to avoid the dubious honour of becoming the first team to ever blow a 3-0 series lead.
After controlling the first three fixtures, the 76ers fell by eight points in Game 4, and 15 points in Game 5 as star Joel Embiid battles a thumb injury that will likely require surgery once Philadelphia’s season is over.
Rivers, who won the 2008 NBA Championship with the Boston Celtics, pushed back when questioned about his reputation in the playoffs.
“Well, it’s easy to use me as an example,” he said “But I wish y’all would tell the whole story with me. All right?
“My Orlando team [in 2003] was the eighth seed. No one gives me credit for getting up against the [Detroit] Pistons, who won the title.
“That was an eighth seed. I want you to go back and look at that roster. I dare you to go back and look at that roster. And you would say, ‘What a hell of a coaching job.’ Really.
“I mean, the Clipper team [in 2015] that we lost 3-1, Chris Paul didn’t play the first two games, and was playing on one leg, and we didn’t have home court.
“And then the last one [when the Clippers lost to the Denver Nuggets in 2020], to me, is the one we blew. That’s the one I took. We blew that.
“And that was in the bubble. And anything can happen in the bubble. There’s no home court. Game 7 would have been in LA.”
After highlighting his most famous playoff shortcomings, Rivers insisted it is not a theme, and sometimes it is just the way the cookie crumbles.
“But, it just happens,” he said. “So I would say with me… some of it is, I gotta do better, always.
“I always take my own responsibility. And then some of it is, circumstances happen. This one, let’s win it, and we don’t have to talk about it.
“Being up 3-0, especially 3-0, I would say that [teams feel differently].
“A lot of teams don’t win those games. The Celtics are the only one that won that game [in the first round of this year’s playoffs]. Everyone else lost that game.
“From a coaching standpoint, you hate that, because you feel like, ‘Let’s just take care of it.’ Then you get to Game 5 the other night, and [Toronto] played better.
“We didn’t play well. We didn’t play with a sense of urgency. So clearly now, I think both teams have kind of served notice and both teams have the other team’s attention.
“If you don’t have that, then we’re all in trouble.”
