The GREAT Doc Rivers

[CelticG1]

Im mote interested in CP3 excuses.

Apparently he was injured the last 2 years which were an excuse. Now this year i guess he was injured again?

Then theres the Vinny Del Negro excuse. Vinny who dis just as well as Doc.

Then theres the match up excuse. Of course when the clippers lost with Vinny del nelgro it was because of him and not the match ups.

Seriously when a team loses in the playoffs what a joke of an excuse. The reason it is a bad matchup is because they lost!

[Fafnir]

Seriously when a team loses in the playoffs what a joke of an excuse. The reason it is a bad matchup is because they lost!

OKC is a bad matchup for the Clippers because they lack a single wing defender to try and make Durant work hard. They had to use Matt Barnes and Granger on him when they didn't use a guard.

If you think talking about matchups and what happened in a series is "excuses" then why talk basketball at all?

[fairweatherfan]

Im mote interested in CP3 excuses.

Apparently he was injured the last 2 years which were an excuse. Now this year i guess he was injured again?

Then theres the Vinny Del Negro excuse. Vinny who dis just as well as Doc.

Then theres the match up excuse. Of course when the clippers lost with Vinny del nelgro it was because of him and not the match ups.

Seriously when a team loses in the playoffs what a joke of an excuse. The reason it is a bad matchup is because they lost!

What's wrong with "Durant is a better player and OKC a better team, and it was still a very close contest?"

[Fafnir]

Im mote interested in CP3 excuses.

Apparently he was injured the last 2 years which were an excuse. Now this year i guess he was injured again?

Then theres the Vinny Del Negro excuse. Vinny who dis just as well as Doc.

Then theres the match up excuse. Of course when the clippers lost with Vinny del nelgro it was because of him and not the match ups.

Seriously when a team loses in the playoffs what a joke of an excuse. The reason it is a bad matchup is because they lost!

What's wrong with "Durant is a better player and OKC a better team, and it was still a very close contest?"

Another excuse, if you're not first your last I guess.

[D.o.s.]

Not sure why so many Celtics fan love Doc, wasn't it him who said the Lakers were the better franchise?  Everyone seems to forget that, anyways I am glad he and the Clips got knocked out.  And again lets not put Spoelstra as a good coach.  Any coach of that team would win titles, same with Phil, had Jordan and Kobe, arguably both top 5 players of all time.

  Kobe isn't one of the top 5 players of all time, unless you're only counting the Lakers.

Lakers guards*

[BballTim]

Im mote interested in CP3 excuses.

Apparently he was injured the last 2 years which were an excuse. Now this year i guess he was injured again?

Then theres the Vinny Del Negro excuse. Vinny who dis just as well as Doc.

Then theres the match up excuse. Of course when the clippers lost with Vinny del nelgro it was because of him and not the match ups.

Seriously when a team loses in the playoffs what a joke of an excuse. The reason it is a bad matchup is because they lost!

What's wrong with "Durant is a better player and OKC a better team, and it was still a very close contest?"

Another excuse, if you're not first your last I guess.

  If you're not going to win the title your goal should be to lose as many games as possible and get a good pick, but that probably belongs in another thread.

[sed522002]

I honestly think the Clippers played like the better team most of the series and had a real chance to beat OKC. OKC did what they needed to do in crunch time. If it wasn't for CP3 having his brain fart in G5 and "questionable" calls, they could have potentially closed the game last night. OKC was the "better" team on paper, but they had a very real chance of getting beat. Clips stopped executing well down the stretch and that falls on Doc and CP3.

[fairweatherfan]

Im mote interested in CP3 excuses.

Apparently he was injured the last 2 years which were an excuse. Now this year i guess he was injured again?

Then theres the Vinny Del Negro excuse. Vinny who dis just as well as Doc.

Then theres the match up excuse. Of course when the clippers lost with Vinny del nelgro it was because of him and not the match ups.

Seriously when a team loses in the playoffs what a joke of an excuse. The reason it is a bad matchup is because they lost!

What's wrong with "Durant is a better player and OKC a better team, and it was still a very close contest?"

Another excuse, if you're not first your last I guess.

Oh hell, son, I was high that day.  That doesn't make any sense at all, you can be second, third, fourth... hell you can even be fifth! 

...fifth sounds about right for the Clips.

[Rick Robeys Return]

Im mote interested in CP3 excuses.

Apparently he was injured the last 2 years which were an excuse. Now this year i guess he was injured again?

Then theres the Vinny Del Negro excuse. Vinny who dis just as well as Doc.

Then theres the match up excuse. Of course when the clippers lost with Vinny del nelgro it was because of him and not the match ups.

Seriously when a team loses in the playoffs what a joke of an excuse. The reason it is a bad matchup is because they lost!

What's wrong with "Durant is a better player and OKC a better team, and it was still a very close contest?"

Another excuse, if you're not first your last I guess.

  If you're not going to win the title your goal should be to lose as many games as possible and get a good pick, but that probably belongs in another thread.

Scotty Brooks had OKC playing like much less than the sum of their parts over much of the series. And it really is the case that individual heroics (RJackson, Durant, Westbrook) at different moments, and then CP3's terrible play in game 5 cost the Clippers a series that was very much within their grasp. I still think that if the refs hadnt handed that game to OKC, it was likely Clippers prevail. All of which is to say, Doc did the better coaching job in the series, despite losing.

[86MaxwellSmart]

During last night's broadcast---the announcers said something like:
Winning is not easy, ask Doc Rivers...in 2008 his Champion Celtics were taken to 7 games by the Atlanta Hawks in the first round.

I screamed at my television: "That was all Doc's Fault"---The Celtics CRUSHED the league all year---only to have Doc change his rotation to start the playoffs---When he finally came to his senses (or when DANNY intervened)--and put Eddie House back in, the Celtics were back to the dominate team they were in the regular season--although it took another 7 game series against the Cavs to re-adjust....Idiot almost BLEW our title, all by himself....

Steve Bulpett or Dan Shaughnessy has mentioned this more than once.

[Fafnir]

I screamed at my television: "That was all Doc's Fault"---The Celtics CRUSHED the league all year---only to have Doc change his rotation to start the playoffs---When he finally came to his senses (or when DANNY intervened)--and put Eddie House back in, the Celtics were back to the dominate team they were in the regular season--although it took another 7 game series against the Cavs to re-adjust....Idiot almost BLEW our title, all by himself....

This didn't happen.

Eddie House wasn't reinserted into the rotation, his minutes kept bouncing based on Doc's feel until the Finals. Once Doc had Derek Fisher to put House on he played him plenty House didn't play much at all versus Detroit for example.

[CelticG1]

I think its more "Hey clippers, you just arent actually that good!" "Hey Rockets you arent very good either!"

Thats kind of my point. CP3 and Blake Griffin are just overrated. 2 supposed absolute superstars with a pretty stacked supporting cast and one of the best coaches to boot.

They just arent good enough.

Im gonna vomit if Miami loses  and people say "it was the matchup problem! No answer for Roy Hibbert and Paul George was glued to Lebron"

[hpantazo]

Since when is getting beat by the OKC Thunder with the MVP of the league in a playoff series a mark of shame? In a tough close 6 game series, not a blow out or a short one.

I guess its Doc's fault that CP3 had the worst minute of his basketball career in game 5?

Yeah, I don't get it.  His team lost to a better team that had home court advantage.  He had his team in position to win the series, if breaks had gone the other way.

If Doc had made critical coaching errors that lost the series, I'd be sympathetic to the argument.  That's not the case here, though, is it?

Sure, but Doc is also the GM and made some questionable personnel decisions this year, so if OKC is the better team on paper, it's partly his responsibility.

[BballTim]

I screamed at my television: "That was all Doc's Fault"---The Celtics CRUSHED the league all year---only to have Doc change his rotation to start the playoffs---When he finally came to his senses (or when DANNY intervened)--and put Eddie House back in, the Celtics were back to the dominate team they were in the regular season--although it took another 7 game series against the Cavs to re-adjust....Idiot almost BLEW our title, all by himself....

This didn't happen.

Eddie House wasn't reinserted into the rotation, his minutes kept bouncing based on Doc's feel until the Finals. Once Doc had Derek Fisher to put House on he played him plenty House didn't play much at all versus Detroit for example.

  I think House and Cassell both played their way out of the rotation a couple of times during the playoffs.

[Donoghus]

I screamed at my television: "That was all Doc's Fault"---The Celtics CRUSHED the league all year---only to have Doc change his rotation to start the playoffs---When he finally came to his senses (or when DANNY intervened)--and put Eddie House back in, the Celtics were back to the dominate team they were in the regular season--although it took another 7 game series against the Cavs to re-adjust....Idiot almost BLEW our title, all by himself....

This didn't happen.

Eddie House wasn't reinserted into the rotation, his minutes kept bouncing based on Doc's feel until the Finals. Once Doc had Derek Fisher to put House on he played him plenty House didn't play much at all versus Detroit for example.

  I think House and Cassell both played their way out of the rotation a couple of times during the playoffs.

House certainly did.