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You can probably call Doc Rivers a lot of things. Delusional. Overmatched. Someone who freezes and wilts in tense moments. But, I suppose, at least he's honest. At least the Milwaukee Bucks coach — who famously wondered why Milwaukee even hired him in public — wears his heart on his sleeve. It's that dynamic, dearest readers, that gets him into trouble, a.k.a., has everyone make fun of him.
Rivers' latest comments in an interview with Marc J. Spears about some of his most famous NBA playoff failures are a doozy. In a wide-ranging reflective discussion about his extended coaching career, the 2008 NBA champion with the Boston Celtics expressed dismay over how people talk about some of his teams' various blown 3-1 playoff leads. Rivers has been at the helm of three separate playoff series losses where his squad held a 3-1 series advantage with the 2003 Orlando Magic, the 2015 Los Angeles Clippers, and the 2020 Clippers.
Rivers thinks any ingering criticism about his coaching aptitude for those defeats was unwarranted. Why?
Because, per Rivers, you have to win three games to blow a 3-1 lead in the first place, and that's apparently nothing to sneeze at. I swear I'm not making this up.
More from Marc J. Spears:
On some level, Rivers might have a point. The 2003 Magic and 2015 Clippers were underdogs in their respective series. Even pushing the other team to the brink could've been construed as an achievement. Eventually, the better team usually wins in the playoffs. (Let's not talk further about the 2020 Clippers. That team had legitimate NBA title aspirations. Full stop.)
Still, at the same time, the reason people don't give Rivers credit for winning three games is quite simple, really. If his squads had won three games in a back-and-forth series to take them all the way to Game 7, then you have that "scrappy" and "hard-fought" narrative. His teams just "refused to go away, but couldn't get it done," you know? But when you have three golden chances to close a team out and can't do it, it becomes much more about failing to cross the finish line. The underdog narrative essentially goes out the window once you get that kind of insurmountable advantage. There have only been 13 teams in all of NBA history to come back and win a playoff series from a 3-1 defeat for a reason. (Ahem) It's very hard to win three straight elimination games! And Rivers has been at the steering wheel on the other side for three of them.
If someone else connected to those Magic or Clippers teams wanted to make this point — and I mean literally anyone else — I probably would've listened more. Hearing Rivers, the coach and conductor of those playoff collapses, just sounds like a man who still somehow thinks way too highly of his own failures. He would've been better served keeping these thoughts to himself.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Doc Rivers says he deserves more credit for blowing 3-1 playoff leads
Continue reading...
Rivers' latest comments in an interview with Marc J. Spears about some of his most famous NBA playoff failures are a doozy. In a wide-ranging reflective discussion about his extended coaching career, the 2008 NBA champion with the Boston Celtics expressed dismay over how people talk about some of his teams' various blown 3-1 playoff leads. Rivers has been at the helm of three separate playoff series losses where his squad held a 3-1 series advantage with the 2003 Orlando Magic, the 2015 Los Angeles Clippers, and the 2020 Clippers.
Rivers thinks any ingering criticism about his coaching aptitude for those defeats was unwarranted. Why?
Because, per Rivers, you have to win three games to blow a 3-1 lead in the first place, and that's apparently nothing to sneeze at. I swear I'm not making this up.
More from Marc J. Spears:
On some level, Rivers might have a point. The 2003 Magic and 2015 Clippers were underdogs in their respective series. Even pushing the other team to the brink could've been construed as an achievement. Eventually, the better team usually wins in the playoffs. (Let's not talk further about the 2020 Clippers. That team had legitimate NBA title aspirations. Full stop.)
Still, at the same time, the reason people don't give Rivers credit for winning three games is quite simple, really. If his squads had won three games in a back-and-forth series to take them all the way to Game 7, then you have that "scrappy" and "hard-fought" narrative. His teams just "refused to go away, but couldn't get it done," you know? But when you have three golden chances to close a team out and can't do it, it becomes much more about failing to cross the finish line. The underdog narrative essentially goes out the window once you get that kind of insurmountable advantage. There have only been 13 teams in all of NBA history to come back and win a playoff series from a 3-1 defeat for a reason. (Ahem) It's very hard to win three straight elimination games! And Rivers has been at the steering wheel on the other side for three of them.
If someone else connected to those Magic or Clippers teams wanted to make this point — and I mean literally anyone else — I probably would've listened more. Hearing Rivers, the coach and conductor of those playoff collapses, just sounds like a man who still somehow thinks way too highly of his own failures. He would've been better served keeping these thoughts to himself.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Doc Rivers says he deserves more credit for blowing 3-1 playoff leads
Continue reading...
