“I wish y’all would tell the whole story with me, the Clipper team that we lost 3-1, Chris Paul didn’t play the first 2 games” - Doc Rivers responds to the media bringing up his playoffs failures with a 3-1 lead
Doc Rivers' infamy for blowing a 3-1 lead is creeping up yet again as the Philadelphia 76ers go to Toronto for Game 6 of their Eastern Conference series.
The teams continue their first-round series in Toronto on Thursday. Philadelphia led 3-0 but has lost the past two games.
In an interview, Rivers talked about how cherry-picked moments from his career are used to create a false narrative around his coaching:
"It's easy to use me as an example, but I wish y'all would tell the whole story with me. My Orlando team was the eighth seed. No one gives me credit for getting up against the Pistons, who won the title. That was an eighth seed. I dare you to go back and look at that roster, and you would say 'What a hell of a coaching job.'"
Rivers further elaborated on the LA Clippers' breakdown in the 2015 Western Conference semifinals against the Houston Rockets:
"The Clipper team that we lost 3-1, Chris Paul didn't play in the first two games and was playing on one leg and we didn't have homecourt. And the last one is the one we blew, and that was in the bubble, and anything can happen in the bubble, there's no homecourt. ... With me, I got to do better always. Always take my own responsibility, and then some of it is circumstances happen."
Doc Rivers got a little defensive when discussing his past teams' collapses 👀 https://t.co/88PqjDDUZa
Rivers blew a 3-1 lead in 2003 with the Orlando Magic and in 2015 with the LA Clippers, making him the only coach to do this multiple times.
Doc Rivers' LA Clippers battles on the court went past basketball
The LA Clippers in the early to mid 2010s were star-studded. They had No. 1 pick and All-Star Blake Griffin and perennial All-Star and masterful floor general Chris Paul. They had big-man extraordinaire (also an All-Star) DeAndre Jordan and one of the best sixth man in NBA history in Jamal Crawford. Plus, they had one of the NBA's greatest 3-point shooters, redick" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-is-sponsored="false">JJ Redick.
Here's the punch-line: This team never even made it to the Western Conference finals.
Tensions in the group, primarily between Paul and Griffin, are not a good enough reason for the Clippers to never even make the conference finals. And Redick pointed to luck as an important facet to consider when evaluating those Clipper teams:
"Doc (Rivers) has talked a little bit about luck. ... You (Blake Griffin) were hurt most of the year (2015-16), and then you and Chris (Paul) got hurt in the first round, which was luck. In '17 you got hurt in the first round, again, some luck" (h/t) The Old Man & The Three
The Clippers should have at least won the conference title, and we'll never truly know what those Clippers teams could've accomplished.