Doc, KG pleased with D
Celtics coach Doc Rivers liked his team’s effort tonight.
“Every single player gave us a lift with their energy defensively, and just pushing the ball up offensively,” said Rivers. “That’s one of the things we kept talking about, that we can run too. We can’t run as fast as them but we can throw the ball ahead with the pass and run that way, and I thought we did that.”
Unlike in Games 3 and 4 in Atlanta, the Celtics ratcheted up the defense in Game 5. He hopes his team’s effort can be the same on Friday.
“We have to do it again, we have to do it on the road now,” Rivers said. “It’s going to be an amazing atmosphere down there and we’re going to have to go in there and play like tonight. If the offense wasn’t as good as it was tonight, then we still have to win the game with our defense. The thing I liked was both were good tonight. But at some point we’re going to have to win a game when our offense isn’t as good and our defense has to be great.”
Kevin Garnett also keyed in on defense during his postgame press conference.
“It’s obvious, hands down, when you watch both games the level of intensity that we play with at home,” said Garnett. “For some reason we got to carry that same intensity on the road. I think at times we do it in spurts, but you know we really lock in and decide that we are going to make some stops, we really lock in.”
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