Several notes from Doc Rivers' Tuesday morning interview on WEEI.
The Miami Heat pose more problems for the Boston Celtics (or anybody else, really) than any other team in the Eastern Conference.
So naturally, the Celtics say they want to play them.
"I think we would enjoy that matchup," coach Doc Rivers said Tuesday morning during an interview on WEEI, "there's no doubt about that."
Rivers said his gameplan against Miami is slightly counter-intuitive, but that it worked when Boston executed properly during Monday night's loss.
"I think the old-school thought is that you don't run on the Heat, and I think we felt the exact opposite of that and proved that for most of the game," Rivers said. "I thought one of the reasons we lost that game was that we lost our pace."
More from Rivers' interview with Dennis & Callahan
On Paul Pierce's final shot from the right corner: "I don't mind that. Listen, he got a good look at it. He might have (been able) to drive, I don't know. I don't question those shots at the end of the game because he makes those shots. And if it goes in, it's a great shot. If it doesn't go in, could we have gotten a better shot? I don't know."
On whether he would have rather seen Pierce step into a shot rather than fade away: "Yeah, but Paul takes fadeaways, and that's part of his shot. Having said that, the play was really what it was, except it wasn't designed for a three. Jason Terry set a terrific pick on LeBron, and LeBron actually got tangled up on it. Give him credit -- he closes so quick, it's amazing. But the play was just for a pindown from Jason Terry, because I knew they didn't want to get off his body. I thought Paul would have an opening, and Paul went out to the three. He didn't probably have to, he may have been able to tight curl that, but I don't second-guess that."
On Jason Terry's decision to throw himself in front of LeBron James' dunk: "No, I love it. I wish he could have taken him down before he got to the dunk. And I said the same thing about Brandon Knight. Listen, you should have fun, it was a great dunk. Knock Jason down or Brandon down. With the new age of Twitter and all that, it's fun. And I have no problem with people having fun. But just like Brandon took it very well, so did Jason, and they both made the right plays. I hate people talking about getting out of the way because they don't want to get embarrassed. That bugs the heck out of me. You have to stick your nose in there if you want to be a champion."
On whether we'll see Jeff Green string together big games on a more consistent basis: "I think you will, and I think you're starting to see it more and more out of him. It is about matchups, though. I felt really good going into that game about Jeff's matchup at the four, because I didn't think they had a four who could stay in front of him. And I thought Jeff took advantage of that. And the key to it was that he took advantage of it and he kept doing it. He's not going to have a matchup like that every night. But on the nights he does, we want him to be that aggressive and that's great."
On how James creates offense for his teammates: "It just felt like every basket they made, it was a result of LeBron. Most of Chalmers' threes came off LeBron's passes. It's not just that he scored the points, but he also had the assists. So he created a lot of points for them last night."
Does James create more open looks than anyone else in the NBA? "Yeah, I would say there's no question about that."
Is Kevin Garnett playing Wednesday against New Orleans? "I think so, but I haven't talked to anyone today, so we'll find that out."
On distracting Dwyane Wade during Monday's game: "The question of the day was what I asked Dwyane Wade during the game -- 'Who are you going to take if Indiana and Marquette play? -- because his coach was at Indiana.' ... I was trying to distract him. I just wanted him to think about anything else. It was during a free throw, and he actually said that, and then he came back and said, 'I think I'm going back to Marquette.'"
On who he's picking to win the NCAA Tournament: "Before the brackets, I had Miami. I just think they're unbelievable to watch, but then they put them in the same bracket as Indiana. So I'm still going to stick with Miami because of Jim Larranaga. He's one of my favorite coaches in college basketball. I think he's one of the best coaches in college basketball that no one knows."