Doc Rivers Playing Quotations

We have a lot of work to do as a team and I can see that. It's exciting because I do see the talent on the floor and I like the fact that this group enjoys playing with each other.

Beyond the obvious benefit of playing time, it gives us the chance to see where he's at. It will be interesting to see what happens when he gets the consistent minutes. I want to try and fit him into as many situations as possible.

It's been the story of our season that we're close enough but we just can't close games out. I told the guys they are playing hard and they just have to live with it.

Obviously a home game against Atlanta, you hope you can win. We're not playing well right now. It's frustrating to lose this game.

We were playing a team that was obviously playing desperate and you could see that play in them. We're loose and we played aggressive.

You just got to feel at some point, it's going to turn our way. I felt horrible for them. They fought their butts off. I thought other than the middle of the third quarter, when we stopped playing for one stretch, I thought we played just great basketball.

Even if we got it up court, we wouldn't have gotten a good shot off. It's a tough loss. The game felt like the last team who had the ball was going to score. Nobody was playing defense on either team.

I had no intentions of playing him. I didn't think he wanted to play. But he ran into my office with his shoes in his hands saying he was ready to go. The only reason I played him was because he was starting at me every freaking time out. I told the coaches, we have to put him in, or he's going to drive me nuts.

It's a tough loss. The game felt like the team who had the ball last was going to score. Nobody was playing defense on either team. I guess that's what people want to watch. I don't.

We have to make sure that Wally and Paul have shots at the end of the game. I'm disappointed in the loss. We played hard, but we're not playing smart.