Doc Rivers had a simple message for the Clippers on their day off. Something along the lines of the adage of if you pay no heed to history, you’re doomed to repeat it.
So he made his team watch their performance in the 107-88 loss to Phoenix. Twice.
It wasn’t the entire game, it was the Rivers special cuts edition.
“You’re watching your team play and clearly we had a ton of slippage, maybe from not enough practicing with all these days (of games) that we’ve had,” Rivers said. “You could clearly see it, they could see it.
“I do think film’s important, I think it can be overused and I always worry about using it to make me feel better instead of teaching the players. Sometimes as a coach you get angry watching the film . . . but there’s no benefit from it sometimes. I thought yesterday was a benefit for us because we saw a lot of things as a team that we’ve slipped on.”
So as the Clippers prepared to face another defensive challenge from Charlotte Wednesday at Staples Center, Rivers just wanted to extend a few reminders.
“Our transition defense to start with, which has been unbelievable, was horrendous the other night, as bad as it’s been in a long time,’ Rivers said. “We were breaking a lot of habits, and a lot of them came back in that game.”
Rivers is more of a believer in rest than in repeated practices, but he admits searching for the right combination is an elusive pursuit.
So he’s not necessarily going to add more practices.
“No, we’re going to do the same stuff,” he said. “It’s always a balancing act. If someone has a formula, can you please tell me? Because I don’t know it. I don’t think anyone knows it.
“You try to walk the right line. Sometimes you’re on it, sometimes you’re on the wrong side of it and you keep going back and forth and that’s what we’ll do. Practice more, less shootaround, it’s a balancing act and I don’t think anyone’s got it right yet. Or perfect.”