Rowan Kavner
LOS ANGELES – When a coach makes a point, sometimes a player needs to be the example.
On Thursday morning, with the Clippers getting their second chance to close out the Rockets later that night, Doc Rivers used one of his son’s grades to describe the team’s previous performance.
“He was telling us a story about Austin having a ‘C’ average,” said Glen Davis. “He knew that Austin could do better. He knows that we can do better, and we will do better today.”
Doc Rivers has plenty of ways to convey a message, and Davis said at times a variety of players can be used to do so. Davis said he’s been used before, and Thursday was just Austin’s day.
Davis recalled how Doc Rivers told his players they’re better than that “C average” they showed in Houston, losing by 21 points while also seeming to lose every loose ball and every ounce of energy they’d shown throughout the playoffs.
J.J. Redick didn’t recognize the group that day, also bringing up his head coach’s example. It didn’t look like the team that stormed to a 3-1 advantage in the series, one win away from a trip to the Western Conference Finals.
“It wasn’t a good team,” Redick said. “It was a ‘C’ team. It was an average team. Exactly like Doc just said, it was a ‘C’ team.”
Redick kept hearing the word “disappointed” after Tuesday night’s game. Beyond the “X’s and O’s,” Redick said the Clippers know they’re just a better team from an effort standpoint than the group that stepped on the court Tuesday in Houston.
A “C” might actually be generous, considering how Game 5 went for the Clippers, allowing at least 124 points for just the fifth time this season. Davis said the Rockets beat the Clippers in nearly every category.
But he also added that uncharacteristic performance is now behind the group.
“We’ve got to make sure we go out there and make ‘A’s,’” Davis said.
Davis is now in more of a position to do that, finally feeling like himself. It was common throughout the series for Davis to be on a bike away from the court when he wasn’t in the game, as he worked through a sore ankle.
He said he’s now “100 percent” and looks forward to bringing more energy.
“The focus level has to go to a whole ‘nother level,” Davis said. “Attention to detail, energy, there’s a whole bunch of stuff that goes in a bag in order to finish a game…Win the ballgame. Whatever it takes. However we have our mindset, we’ve got to bring the intensity.”
And while the Clippers look for an opposite performance from that struggle, Redick’s hoping to be on the opposite side from the last time he was involved in a 3-1 series that went to 3-2.
“I can remember being in Orlando in 2011 playing the Hawks, and we were in Houston’s situation and beat the crap out of them Game 5 at home and had to go back to Atlanta and lost that game,” Redick said. “I’m hoping we’re Atlanta and they’re Orlando.”