Doc Rivers Speaks on his Teams Collapsing in Playoffs

Losing playoff leads is not what the Doctor ordered.

Doc Rivers is known for blowing leads in the playoffs, and he’s about to do it again. Last season was the latest chapter in his book of choke jobs, and Simmons is merely a footnote when it comes to the coach’s playoff ineptitude.

Doc Rivers has now blown three 3-1 leads, one 3-2 lead, one 2-0 lead, and lost Game 7 at home four times (five if you count the bubble)

— Mike Prada. (PRAY-duh) (@MikePradaNBA) June 21, 2021

Rivers also blew a 3-2 lead in the 2010 NBA Finals.

Now once again it’s being discusses as the Sixers head to Toronto for game 6 after taking a 3-0 lead. Doc was asked about it, and he didn’t hold back.

“Well, it’s easy to use me as an example,” Rivers said after the team finished practice. “But I wish y’all would tell the whole story with me. All right?

“My Orlando team [in 2003] was the eighth seed. No one gives me credit for getting up against the [Detroit] Pistons, who won the title. That was an eighth seed. I want you to go back and look at that roster. I dare you to go back and look at that roster. And you would say, ‘What a hell of a coaching job.’ Really.

“I mean, the Clipper team [in 2015] that we lost 3-1, Chris Paul didn’t play the first two games, and was playing on one leg, and we didn’t have home court. And then the last one [when the Clippers lost to the Denver Nuggets in 2020], to me, is the one we blew. That’s the one I took. We blew that. And that was in the bubble. And anything can happen in the bubble. There’s no home court. Game 7 would have been in LA.

“But, it just happens. So I would say with me, some of them is … I gotta do better always. I always take my own responsibility. And then some of it is, circumstances happen. This one, let’s win it, and we don’t have to talk about it.”

“In 2003, Rivers and the Orlando Magic — led by future Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady, who won the scoring title that season — took that 3-1 lead on the top-seeded Pistons. Ironically, it was the first season the NBA went back to a best-of-seven first-round series. Famously, McGrady — who never made it out of the first round of the playoffs until the end his career as a bit player with San Antonio — said after winning Game 4 to take that 3-1 lead, “It feels good to get in the second round.”

Doc Rivers got a little defensive when discussing his past teams' collapses 👀 pic.twitter.com/88PqjDDUZa

— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) April 27, 2022

Philadelphia will need to win tonight and avoid returning for a do-or-die Game 7 on Saturday night.

Doc needs a W more than anyone right now..

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