Doc Rivers After His 300th Win With Clippers: “I’m Here To Win The Title”

When the Clippers traded Tobias Harris and Boban Marjanovic to Philadelphia, the fans were perfectly aware that Jerry West is setting up the terrain for the aggressive and big free agency campaign.

And most of them said goodbye to the playoffs this season. Back at the time of the trade, it seemed that the other franchise from LA is going to reach the postseason, and once again despite all the future plans, those fans were a little bit disappointed.

Some six weeks later, the situation couldn’t be better for the Clippers. They are almost certainly in the playoffs, several new players emerged, and Doc Rivers wrote history with them.

Lou Williams’ fantastic downtown buzzer-beater against the Nets last night, brought the 300th win for the famous coach on the Clippers’ bench.

“He’s been absolutely amazing. He makes big shots,” Rivers said of Williams and added, “he’s one of those guys, he’s not scared.”

But when mentioned to him after the game, that he reached 300 victories with his current team, Doc was surprised. He didn’t know that.

“I didn’t know that,” he said. “That’s great. I mean I’m surprised by that, I had no idea. I don’t know what to say, it’s nice.”

Doc was unaware of the fact that he became the seventh coach in the NBA history who posted 300 wins with two different franchises.

He is now a member of an elite company along with, Phil Jackson who did the same with Bulls and the Lakers, Don Nelson (Bucks, Mavericks, and Warriors), Pat Riley (Lakers, Heat) and Lenny Wilkens (Sonics, Cavaliers and Hawks), George Karl (Nuggets, Sonics), and Dick Motta (Mavs, Bulls).

During his stint in Boston, Rivers recorded 416 triumphs along with one title in 2008. At the moment he has 887 wins and 654 losses.

There is no doubt that he will reach 1,000-win mark pretty fast, especially if Clippers fulfill their plan for the summer free agency and land some heavyweight stars on board.

Doc stated that he is a “lucky man” for having a chance to be a part of the Clippers organization, and issued many praises about his time spent here.

“I’ve been very lucky, with great players, I really have, and I’ve had a great staff, so I think, in a lot of ways I’m the lucky one.”

Still, he declared that last night’s landmark isn’t why he here. Although it is a nice achievement, that was not his goal. Rivers joined the Clippers to win the title, not to pump up his stats and percentages as a coach.

He was very specific at the press conference about that.

“Not what I’m here for, you know what I mean, I want to win ONE game, and we got to get there,” 57-year old referred to the game which will bring the trophy. “We’re here to win four games in that one series, so that’s what I’m here for, that’s what I want.”

His Clippers might not win the ring this season, but they already went above planned. As we said, most of the fans and the NBA experts wrote them off from the playoff combinations some six or seven weeks ago.

At the moment, Sweet Lou and the boys are 8th in the West with 41 wins and 30 defeats, just half a game behind the Spurs on the sixth place and one and a half game behind OKC in the fifth.

Their numbers could easily improve, as they have a good schedule until the end of the regular part of the season.

The LA-based franchise will meet with Cavaliers on two occasions, with the Knicks, Grizzlies, Lakers, Timberwolves among others. And in the last game of the season, Utah Jazz is coming to Staples. Right now, the two sides have the same record, and it could turn out for that contest to decide about the better position in the standings.

With much bigger names during the previous season, the Clippers reached just 42 wins. They will no doubt surpass that now. And what is more important, they have a young and energetic crew, who created great chemistry.

It will be a great foundation for Jerry West and Rivers to make that team who will bring a trophy, and fulfill Doc’s mission in Los Angeles.