LA Clippers coach Doc Rivers says his team is taking time to focus on self-improvement before preparing to face the Denver Nuggets or Utah Jazz.
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00:00The LA Clippers have officially moved on to the second round of the playoffs and now all eyes are set on Tuesday night's Game 7
00:06between the Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz as the winner of that matchup will be LA's opponent in the Coffin semi-finalists.
00:12But as far as the Clippers are concerned, preparing for either Denver or Utah is not at the top of the agenda, at least not today's.
00:19Instead, Coach Doc Rivers says LA is taking the day to focus on self-improvement rather than worrying about who they'll see later this week,
00:26saying, quote,
00:27They're both just very good teams, both really obviously really good players and very well coached.
00:32I'm not even going to get let myself go there yet because we can fix our own stuff now for at least today.
00:37We just work on the Clippers and then get to ever play tomorrow.
00:41Rivers has the right idea here. As important as it is to prep for the upcoming series,
00:45there'll be plenty of time for that.
00:46What's most crucial right now is working on the kinks that showed themselves in LA's first round series with the Dallas Mavericks.
00:52For example, the bench's defense.
00:55Rivers consistently played Rich Jackson, Lou Williams, and Montrezl Harrell together and that lineup was torn up by the Dallas Mavericks.
01:02It's partially by necessity as Patrick Beverly missed most of that series of the calf injury,
01:06but eliminating that lineup and others that are typically weak on the defensive end will do a lot for this group moving forward in the playoffs.
01:13Beverly is likely a big focus right now as well.
01:16He's progressing toward a return to the end of LA's first round series
01:19and this extended period of time to the end of that matchup and the start of the next will only do him some good.
01:23If he's planning to come back on Thursday,
01:25it's probably gonna get substantial run and practice today. As for Denver and Utah,
01:30curious Clippers fans can tune in to tonight's game 7 at 8 30 p.m. Eastern Time.
01:34It's been an extremely competitive series thus far and this final contest should be no different.