Doc Rivers eased his way into a media room inside Staples Center on Saturday afternoon and plopped in a chair, his dark blue tie askew and his shirt soaked from a hard day's work with his team. Rivers leaned forward as he spoke, deciding for the first time all season that he would open with a statement about the merits of his team.
The Clippers had just played their 80th regular-season game of this NBA season, a 134-115 loss to the Denver Nuggets that eliminated L.A. from Western Conference playoff contention.
Rivers wanted to extol the virtues of his group after the Clippers' hopes of advancing to their seventh consecutive postseason were dashed.