RIVERS WANTS ‘BEAR-LIKE’ DEFENSE

Doc Rivers recently sat down with the Real Training Camp crew for NBA TV and gave his state-of-the-Celtics address. He talked about the health of his All-Star forward Kevin Garnett, the addition of forward-center Rasheed Wallace and his expectations for this upcoming season.

On the health of KG: “He looks great. He’s got shin problems and that has bothered him a little, but other than that he’s played great. He’s better than what I thought he’d be.”

On Rasheed Wallace: “Rasheed is a grown man. I’m not gonna change Rasheed. I’m not even gonna try. Rasheed Wallace is a great team player. We love his personality and it’s a good thing for us.”

On his defense: “If we defend, we got a chance to win. We’re gonna score points, but if we don’t defend we’re not winning. We’ll win a lot of games but we won’t be a winner. And we’re trying to be a winner here. That’s the only reason why we’re together; that’s the only reason why we went out and got Rasheed and Marquis Daniels. That’s our goal, to be the last team playing and the only way you do that is with defense.”

Rivers added: “We want to be a great defensive team. We felt like the last two years we have been. But there’s another level that we can get to. Bottom line is this…when you talk football and you say ‘best defensive team to ever play?’ You think ’85 Bears. We want to be there someday. We want to be in that argument. We want to be better than first. I don’t know what that number is, but we want Usain Bolt First.”