We hear it all the time: For NBA coaches, game-planning in the playoffs is gruelling work.
“I go over the film a lot more painstakingly, I guess, than I would during the regular season,” Nick Nurse, the Raptors coach, was saying on Wednesday.
Which doesn’t mean Sixers coach Doc Rivers, when he’s not going frame by frame to identify the antidote for the Raptors in their first-round playoff series, hasn’t squeezed in time to pay attention to his critics. With the Raptors having won two straight games in their best-of-seven series with Philadelphia, putting Toronto two victories away from becoming the first NBA team to bounce back from a 3-0 deficit, Rivers is clearly aware that there’s been considerable focus on his not-so-impressive record in post-season closeout games.