With Sunday's Los Angeles Clippers Game 7 loss to the Houston Rockets, Doc Rivers became the first coach in NBA history to oversee the blowing of a 3-1 series lead more than once.
To single that out is unfair to Rivers' overall coaching career - he's won 700 regular-season games as a bench boss and has a 77-71 mark in the postseason, including an NBA title with the Boston Celtics.
But after another second-round defeat with L.A., Rivers is prepared to wear it.
"I want to fix it," he told USA Today's Sam Amick after Sunday's loss. "I want to win. That's why I came here. I knew when I came here (in 2013) that roster-wise it was going to be very difficult. The first thing I did before I took this job, I looked at the roster and we laughed. I was like, 'What the (expletive) can we do with this?' It was more the contracts. But we have to try to do it somehow. I don't know how yet, but something will work out."
How Rivers, who is also the Clippers' general manager, will go about fixing things should be interesting. Unrestricted free agent center DeAndre Jordan is on the verge of a max contract, something that could further hamstring a team that's pretty thin outside of its core.
"You can't take anything for granted, but (Jordan) loves being a Clipper," Rivers told Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski on Sunday. "(Jordan) loves being here. We have an amazing relationship."
Doc confirmed at Clippers exit interviews today they'll offer DeAndre Jordan max contract. Said DJ loves it here but not to take for granted
— Jill Painter Lopez (@jillpainter) May 18, 2015
For his part, Jordan wasn't prepared to talk about free agency following the Houston loss.
"It's hard with the contracts," Rivers added. "I came here with a great collection of talent, but contractually it's now difficult to make a lot of changes. We aren't going to add any big pieces, but we've got to add the right pieces around those guys."
The coach says the much-maligned midseason addition of his son Austin Rivers helped point guard Chris Paul - something evident during the first four games of the Rockets series.
Rivers also admits what everybody knows - there is still a glaring hole on the bench.
"You've got to give (Paul) some more support," Rivers said. "I think bringing Austin here helped us. We've got a 22-year-old (in Austin), and now to me we've got to get another guard who's in the middle-age group. So now you're growing with Austin and C.J. (Wilcox), and we need another defensive guy too."
The Clippers may be looking to their fellow Staples Center tenant for help at small forward - they have interest in Lakers' unrestricted free agent Wesley Johnson, according to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne. Johnson isn't expected to be retained by the purple and gold.
For the moment, it's still the bitter pill of losing fresh on Rivers' mind.
"We took too long to get over the intoxication of beating the Spurs," Rivers said. "I never thought we gave Houston the same focus ... once the ball started rolling down the hill, we couldn't stop it."
