Heading Into Game 3 Of Warriors vs Clippers, Doc Rivers Not That Impressed With #Roaracle (Oracle Arena) (Photo: LetsGoWarriors.com)
OLYMPIC CLUB, SAN FRANCISCO, CA — After the Los Angeles Clippers disposed of the Golden State Warriors this past Monday, the series shifted to Oracle Arena, known affectionately by Warriors fans as #Roaracle.
Clippers reserve guard Matt Barnes played at Golden State from 2006-08 and was part of the #8-seeded “We Believe” team that stunned the #1 Dallas Mavericks in 2008.
Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports reported that Barnes warned his Clippers teammates about Roaracle:
Clippers guard Chris Paul said forward Matt Barnes, who played for the Warriors in the postseason in 2008, has been warning his teammates about how loud Oracle Arena will be.
However, today at Clippers practice at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, coach Doc Rivers didn’t seem that impressed.
“I don’t believe in all that crap anyway, you know?,” Rivers said, “It’s just talk. It doesn’t matter. You can tell me something, but I think you have to experience it. It’s no different. It’s just like in Game 1 and 2. The arena’s loud. It’s all white noise and you just go out and play.”
“We’ve played here before, right?” Rivers added, “Unless the fans have a playoff intensity, I don’t know that you could be much louder. They’re great. I think they’re some of the best fans in the league.
“They’ve been that way, though. They’ve done that for years. When they were not good, I thought the fans here came out, supported. They made a lot of noise. I think we went four or five years in Boston when in our heyday, we didn’t win here. It’s just a difficult place to play, but the players make it more difficult.”
Rivers is right. During the Boston Celtics “Big Three” run at the NBA Finals, they lost at Oracle Arena in 2008 by the score of 119-117 as Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, Al Harrington and even Andris Biedrins all scored over 20 points each. Biedrins even added 13 rebounds in that upset of the eventual NBA champions.
In 2009, Stephen Jackson scored 28 points and — surprise, surprise — Marco Belinelli added 22 as the Warriors defeated the Celtics in Oakland by the score of 99-89.
And in 2010, Ellis led the Warriors to a 103-99 victory, scoring 37 points, to beat the Celtics at Roaracle. The men in green would eventually lose to the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games that year.
“I’ve always said that as loud as the fans can be, it’s the players on their team that make them more difficult because they’re a good basketball team,” Rivers concluded, “If the players were not that good, the crowd wouldn’t make that big of a difference, so it’s the players.”
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