If you watched Sunday night's Game 5, then you no doubt heard Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who was mic'd up for ABC, reminding his team during a timeout in the fourth quarter that the Celtics are a team that "know[s] how to lose."
"This team has lost more games in the fourth quarter than anybody in the NBA. They know how to lose in the fourth quarter, all right? They're just showing us that right now."
I suppose Jackson was just doing his best motivate his team, and keep his players positive (it didn't work). But ore than likely, it was Jackson attempting some head games with Boston. So what kind of reaction would it get from the Celtics?
If Jackson put it out there as bait for Boston (he knew he was wired for sound), it also did not work. In fact, the Celtics agreed with him after the game, with Paul Pierce saying it didn't both him.
"You know, he's right. What you just said, that's been the truth for us throughout the regular season.
"I haven't really seen too much of that in the playoffs, but coaches say things to try to motivate their team. He's supposed to give them confidence. He's supposed to say something like that. I probably would say the same thing if I was a coach in that situation. It doesn't bother me at all."
Doc Rivers reacted similarly: "[Phil Jackson]'s right. As a coach you can tell your team whatever you can to get him going. We didn't hear it and it didn't affect us."
As CelticsBlog said, seems like just more of Phil being Phil.