Doc Rivers: Nothing will Distract LA Clippers from Winning NBA Title

Doc Rivers told reporters on Friday that the LA Clippers view winning a title as their mission, and that nothing will distract them from it.

The LA Clippers have only just arrived in Orlando, but according to coach Doc Rivers, the team is already laser-focused on competing.

On a conference call with reporters on Friday afternoon, Rivers said that his team is "on a mission" to win this year's NBA title.

"It's awkward for everybody," Rivers said. "But we've decided to come here. We all had to make an individual decision to come down to Orlando. Once we got here, we decided this is our mission. We're just here, we're going to try to drown out all the stuff that distracts us from our goal."

Rivers also said that the team is "going to learn a lot of what we're willing to put up with" to achieve that goal.

Rivers has been a key motivator for the Clippers since the NBA was shut down back in March, coining the term "Win the Wait" and keeping the team focused while they were all stuck in their homes. 

Now, as the team prepares to enter into an entirely unprecedented situation, Rivers says that this is nothing more than a business trip. That said, he understands that it will take some time before the players are back in shape.

"Once we're on the floor, we do our jobs," Rivers said. "That's going to take some time, as well. This is not a normal way of starting back. Usually going into training camp, guys have been scrimmaging for three and four weeks, they've been playing, shooting on hoops. That's not happening... Some of the guys have not touched a basketball or seen a gym until two weeks ago. We got a lot of work to do on both ends."

LA will play its first scrimmage game on July 22 and will square-off with two other teams before kicking the season off again with a marquee matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers on July 30.