Rivers: 'Humphries was at fault'

Celtics coach Doc Rivers was a guest of the Dennis & Callahan show on Thursday, the morning after the Celtics lost 95-83 to the Nets and Rajon Rondo was ejected for his role in a second-quarter altercation with Kris Humphries. Rondo shoved Humphries after a hard foul on Kevin Garnett and the battle spilled into the stands at TD Garden. Rivers had little to say about the incident in his postgame press conference on Wednesday but was asked for this thoughts after watching the game again last night.

"Humphries was at fault, the foul is what precipitated everything," Rivers said. "They called a flagrant to begin with, so that started it but then we took it to the next level. I thought, just watching it, if it was in the middle of the floor I don't know how bad this would have been. ... Rondo pushed Humphries, Humphries pushed Rondo, grabbed Rondo's jersey, Rondo started pushing him back and unfortunately pushed him into the stands. Once you go in the stands everything happens."

Rivers was asked about the possibility of a suspension for Rondo.

"I have no idea, I'm not going to get into what the commissioner is going to do, or what the league is going to do," Rivers said. "Could there be suspensions? Yeah, there could be. There were no punches thrown, but the fact that it went into the stands usually means there is suspensions."

Rivers called the Celtics a "soft" team after the loss Wednesday, which dropped the Celtics to 8-7 on the season and in fourth place in the Atlantic Division. Rivers was asked to elaborate on his comments.

"You could see Brooklyn came into the game like it meant the world to them," Rivers said. "They are trying to establish their identity, this is a new team in their minds. They just beat the Knicks and they showed up like they wanted to beat us. And I thought we showed up to play the basketball game but we weren't ready for their intensity. ... I think we are playing soft right now, yes."

After scoring 17 points in the Nov. 23 win over Oklahoma City, Jeff Green has scored a total of three points on 1-of-12 shooting in the last two games. Rivers was asked if he's been dissapointed with Green to date this season.

"Yeah, I am," Rivers said. "I know he's better and I know he can be better. He's a new player, we should make that point. It's got to be some of what we are doing and some of what he's doing. So I have to figure out whatever we're not doing as a staff or as a team right. We have to fix that and whatever Jeff's not doing he has to fix."

To hear the interview, click on the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page [1]. For more Celtics news, visit weei.com/celtics [2].