Doc Rivers reflected upon his time coaching Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce with the Boston Celtics as the Los Angeles Clippers played against the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday.

Garnett and Pierce did not play in the game.

"They're just so darn professional," Rivers said of his time with Garnett and Pierce in Boston. "I caught them at the perfect time. They had no other reason to play basketball except to win. They'd already had an individual career. That made it very easy to coach them. Every game was just a battle to try and figure out how to win that game. There was very little clutter."

Rivers believes his bond with Garnett and Pierce will grow even stronger now that their time working together is over.

"We talk to each other a lot, text each other a lot. I think sometimes we contact each other more," Rivers said. "As a coach, especially in the offseason I try to avoid conversation with my players because they hear for nine months and they don't need to hear you. But now that you're not with them, you pick up a phone, you see something funny, you text them. It's been like that with a lot of my guys, Tony Allen and [Kendrick Perkins].

"Mike Fratello had it right, 'That's probably the best part of coaching, the afterlife with your players when you start having relationships with 'em.' "