Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers proved to be the better coach on Monday night as his team mounted an epic comeback victory against the Golden State Warriors in their first-round playoff matchup.

Retired big man Kendrick Perkins — who played under Rivers for several successful seasons with the Boston Celtics — recently sat down with ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on his podcast, The Woj Pod, and described the type of coaching genius Rivers was during their time together in Boston. So much so, that Perkins believes that it was Rivers who revolutionized the use of small-ball lineups, though Don Nelson would probably have something to say about that:

“To be honest, I think Doc was the first person to really do the small-ball thing,” said Perkins. “Even though he started, you know, KG and myself, but if you look at a lot of fourth quarters throughout the playoffs, Posey was at the 4 and KG was at the 5 down the stretch of games.”

Perkins played six and a half seasons under Rivers in Boston before he was traded by the Celtics to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the middle of the 2010-11 season. The 6-foot-10 big man was part of Rivers' 2008 championship-winning Celtics side.

Nowadays, Rivers plies his trade in Los Angeles with the Clippers, where he has also been known to make use of small-ball lineups during games.

Their recent win against the defending champions tied the series at 1-1, and Rivers and the Clippers will look to build on their amazing victory as they head home for Game 3 on Thursday night.