Doc Rivers was right.
But the NBA doesn’t care. The NBA fined Milwaukee’s head coach $25,000 on Sunday after Rivers criticized officials for a botched call that led the Hornets to the game-winning free throws against the Bucks on Saturday.
The call in question came with 7.1 seconds left in Saturday’s game and the Bucks had a 114-113 lead. Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball tripped and fell while driving to the basket. Officials called Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo for a foul on the play when it was clear Bell slipped and fell without a foul.
The Bucks were out of challenges. Awarded two free throws, Ball hit both to secure a 115-114 Hornets victory.
The decision came one game after another controversial foul on Antetokounmpo put the Pistons on the line for potential game-winning free throws Wednesday night. Pistons forward Ron Holland missed both free throws in a tie game with one second left in regulation, and the Bucks went on to earn an overtime win.
Rivers was critical of both calls in his postgame comments Saturday night.
“I thought the last play was the referee blowing a call,” Rivers told the Associated Press. “These are now back-to-back games where there was an incorrect call on the last play.”
“LaMelo Ball fell. He just fell down. There was no one near him. He slipped on his own. We come with the ball and the game is over. So back-to-back games now that a decision has been made against us that is wrong. We were lucky that the kid in Detroit missed two free throws. Tonight LaMelo Ball made the free throws.”
Crew chief Curtis Blair admitted after Saturday’s match that the referees had made the wrong decision.
“During live play we have called illegal leg-to-leg contact,” Blair said. “During the postgame review, when we looked at the play, there was no illegal contact during the play.”
So officials said essentially the same thing as Rivers. But the league has a strict no-tolerance policy on criticizing officials, which Rivers is certainly aware of.
