Doc Rivers held off his coach’s challenge until the final three minutes of the game. With 2:46 to go, he successfully challenged a foul on Andre Jackson Jr., keeping his challenge alive. Then, with 1:07 remaining, Rivers unsuccessfully challenged a call on the Bucks’ Taurean Prince.
He wishes he had one more.
With the Bucks leading 114-143 and 7.3 seconds remaining, Giannis Antetokounmpo was called for a foul on a driving LaMelo Ball. Except it wasn’t a foul. Even the Hornets broadcast admitted it.
Referee Curtis Blair admitted the error while talking to a pool reporter after the game.
“During the live game, we made illegal leg-to-leg calls to make contact. When we looked at the game during the postgame review, there was no illegal contact during the game.”
Everyone knew this was the wrong decision, but with the Bucks out of challenges, it stood. The ball hit both free throws and the Hornets earned the 115-114 victory.
“Obviously there was no foul,” an irate Doc Rivers said after the game. “If you watch the video, the referee was blocked by one of our players. You can’t guess that at the end of the match.”
The fact that Milwaukee played a close game with the Hornets speaks for the team
start of the season. The Bucks’ offense looked good behind Antetokounmpo, who had a triple-double with 22 points (on 22 shot attempts) with 15 rebounds and 12 assists. Prince led the team with 23 points and Bobby Portis had 21 off the bench.
However, the Bucks couldn’t get stops when they needed them. Ball scored 15 of his 26 points on the night of the fourth quarter, and he got help with 19 points from Miles Bridges in his return from injury.
It was a bad call and break for Milwaukee, but there were more than 47 minutes before that where the Bucks couldn’t put the game away, which is the bigger concern.
