Doc Rivers Fined $25K by NBA for Criticizing Officials After Loss to Spurs
Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers has been fined $25,000 for critical comments made about officiating following Tuesday's Game 5 loss to the San Antonio Spurs.
SportsCenter's Twitter feed passed along the news from the NBA:
The Clippers were on the wrong end of a number of close calls in their 111-107 loss, most notably a (correctly called) goaltend on a DeAndre Jordan tip-in that would have given them a late lead. Rivers agreed with the goaltending call but was harsher in other instances, citing a travel on Blake Griffin, a sixth foul on J.J. Redick and a goaltend on Matt Barnes as a few of the "brutal" decisions.
"I don't know, it's just—listen, the refs are trying hard, too, but God darn," Rivers said, per Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles. "Even [Chris Paul]'s tech, I still don't have the explanation for that, and I want to find that out because when they make a shot, you have to throw it to the ref to get the ball back, and he got a tech for it. I'm just not sure of some things."
While not the reason the Clippers lost the game, those calls undoubtedly played a factor in Los Angeles going down 3-2 heading back to San Antonio. Rivers' team will be tasked with taking down the defending champion Spurs at home before traveling back home for a potential Game 7, which left his locker room "frustrated" after the game.
"I've got a team in there that played their heart out, and they're frustrated a little bit," Rivers said. "They're frustrated at themselves because, at the end of the day, it's always our fault. But they're frustrated at other stuff, too, and in a game like that with that magnitude, there should be no frustration that way at all."
The Clippers, of course, have experience being down 3-2 in a playoff series after debatable officiating decisions. They were in such a scenario last year, when officials didn't call a foul on Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook despite contact that resulted in a Paul turnover late in the Clippers' Game 5 collapse.
The Thunder went on to win that series in six games. We'll see if the Clippers suffer a similar fate against the Spurs.
Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.
