Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers blasted the referees after his team’s 115-114 loss to the Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center on Saturday. The officials called a foul on Giannis Antetokounmpo in the dying moments that led to game-winning free throws for LaMelo Ball and Rivers was fuming over that decision postgame.
“I thought the final play was the ref blowing the call,” Rivers said. “This is back-to-back games now where on the final play there’s been an incorrect call made. LaMelo Ball fell. He just fell down. Nobody was near him, slipped on his own, we come up with the ball, the game’s over.
“Back-to-back games now, we’ve had a call made against us that was incorrect,” Rivers stated. “We were lucky in Detroit, the kid missed two free throws. Tonight, LaMelo Ball made the free throws.
“And there was clearly not a foul,” Rivers continued. “When you watch the video, the ref that called the foul was blocked out by one of our players. You can’t guess at the end of a game. Both teams have played too hard. You can’t guess.”
Rivers wasn’t unhappy about just that controversial call either. The 63-year-old went off on the refs over the Hornets shooting 10 more free throws than the Bucks and Antetokounmpo, who had 22 points, 15 rebounds, 12 assists, and two blocks in the game, going to the line just once.
“The free throws tonight were 21 to 11 in their favor in a game that Giannis played,” Rivers said. “Giannis took one free throw. Go back three plays when Giannis dunked. The whole team fouled him. The whole team fouled him, and it’s a no-call.
“Giannis drives to the basket because he’s powerful and they can hit him on the arm, they can hit him in the face, and because he keeps going he doesn’t get credit for the contact that he’s creating,” Rivers continued. “Giannis was in the paint … the whole night. Someone explain to me how Giannis gets one free throw.
“But more importantly, we play through all of that, it comes down to two teams playing hard,” Rivers added. “We get the switch we wanted. We had Giannis on LaMelo Ball, our biggest guy, one of the best defenders in the league, we call a phantom foul. These mistakes can’t happen. I probably would be frustrated if this was just tonight, but now this is back-to-back nights that this has happened to us.”
Rivers certainly wasn’t holding back and I suppose you can’t blame him. On that play, Ball fell to the ground when he drove to the basket while being guarded by Antetokounmpo. The officials called a foul but replays showed that the Hornets guard had actually tripped over his own feet.
The Bucks had no challenges remaining, which meant there was no way to overturn that call. Ball hit both free throws to put the Hornets up 115-114, but the visitors still had a chance to win. Antetokounmpo, however, missed a potential game-winner and the Bucks fell to 4-9.
Rivers was also asked postgame if the officials had given him an explanation for why Antetokounmpo was called for the call and revealed they hadn’t. We eventually got an explanation for that call in the pool report, with Crew Chief Curtis Blair admitting they just made a mistake.
“During live play we called illegal leg to leg to contact,” Blair said. “During postgame review when we looked at the play there was no illegal contact on the play.”
Blair confirmed that the call would have been overturned had the Bucks challenged it. I’m sure that doesn’t ease the pain for Rivers. This is the second game in a row where the officials have admitted they made a mistake that hurt the Bucks.
With the score tied at 111 in their game against the Pistons on Wednesday, Antetokounmpo was called for a foul on rookie Ron Holland with a second remaining. Holland missed both free throws, though, and the Bucks went on to win in overtime.
Afterward, the L2M report for the game confirmed that Antetokounmpo should not have been called for a foul on Holland. The rookie missing his free throws meant that the incorrect foul call didn’t end up hurting the Bucks but that wasn’t the case on Saturday.
The Bucks will now look for a return to winning ways when they take on the Houston Rockets next at Fiserv Forum on Monday at 8 PM ET. The Hornets, meanwhile, take on the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers next at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Sunday at 6 PM ET.
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