NBA fines Bucks coach Doc Rivers for comments about call refs admitted they got wrong

NEW YORK (AP) — Doc Rivers was right. It still cost him $25,000.

Rivers, the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, was fined by the NBA on Sunday, a day after he publicly criticized the officiating that led to the deciding points in a 115-114 loss to the Charlotte Hornets.

Rivers argued Giannis Antetokounmpo didn’t commit a foul with the Bucks trailing by one with 7.3 seconds left, saying Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball simply slipped and fell. Ball made two free throws to give Charlotte the lead for good.

“I thought the final play was the ref blowing a call,” Rivers said after that game. “This is back-to-back games now where on the final play there has been an incorrect call made.”

It wasn’t relevant that the referees wound up agreeing with Rivers.

“During live play we called illegal leg-to-leg contact,” crew chief Curtis Blair told a pool reporter in remarks distributed by the NBA. “During postgame review when we looked at the play there was no illegal contact on the play.”

Antetokounmpo’s jumper at the buzzer rimmed out and the Hornets escaped with the win. Ball was fined $100,000 on Sunday for using an anti-gay slur in his postgame remarks, when asked to describe Charlotte’s defense on the final play against Antetokounmpo.

The Bucks argued about late-game officiating this past Wednesday as well, when Antetokounmpo was whistled for a phantom call with a second left in regulation and the score tied at 111 against Detroit. Pistons forward Ron Holland II missed two free throws after that call, the game went into overtime and the Bucks prevailed 127-120 behind 59 points from Antetokounmpo.

“We were lucky in Detroit the kid missed two free throws,” Rivers said Saturday. “Tonight, LaMelo Ball made the free throws.”

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