Doc after fine for ripping blown call: ‘Tough spot’

MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers said he had to defend his player as he reacted to the $25,000 fine he received from the NBA on Sunday for criticizing a crucial officiating call in a 115-114 loss at Charlotte a day earlier.

Rivers offered an interesting metaphor to describe the situation.

The Bucks’ coach had argued that Giannis Antetokounmpo didn’t commit a foul with Milwaukee trailing by one with 7.3 seconds left, saying Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball simply slipped and fell. A foul was called on Antetokounmpo, and Ball made two free throws to give Charlotte the lead for good.

Crew chief Curtis Blair told a pool reporter that a postgame review determined there actually wasn’t any illegal contact on the play. Blair said the call would have been overturned on replay, but the Bucks didn’t have any challenges left.

“You’re put in a tough spot,” Rivers said before Monday night’s 101-100 victory over the Houston Rockets. “I was laughing with someone that it’s [like] that rare case when your girlfriend comes down with a bad outfit and she asks you, ‘What do you think?’ And if you answer correctly, you’re going to get in a lot of trouble. That’s how I felt with the fine. Everybody understands what I’m saying, right?”

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

In the Bucks’ 127-120 overtime victory over the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday, Antetokounmpo was called for a foul with a second left in regulation, though replays indicated nothing should have been called. That call became irrelevant once Detroit’s Ronald Holland II missed both free throws.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.