The Clippers can not catch a break. The entered the playoff as a 3-seed in the western conference matching them up with the defending champs San Antonio Spurs, a matchup they didn’t want. Now they are down 3-2, headed to game 6 in San Antonio facing elimination and Coach Doc Rivers publicly voiced that he was upset about many calls during Game 5.
“I thought we got some really tough calls tonight, some brutal calls,” Rivers said after the Clippers’ 111-107 home loss. “The travel on Blake (Griffin), the goaltend on Matt (Barnes), which wasn’t a goaltend. You think about the playoffs, and they’re single-possession games. Those possessions, those were crucial. J.J. (Redick) ‘s foul that got him out, J.J. didn’t touch anyone. It’s not why we lost, but those were big plays for us.”
The NBA is real funny about coaches or players publicly criticizing the officials. Doc was fined $25,000 by the NBA for his comments. I said before this series started the Clippers were full of excuses. They have yet to make any real noise in the playoffs with the current core players and if they can find a way to beat the Spur in the first round it might be time to break up the crew.
HT: USATODAY