Doc Rivers doesn鈥檛 often disagree with referees鈥 calls. Armed with 36 years of league experience, including the last 21 as head coach, he understands that the men in gray can鈥檛 possibly get everything right. As far as he鈥檚 concerned, it鈥檚 enough that they try their best. Yesterday, however, he saw fit to voice his displeasure with a whistle late in the Clippers鈥 set-to against the Blazers. With 18.6 ticks left in the payoff period and his charges up one, he felt the contact that sent a driving Damian Lillard to the line was incidental at best. And so he made his sentiments known, never mind his reluctance for protest and notwithstanding the contest鈥檚 relative lack of bearing.
Rivers was simply being competitive, of course. Top dog Kawhi Leonard was out, and, for strategic purposes, he kept second-leading scorer Paul George glued to the bench in the last five minutes of the match. Still, he wanted to win it, if for nothing else than to boost the confidence of the second stringers burning rubber; after seeing them turn a five-point deficit into a one-point lead over the previous two and a half minutes, he felt they deserved to walk off with victory at hand. But because there was to be no changing the arbiters鈥 minds, he fully expected the lead to change hands anew with Lillard walking to the stripe for two charities.
As things turned out, Lillard came up with nothing. He missed badly on his free throws; as with his tries outside the paint in the fourth quarter, he could do no better than hit the front end of the rim. Considering his continual capacity to deliver come 鈥淒ame Time,鈥 the development was a 鈥渟urprise鈥 to Blazers mentor Terry Stott and a 鈥渟hock鈥 to Rivers. Not to noted foils Patrick Beverley and Paul George, though, who celebrated with gusto in the moment and then, to add insult to injury, piled on in social media following the Clippers triumph.
The ensuing trading of barbs between the prideful players underscores both their competitiveness and the lengths they鈥檙e willing to go through to show it. Beverley was predictably the instigator, and Lillard couldn鈥檛 help but dig in as always. George, however, was a revelation, dishing out in his post-mortem with scribes and doubling down on the net before playing the sympathy card by referencing his six surgeries. Given the extent of the back and forth, it鈥檚 too bad the Blazers and Clippers aren鈥檛 likely to meet again this season.
In any case, fans shouldn鈥檛 fret. Long memories will keep the beef alive, with the protagonists counting the days until the next encounter, and then the next, and so on. Which is to say the games should be interesting at the very least; they certainly can鈥檛 come soon enough.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since 大象传媒 introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications,听 and business development.
