The Milwaukee BucksThe difficult start to the season continued on Saturday with a controversial 115:114 defeat against the rebuilding team Charlotte Hornets This led to coach Doc Rivers questioning the referee during his postgame press conference.
After Pat Connaughton gave the Bucks a point lead with 19 seconds left, LaMelo Ball tried to give the Hornets something on the other end. Then he drove against it Giannis Antetokounmpohe suddenly fell to the ground and the Greek freak was whistled for a foul.
Replays showed Ball tripping over his own feet, but the Bucks ran out of challenges and were unable to challenge the call.
Ball stepped to the line and made both free throws to put the Hornets back in the lead. The Bucks had one last chance, but Antetokounmpo's rebound at the buzzer failed and the Hornets escaped.
Rivers was understandably frustrated with the way the game ended and spent two minutes complaining not only about that decision, but also about the decision at the end of regulation in the Bucks' recent overtime win against the Detroit Pistons – as far as the Last Two Minute Report is concerned later confirmed was wrong – and the lack of free throws for Antetokounmpo.
Here's Rivers in full:
“I thought the last play was the referee messing up the call. That's two consecutive games where an incorrect call was made on the last play. LaMelo Ball fell. He just fell down. Nobody was near him, he slipped.” his own, we get the ball and the game is over.
“The wrong decision was made against us in the consecutive games. We were lucky against Detroit, the kid missed two free throws. Tonight, LaMelo Ball made the free throws. And there was clearly no foul.” If you watch the video, the referee who called the foul was not guessed at the end of a game.
“The free throws tonight were 21 to 11 in their favor in a game Giannis played. Giannis made a free throw. Go back three plays when Giannis dunked. The whole team fouled him. The whole team fouled him, and that's a no- Giannis drives to the basket, and because he's strong, they can hit him in the arm or in the face, and because he keeps going, he doesn't get credit for the contact. He was the whole one In action at night. Someone explained to me how Giannis gets a free throw.
“But more importantly, we play through it all, it comes down to two teams playing hard. We're getting the change we wanted. We had Giannis with LaMelo Ball, our biggest man, one of the best defenders in the league, and we.” “Those mistakes can't happen. I’d probably be frustrated if it was just tonight, but it’s happened to us two nights in a row now.”
Crew chief Curtis Blair later confirmed in the pool report that the call to Antetokounmpo was incorrect.
“During live play we called out illegal leg-to-leg contact,” Blair said said. “During the post-game review, when we looked at the play, there was no illegal contact on the play.”
He also confirmed that the decision would have been overturned if the Bucks had had the opportunity to appeal it.
With the loss, the Bucks played without Damian Lillard (concussion) and Chris Middleton (ankle), dropped to 4-9. They sit in 12th place in the Eastern Conference and remain outside of the play-in tournament spots as they approach the quarter mark of the season.
