Leading by a point, it looked as though the Milwaukee Bucks forced a turnover against the Charlotte Hornets in the final seconds of Saturday’s game. The referees, though, bailed the Hornets out, calling Giannis Antetokounmpo for a foul against Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball.
Bell made both free throws to put his team ahead. Antetokounmpo got a clean look at a potential buzzer beater but his jumper missed, sealing the game for Charlotte.
After the game, Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers sounded off on the officiating.
“I thought the final play was the ref blowing the call,” Rivers said. “This is back-to-back games now where on the final play there’s been an incorrect call made. LaMelo Ball fell. He just fell down. Nobody was near him. He slipped on his own. We come up with the ball, the game’s over. Back-to-back games now, we’ve had a call made against us that was incorrect. We were lucky in Detroit, the kid missed two free throws. Tonight, LaMelo Ball made the free throws. And there was clearly not a foul. When you watch the video, the ref that called the foul was blocked out by one of our players. You can’t guess at the end of a game, guys. Both teams have played too hard. You can’t guess.”
Doc Rivers expressed his frustrations after the 115-114 loss to the Hornets #FearTheDeer | #NBA pic.twitter.com/yis0E3jRMQ
— FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin (@FanDuelSN_WI) November 16, 2024
Rivers was not wrong. Replays showed that Ball fell on his own — or, as Hornets announcer Eric Collins put it, LaMelo tripped on his own Pumas.”
— No Context NBA (@NoContext_NBA_) November 16, 2024
As Rivers said, the Bucks were called for a foul at the end of regulation in Wednesday night’s game against the Detroit Pistons. In that game, Ronald Holland II missed both of his free throws to send the game into overtime — where the Bucks won. On Saturday night, Milwaukee wasn’t as fortunate.
Also, while the call at the end is what clearly stands out, it was not Rivers’ only frustration with how Saturday’s game was officiated.
“The free throws tonight were 21-11 in their favor in a game that Giannis played,” Rivers said. “Giannis took one free throw. Go back three plays when Giannis dunked. The whole team fouled him. The whole team fouled him. And it’s a no-call. Giannis drives to the basket. Because he’s powerful — and they get him on the arm, they get him in the face — because he keeps going, he doesn’t get credit for the contact that he’s creating. Giannis was in the paint…he was in the paint the whole night. Someone explain to me how Giannis gets one free throw.
“But more importantly, through all that, we played through all that,” the coach continued. “It comes down to two teams playing hard. We get the switch we wanted. We had Giannis on LaMelo Ball. Our biggest guy and one of the best defenders in the league. And we call a phantom foul. These mistakes can’t happen. I probably would be frustrated if this was just tonight. But now this is back-to-back nights that this has happened to us.”
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