Doc Rivers on Game 5 officiating: 'Some brutal calls'

Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers admitted that the devastating basket interference call that went against DeAndre Jordan at the end of Game 5 was likely the correct one. 

However, he apparently didn't feel the same way about the majority of the calls that preceded it. 

"I don't complain much," Rivers said after the Clippers' narrow loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday. "I thought we got some really tough calls tonight, some brutal calls. 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."

In other words: it's not why we lost, but it's not not why we lost. 

"I don't know, it's just - listen, the refs are trying hard, too, but God darn," Rivers said. "Even (Chris Paul)'s tech, I still don't have the explanation for that, and I want to find that out because when they make a shot, you have to throw it to the ref to get the ball back, and he got a tech for it. I'm just not sure of some things."

On that point, at least, Rivers seems to have a case, as the incident that got Paul whistled for a tech looked pretty innocuous: 

The other calls were mostly 50/50 affairs that could've gone either way. Those will always be tough to stomach, but officiating is hardly an exact science, and you'd like to think that there are no ulterior motives at play. 

The Clippers, who've developed a reputation over the past couple seasons as a band of cranks with Los Angeles-sized chips on their shoulders, don't always act like they believe that.  

"I've got a team in there that played their heart out, and they're frustrated a little bit," Rivers said. "They're frustrated at themselves because, at the end of the day, it's always our fault. But they're frustrated at other stuff, too, and in a game like that with that magnitude, there should be no frustration that way at all."