LOS ANGELES -- They say a playoff series doesn't begin until a team loses a game on its home floor.
In the remarkably tight, entertaining, physically and mentally exhausting series between the Clippers and Spurs, we're way past that point, with the road team having won each of the past two games as San Antonio goes home for Game 6 Thursday with a 3-2 lead. In this case, the series doesn't begin until one of the head coaches begins the tried-and-true tactic of publicly lobbying the officials.
Clippers coach Doc Rivers did that Tuesday night after his team's excruciatingly painful, 111-107 loss to the defending champs, saying his team got some "tough calls, brutal calls" in Game 5.
One of the tough ones was a traveling call on Blake Griffin has he drove for a transition layup with the Clippers leading by one in the third. Then, a loose-ball foul on Chris Paul during a fierce scrum with the Clippers leading by one in the second quarter.
Finally, a technical foul on Paul for firing the ball at the official on the baseline after Kawhi Leonard's huge putback gave the Spurs a 97-94 lead with 4:49 left.
"I still don't have the explanation for that," Rivers said. "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."
Well, it's not exactly grounds for a #coolstoryglenn hashtag, but Rivers didn't have it quite right. The delay-of-game rule Rivers is referring to is designed to discourage the team that made the basket from touching the ball after it goes through, a tactic players used for years to give their team an extra second or two to get back on defense and prevent a fastbreak opportunity. Paul, on the defensive side of the exchange, could have simply picked up the ball, stepped over the baseline and inbounded it. Instead, he threw it to the ref; or, as the official interpreted it, he threw it at the official. Thus, the tech.
Could the official, Josh Tiven, have ignored Paul's lapse in judgment, chalked it up to heat-of-the-moment frustration and urged the big boys to play on? Yes, he could have -- and probably should have. But as one league official pointed out, Paul's history of giving the officials a hard time may have cost him the benefit of the doubt that Rivers thought he should've had in that moment.
In the end, the technical free throw, made my Danny Green, didn't alter the outcome of the game. Without the point, the Clippers would've been inbounding the ball wiht 6.9 seconds left with the score tied 107-107 instead of trailing 108-107. Their strategy on the inbounds play -- which ultimately led to DeAndre Jordan's basket interference on Griffin's driving layup attempt -- would've been the same.
However, it might've changed what the Spurs drew up on their previous possession, on which Green missed a corner 3-pointer with a 108-107 lead. Were the game tied, would the Spurs have gone for two instead of trying to "end the game right there," as Gregg Popovich put it, with Green's 3-point attempt.
We'll never know.
"That's why they call it a game," Popovich said. "You never know what's going to happen."
Here's the rest of the news moving the needle during the NBA Playoffs:
- CBSSports.com's Gary Parrish reports that the Thunder coaching search is solely focused on Florida's Billy Donovan, who is said to have met with GM Sam Presti on Tuesday. According to other reports, Donovan wants to meet with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka before accepting the job, which he is strongly considering. CBSSports.com reported last week after Brooks was fired that Donovan was the Thunder's first choice. League sources now say Presti has cordially fielded calls from agents for other possible candidates, but has been moving forward exclusively in his pursuit of Donovan.
- As if Rajon Rondo's divorce with the Mavericks wasn't going to be ugly enough, now there's word that the point guard won't receive a playoff share. Like you, I was curious as to whether this was a team matter that the National Basketball Players Association would be inclined to support Rondo on, or a players' issue. It turns out it is the latter; distribution of playoff shares is up to the players, who reportedly voted to give Rondo a cut. Ouch.
- What a sad fall for Javaris Crittendon, who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the 2011 shooting of a 22-year-old mother of four in Atlanta. Crittendon, who previously was best known for his role in the locker-room gun-play involving Gilbert Arenas in 2009, was sentenced to 23 years in prison. While it's commonplace for news stories on crimes involving professional athletes to focus on the athletes, let's not forget the saddest part of the story: that four children no longer have a mother.
