The undermanned Los Angeles Clippers took another tough loss to a Western Conference powerhouse Friday night as they fell to the Houston Rockets 109-105 in what ended up being dramatic fashion.
With 16.8 seconds to go and the Clippers down two, Dwight Howard tipped a Blake Griffin shot that was still hovering above the cylinder in what, upon review, appeared to be a clear goaltending violation.
The only problem with that is that the refs are not permitted to review a no-call in that particular situation if there was no initial call made on the floor. Instead, the officials could only review who the ball went out-of-bounds on and subsequently awarded possession to the Rockets.
Despite being absolutely stunned at the missed call, the Clippers were surprisingly stoic about it after the game. Even Doc Rivers acknowledged that it ultimately wasn’t why Los Angeles lost the game and readily accepted part of the responsibility as coach. Griffin, though he remained adamant that the play was, indeed, a goaltending violation, went even further and recognized the difficulty involved in officiating such a high-profile contest. Via Ben Bolch of The LA Times:
“That’s textbook goaltending,” said Griffin, who finished with 35 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, “but they can’t go back and look at it if there wasn’t an actual call on that goaltend or not goaltend, whatever you want to call it. They went and looked at who it was out of bounds off of, so that’s the only thing they can go back and change. So the review didn’t really help us.” Griffin said he didn’t hold the officials culpable. “Listen, reffing games is very hard,” Griffin said. “I tried to ref a Little League camp game this summer and it didn’t go so well, so I know. This game’s going fast. I don’t think any of those guys missed it on purpose, I really don’t.”
It’s a mature take on it, especially considering the fact that they allowed a red-hot James Harden to go off for a season-high 46 points. Next up, the Clippers will host a Memphis Grizzlies team on Monday that has stumbled out of the gates but is dangerous nonetheless, given their heated rivalry over the years. It’ll be even less friendly with Matt Barnes returning to town for the first time after his bitter departure this summer and rather serendipitous arrival on one of his former team’s most formidable enemies.
In short, things aren’t going to get any easier for the Clippers, but it will sure be interesting for the rest of us.
(LA Times)
