Doc Rivers Trolled C.J. McCollum So Hard On The Court After Denying Him A Chance To Play

By now, most of you have heard about the bizarre set of circumstances that led to C.J. McCollum’s overt truancy during Wednesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers at the Moda Center in Portland. McCollum, Portland’s dynamic leading scorer when Damian Lillard missed six games over the last couple of weeks, was left off their active list an hour before the game.

But what you probably don’t know is that Clippers head coach Doc Rivers was given the final say as to whether or not McCollum could play. Doc nixed the idea because why wouldn’t he?

McCollum is a dynamic scorer with range from deep and the ability to create his own shot. Combined with Lillard, it transforms Portland into one of the most fearsome backcourts in basketball. But Doc Rivers said no, and that’s well within his right. No one should give Doc a hard time about that, either. It’s the nature of the business.

The Western Conference might not be dominating the East like in recent history, but it’s still packed right below the Spurs and Warriors, and a single win could be the difference between home court in the first round, and playing a Game 7 on the road. So, Doc wasn’t about to turn down a low-risk game against a Blazers team missing their second-best player.

But then Doc went ahead and laughed and pointed at McCollum after the game, and now we’re not so sure about our original reaction.

https://twitter.com/CHold/status/684980756070805504/photo/1

If Doc wants to keep C.J. out of the game, that’s fine; the Blazers messed up, after all. But to then laugh at McCollum after the game seems like it’s going overboard. Doc is a classy dude and we know he’s just having some fun, but McCollum should have played, and the 109-98 loss his Portland team suffered to Doc and his squad may have been negated by his presence.

Or Chris Paul still gets 21 points and 19 dimes — like he ended up getting anyway — as the Clippers cruise to a win.

But McCollum would have really helped Portland, and that’s the simple explanation why Doc said no — even if some might criticize it as unsportsmanlike.

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