Doc Rivers, Celtics teed off about technical fouls

Let’s just get this out of the way up front — Boston did not lose this game because they got five technical fouls. Their problems in this series are much larger than that and it only amounted to three Heat points anyway.

But still — five technicals. It was enough to get referees names (Ed Malloy and Danny Crawford) trending on twitter.

Doc Rivers, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo each got one, plus there was one for defensive three seconds and one for delay of game when Kevin Garnett tapped the ball after a made basket.

Were they legit? Doc Rivers says no (from A. Sherrod Blakely at CSNNE.com)

“I know mine wasn’t. I can tell you that much. I don’t know how long I’ve been in the league, but that has to rank as the worst I’ve ever had. I would have loved to earn it.”

That will be a $25,000 fine for Rivers, no doubt. The league does not take kindly to you saying the referees blew it. But video of the call showed Rivers only saying “Come on, Eddie” to Malloy. It wasn’t technical worthy from what we saw (we don’t know what happened prior to that moment).

Allen had a bad call go against him then had the technical because of his reaction (one that was not playoff tech worthy). The delay of game came after a previous warning, but Garnett tapped the ball after it came through the net gently. It was technically a violation, but worse has gone unpunished.

In a rough game for them Boston came off as the frustrated team, and that focus was easily placed on the calls and not the team’s poor shooting from the outside or the host of other things that cost the Celtics the game.

Still, the Celtics should be frustrated. It was a little tight for an emotional playoff game. You got to let the guys play.