Van Gundy frustrated with his own team, officials
Magic coach Stan Van Gundy let out a little of his frustration following his team’s 92-88 loss to the Celtics in Game 5 Tuesday night. Orlando’s coach insinuated that his team shouldn’t be trying to take the ball to the basket against the Celtics because they’re not going to get the foul calls, anyways.
“I thought we had a couple of good drives, but I’m not sure we should be driving the ball in Boston late in games,” said Van Gundy. “We should probably just be looking for jump shots.
“[Hedo Turkoglu, Rafer Alston] are pretty sure that they drove and got contact. Hedo went by [Paul] Pierce, took the ball at the basket, and [Kendrick] Perkins went up in the air, and they’re both trying to draw fouls in that instance. We’ve talked about that — when you’re playing Boston, I don’t care if its here or in Orlando, you’re not getting that call. Fouled or not, you’re not getting the call.”
As in any NBA game, there were calls that both teams could take issue with, but a potential shot clock violation that was not called ultimately might have decided the game.
Orlando trailed, 86-85, when Rajon Rondo’s 3-point attempt missed badly as the shot clock expired. Perkins grabbed the rebound and argued that Rondo’s shot had hit the rim (replays showed the ball glanced off the net and may have grazed the rim), giving the ball back to the Celtics with 36.2 seconds left.
“I didn’t think that it [hit the rim] at the time,” said Van Gundy. “I thought it was way short. You guys (media) can watch the film as well as I can and write it. You guys do that all the time to coaches. You can watch it, you can write whether it hit the rim or not, but you want us coaches to say it so that I can donate money to the league and I can be called a whiner and everything. You guys can watch the play. You guys can watch the drive by Hedo, the drive by Rashard. You can decide and comment on it, that’s your job.
“It doesn’t do us any good [to complain]. Look, you’re playing Boston, they’re the defending champions. That’s the way it is.”
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