Celtics Coach Doc Rivers fined $25,000 for criticizing officials

Doc Rivers, the straight-shooting coach of the Celtics, has been fined $25,000 by the NBA for his criticism of the referees following Game 2 of Boston’s playoff series against the New York Knicks, who have a 2-0 lead following an 87-71 victory Wednesday night.

Rivers is candid in giving his responses to questions, and evidently league officials didn’t like how he answered when asked about Celtics center Kevin Garnett’s drawing two fouls in an 18-second span a little more than three minutes into the game.

“Listen, I thought the fouls on Kevin, first of all they were horrendous,” Rivers said in the postgame news conference. “And secondly, I thought they had a huge effect on us.”

He went on to say that there wasn’t much he could do about it.

“That’s just the way it goes,” Rivers said. “There’s nothing I can do about it now. I thought if it could’ve gone either way on three of those [fouls], they all went against Kevin. I think that’s tough.”

After hearing about the fine on Thursday, Rivers downplayed his criticism of the referees.

“I didn’t think I said much and that could be a problem,” Rivers said. “Because all I basically said was, Kevin getting into foul trouble had a huge impact on the game. That’s not criticizing officials. So I’ve just got to make sure I focus on our stuff.”

Wire service and Internet reports contributed to this story.

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