SACRAMENTO, Calif. – With three specific instances in mind, Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers believes the NBA should adopt a coach’s challenge system for reviews like the one the NFL uses.
While the NBA has instant replay, it currently doesn’t allow coaches to challenge a ruling on a play. Rivers said the NBA has discussed the subject of a coach’s challenge during competition committee meetings in recent years, but it has not come close to being approved. NFL coaches are allowed two challenges per game before the snap of the ball at any time before the two-minute warning of each half or overtime period.
![Doc Rivers: 'I’ve been pushing for a [challenge] flag for a year now.' (AP)](http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/wyr8oKfE9OaqGO8upNA6ag--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3NfbGVnbztxPTg1O3c9MjQw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/26d486c125096f0a910f6a706700d594.jpg "Doc Rivers: 'I’ve been pushing for a [challenge] flag for a year now.' (AP)")
“I would throw it out [a challenge flag] with both hands like a shot. That’s why I couldn’t shoot,” Rivers said Friday morning during the Clippers’ shootaround for the Sacramento Kings game. “It’s a tough one to me. It’s not like officials are trying to make mistakes, but they do at the end of the games.”
A controversial call during the Clippers’ 87-81 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday sparked Rivers’ call for a challenge system.
With 30.4 seconds left and the Clippers down 85-81, Los Angeles forward Jeff Green was called for an offensive foul on a made basket after driving into defender Danilo Gallinari. The NBA admitted on its “NBA Officiating Last Two Minute Report” on Thursday that the referee made a mistake on the offensive foul call on Green. Green potentially could have had a made basket with a free throw. Rivers described it as a “horrible call, which the league acknowledged.”
“I’ve been pushing for a [challenge] flag for a year now,” Rivers said. “We should have a challenge flag. That is the third time this year [against the Clippers] that [the NBA] has come back and said it was a bad call. It doesn’t do anything for us.”
One of the games Rivers noted was a 100-99 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Dec. 21 that he said included three missed calls late in the contest. The Clippers (37-20) are in fourth place in the Western Conference standings and 3 ½ games behind the third-place Thunder (41-17).
“The league has done a great job of transparency and that has been phenomenal,” Rivers told Yahoo Sports. “But the problem with it is you don’t get anything from it if you’re the [losing] team. … The one thing I keep saying and make the point of is the refs are trying to make it right, too. It’s not like we’re mad at refs. We just want to get it right.”
Rivers said he didn’t have an idea of how to implement a challenge system. The NBA Development League began using a coach’s challenge during the 2014-15 season. A coach can call a timeout before signaling to a referee that he is challenging a play. The play then is reviewed on instant replay. Teams get one challenge in regulation, another challenge if it is successful and an additional one in overtime. Personal and shooting fouls are allowable challenges, but traveling, palming, continuations or act of shooting determinations are not.
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