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Notebook: Guard Injuries, Hacking Changes Coming?

Rowan Kavner Digital Content Coordinator

ORLANDO – The Clippers were already without Austin Rivers. Then Pablo Prigioni went crawling off the court to the baseline holding his head toward the end of the third quarter Friday night.

Prigioni suffered a facial contusion and was crouched on his knees with his head buried as the Clippers started to go back down the court following an Orlando 3-pointer. The quarter ended 15 seconds later on a Lance Stephenson buzzer beater, but Prigioni was still in the same position, clearly in pain.

As the buzzer sounded, the training staff went straight to Prigioni, who had a towel over his face as he walked back to the locker room and didn’t return to the game.

“Pablo will be all right,” said head coach Doc Rivers. “He took a heck of a hit, but he’ll be fine.”

The Clippers also took a hit, losing Prigioni after already being down one of their backup guards in Austin Rivers, whose hand contusion stemming from Wednesday’s loss made him a game-time decision Friday. Doc Rivers seems confident the injuries won’t keep either player out long.

For Austin Rivers, the issue is more swelling and pain tolerance.   

“Austin’s hand is really swollen,” Doc Rivers said. “I told him he’s left-handed, he doesn’t use it much anyway, so he should be able to be OK.”

Hacking Changes?

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told USA Today he’s “increasingly of the view” that the league will look to make “some sort of change” regarding the hacking rules this summer.

Silver said it’s not the way the NBA wants to see the game played, though he was somewhat conflicted on the issue because he sees both sides of the argument.

That’s been the case for Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, as well, but he’s started to evolve his view as the season’s progressed toward favoring a change.

“I really don’t think I should have an opinion on it, because it affects me and I think it just looks too disingenuous, so I just try to recuse,” said Rivers, who’s on the competition committee. “Like, when we’re having the meetings, I’m like, ‘Come on, ask someone else, please.’ I don’t want to get involved, and I hope that’s how it goes in our next competition meeting, because if it comes from me, I try to stay away from it.”

That said, Rivers did say he believes the NBA would have a better product without what hacking has become.

“Even though the old-school part of me still thinks the free-throw part, you should make them,” Rivers said. “But I do. I’ve had to endure it. It’s tough to watch. And the rule has already been changed. That’s why when you hear people say, ‘Why change the rule?’ Well, what’s the last two minutes of a game? So the rule’s actually been changed before. Now they’ll just do it all game. I think it should happen, and I’ve changed, and I’m not saying that because it affects me. But it’s no fun.”

Despite the aesthetic problems hacking away from the ball presents, Magic head coach Scott Skiles said he understands both sides of it, but he’s among the coaches who believes hacking is part of the game, calling it “a viable option.”

“I think we need to be really careful if we’re going to start legislating people’s weaknesses,” Skiles said.

That’s despite hacking not working in Skiles’ favor often. Skiles said he used to do it with Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard, and they tended to step up and make the free throws.

“There’s also some drama in it,” Skiles said. “Is the guy finally going to make a couple when you foul, and things like that. I do realize you bring in a three-second rule because Wilt Chamberlain’s standing under the basket and they throw it in there and he dunks it all the time or lays it in, so a rule will change when it’s necessary.

“This one, again, I would hope that if it’s left untouched, sort of generationally, it’ll make a difference. There’s some 14-year-old big kid somewhere who can’t make his free throws and decides I don’t want to be one of those guys when I get there, and it makes people make their free throws.”