Doc Rivers admits he has some agitators on his squad but says the LA Clippers were not trying to purposely instigate anything with Luka Doncic in Game 1 against the Dallas Mavericks.
Following the Clippers' 118-110 victory, Kristaps Porzingis said the Clippers provoked him into drawing a second technical and automatic ejection when he came to Doncic's defense after the Mavericks' star point guard briefly got tangled up with Marcus Morris Sr. with 9:10 to go in the third quarter.
"I think we have some guys who are agitators," Rivers said Tuesday. "I think that's good. But I can guarantee you that [provoking] wasn't on our game-plan list. That's just ridiculous. [There was nobody saying] 'OK, let's get him thrown out.' I didn't like [the ejection] actually.
"No offense on the Porzingis throw-out," Rivers later added. "That wasn't enough for anyone else to get involved. There was nothing there. Marcus and Doncic really were having a conversation. For him to come into that, to me it had to be something else earlier, that him and Marcus got into. There was not enough for him to run in and be the peacemaker. There was no war going on."
There was also a moment in the first half when Patrick Beverley raked down on Doncic to prevent him from scoring but the Mavericks guard didn't react to the foul. Doncic -- who had 42 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in his playoff debut -- kept his composure.
But Porzingis thought a few of the Clippers were trying to get under the Mavericks' skin.
"Just provoked us," Porzingis said of the second tech he got for rushing to Doncic's defense, which led to some minor shoving. "They provoked us and especially me, I should have been smarter. I already had the technical, which I kind of didn't really have in my mind. I hadn't been in that situation [before], really. And that was smart of [Morris] to kind of grab Luka and get into his face and get a reaction out of me. And, yeah, they got what they were looking for, basically.
"That's what they do," Porzingis added when asked whether the Clippers like to provoke. "Not their main guys, but some of the other guys, that's their job. That's part of their game and we can't fall into that. We got to be above that and that's it. These are the mistakes you almost have to go through to gain that experience and not to commit those mistakes maybe later on in your career."
Regardless, Dallas coach Rick Carlisle wants his team to move on.
"We've got to concentrate on our process, playing our game [and] understand that there's definitely an emotional aspect to playing playoff basketball," he said. "There are instances where it gets physical. Sometimes players try to incite emotion and stuff like that. We've got to work together to stay on an even keel.
"You can't get too high, you can't get too low."
ESPN staff writer Tim Bontemps contributed to this report.