The high price of speech

Ask -- make that criticize -- and you shall receive. As expected, Magic Coach Doc Rivers was fined $7,500 by the league for his scathing comments about the officiating after Orlando's 111-98 loss to Indiana on Tuesday night.

Rivers was ejected with 2 minutes, 25 seconds remaining after walking onto the court to protest what he believed to be a foul against point guard Darrell Armstrong. Armstrong also was ejected.

Rivers called it "one of the worst officiated games I've ever seen," complained about the lack of charging calls against the Pacers and singled out official Violet Palmer for missing a call. Rivers didn't back down much before Wednesday night's game against Boston, saying of the fine, "I still don't agree with it."

Life on the road

The Magic wrapped up a seven-game, 11-day road trip -- the longest in franchise history -- and it would have been longer had they not protested to the league.

Rivers said the club originally was scheduled to play eight games in 13 days before it was changed. A trip to Philadelphia was canceled. The oddity of the just-completed trip is that all the games were against East foes. "[Magic assistant] Dave Wohl had been in the league 30 years, and he said he's never seen anything like it," Rivers said. Rivers said the hardest part is arriving so late to other cities after playing a game. The NBA requires teams to be in the next town as soon as possible.