The Detroit Pistons lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 113-107, on Saturday night, and suffice it to say Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff was not in a pleasant mood afterward.
His anger was not directed at his players, but rather … you’ll never guess … at the officials. If you want the numbers, the Pistons only got to the line 13 times against the Thunder’s 22, but judging the equity of officiating in a given game by free throw totals is a flawed measurement.
For the most part, teams that shoot a lot of free throws earn them with downhill initiative and physical creation. But Bickerstaff wasn’t just angry at the fouls that were called or not called, but mostly with what he believes was a refusal on the part of the officials to extend a basic level of respectful consideration and communication to the Pistons.
Bickerstaff’s anger clearly hit a boiling point when Cade Cunningham was ejected late in the third quarter. A foul was reviewed for a flagrant but was deemed a common foul, and Cunningham, per the pool report, was hit with a technical foul for using profanity toward the officials, and then was hit with a second tech for more profanity.
Magic words aside, this doesn’t seem like a very demonstrative brand of arguing.
“[‘I’m] disgusted by the way that game was officiated,” Bickerstaff said. “The level of disrespect was above and beyond. [The Thunder] have a guy fall down, trip on his own teammate’s foot, they review us for a hostile act. [The Thunder] throw an elbow to our chest, neck area, I ask [the officials] to at least take a look at it, just show us the respect to take a look at it, no one would take a look at it.
“The disrespect has gone far enough. And I’m not going to allow out guy to be treated the way that they were treated tonight. … We understand that we play a style of ball that’s physical, that’s on the edge, I coach my ass off with a passionate way, I’m into the games, our players are into the games, we understand that. But we deserve a level of respect because we’re competing our tails off and…
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