Bickerstaff Explodes, Calls Referee ‘Not Objective’ After Pistons Loss

On paper, the Detroit Pistons made a staggering late-game comeback in the fourth quarter against the Dallas Mavericks to force overtime in a game that was not promised a tight finish. But with Detroit’s back against the wall, the Pistons turned to a contingent of bench players to claw back into the contest.

With Daniss Jenkins, Marcus Sasser, Javonte Green, Ron Holland and Paul Reed on the floor, the Pistons forced turnover after turnover to cut the Dallas lead bit by bit. Eventually, the Pistons took the lead in the latter stages of the fourth quarter thanks to Cade Cunningham’s heroics in the clutch, but the teams kept trading blows before ending regulation gridlocked at 110 points apiece. 

From then on, the refs decided to let everything go– they were determined not to control the outcome of the game and ironically did just that on a blatant Jalen Duren no-call under the Dallas basket with mere seconds remaining. The Pistons walked away with a two-point loss, and Detroit has a couple legitimate gripes to contend with after the fact.

“Let’s address that,” Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after the game. “So, a referee makes a comment to me about night by night, this is how our interactions are. So, that says to me, a referee is coming into the game not being objective.”

During the game, the refs issued not one, not two but three technical fouls in the contest– one to Cunningham, another for Ausar Thompson and a tech on Bickerstaff. At one juncture late in regulation, the Pistons were near the end of the shot clock when Jenkins hoisted up an effort. The shot was blocked by Anthony Davis, but Detroit stole the ball right back. After a lengthy review that figured to return possession to the Pistons with a full shot clock, the refs awarded the ball to the Mavericks, citing a puzzling shot clock violation. 

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But the instance that truly had coach Bickerstaff heated occurred earlier in the game. During the second quarter, Ausar Thompson was fighting for an offensive rebound and wrapped up a Mavs player from behind in the process. The officials called a personal foul, but Thompson felt that it should have been a jump ball. In protest, Thompson charged over to the ref in question to voice his displeasure, and the official immediately booted Thompson from the game, leaving the Pistons short one starter in the process. 

“You look at the play, that same referee, at halftime I get my technical foul,” Bickerstaff said. “I don’t say anything to him. I go to grab Cade to get Cade off the floor. He gives me a technical foul. That’s my job to get my player away from the referee, get us back to halftime so we can have the conversations that we need to have. So the same referee who comes into the game who is not objective then he goes out and makes those calls. The same referee, if you take a look at the play where he ejects to AT, he steps towards AT. That’s where the minimal contact happens, where he steps towards him and initiates it.”

The Pistons have played shorthanded before, though, so this was nothing new for Detroit. As the Pistons pressed on without Ausar, the group slowly climbed back into the contest, but Duncan Robinson went down with some clear discomfort in the second half to, once again, handcuff the Detroit rotation a bit further.

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With Robinson on defense, the veteran shooter clashed knees with a Dallas player, and the collision sent Robinson to the ground in a heap. Robinson slowly rose to his feet and attempted to regain position as the play continued on, but he was visibly limping. Detroit took a quick timeout after gaining possession, and Robinson did not return to the game.

Despite facing adversity both on the injury front and from the officials, the Pistons still found a way to climb back into the game and force overtime. Unfortunately, another potential blown call at the end of OT rings loudly as a moment when the officials did not take charge of the game in the proper fashion. Bickerstaff opined on this perceived inaccuracy after the game, and it underpins a general perception that the Pistons are under more scrutiny than other teams in the league.

Detroit makes no qualms about its brash, hard-nosed style of play, but the Pistons deserve to play under the same guidelines as the other 29 teams in the NBA. And on Thursday night, Bickerstaff had sound reason to believe that did not happen. 

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