Detroit Pistons: Bickerstaff Calls Officiating ‘Extremely Frustrating’ After Loss To Knicks

From the onset of last night’s road game, the Detroit Pistons were fighting an uphill battle. From a personnel standpoint, the Pistons were missing both All-Star center Jalen Duren and sharp-shooting guard Isaiah Joe after their injuries over the past two games, so that shortened Detroit’s bench and forced Paul Reed into the starting lineup. 

While the Pistons did welcome Ausar Thompson back into the starting lineup, Detroit ran into a confluence of factors that worked against them in their 111-97 loss to the New York Knicks. Duncan Robinson had an uncharacteristically poor shooting night with a 2-for-10 record from the perimeter, then the Pistons paired two of their lowest-scoring quarters of the season next to each other in the middle of the game. Totaling just 25 points in the second and third quarters combined, the Knicks had long recaptured the lead entering the final frame on Tuesday night. 

To make Detroit’s chances at a comeback even more of a long shot, both Reed and Thompson ran into serious foul trouble during the second half. B-Ball Paul’s minutes were immediately slashed to protect the Pistons’ depth at the five, but AT fouled out of the game, which relieved an immense amount of on-ball pressure for Jalen Brunson. 

From a side-by-side comparison, the Pistons were called for 28 fouls on the night to 23 for the Knicks, but Detroit head coach J.B. Bickerstaff was more than annoyed with the way his team was officiated in the double-digit loss. Early on, the Pistons were allowed to defend the bucket and compiled a string of powerful blocks in the first quarter, but as the contest went on those 50-50 calls started to go against Detroit more often. 

”It is extremely frustrating, you know what I mean, to see it happen the way that it happens,” Bickerstaff said after the game. “There is a discrepancy. There’s a physicality that we play with and play with every night, and the league should be accustomed to it by now. We’ve been doing it for three years, and it’s not going to change. We’re physical within the rules, have gotten really good at it. We’ve been one of the top defenses over the past two, three years, whatever it’s been, playing a certain style. The fans want to see the style that we play. That’s what Detroit wants, and that’s what our fan base enjoys about our time. So, we’ll continue to do what we do and go from there.”

While Thompson, Reed and John Collins each racked up three stocks against the Knicks, the officials held Detroit’s aggressive defense in check on a number of occasions, such as AT’s ill-explained goaltending whistle with a free throw attached. By the time the Knicks subbed their starters out late in the fourth quarter, Brunson had already attempted 16 shots from the charity stripe. Naturally, the NBA Champion converted 13 of those opportunities, which was very nearly the margin of victory in this Eastern Conference duel. 

Now that the Pistons have suffered their first loss of the season, Detroit stands at 3-1 with a quick turnaround at home later tonight against the Charlotte Hornets. As for New York, the 1-3 Knicks will play their second leg of a back-to-back on the road against the Chicago Bulls with an 8 pm tip-off on the docket.