Indiana coach Rick Carlisle is done with these refs. And Wednesday night he let them have it.
After feeling his Pacers were getting the short end of the officiating stick, first Carlisle got ejected from their 130-121 Game 2 loss to the Knicks, then he unloaded on the referees afterward.
He accused them of bias against small-market teams and said Indiana will submit a list of supposedly blown calls to the NBA.
“We deserve a fair shot, and it’s just not,” Carlisle said. “There’s not a consistent balance. And that’s disappointing. So give New York credit for the physicality that they’re playing with. But their physicality is rewarded, and ours is penalized, just time after time.
“I’m just really disappointed. Just really disappointed. The two technicals, you’ve gotta make a stand for your guys. You’ve gotta stand up for what’s right and what’s not right, and that was it.”
Carlisle got his technicals with 33 seconds left, coming onto the court to argue for a double-dribble call against Isaiah Hartenstein that was overturned after a brief huddle among the officials.
Carlisle got in the face of official Marc Davis., the same ref Denver’s Mike Malone accosted two nights earlier.
Malone didn’t even get a technical. Carlisle got two — and the boot.
“One guy just said he didn’t double dribble. But it looks to me like [Tom Thibodeau] went out there and argued it, and they changed it. That’s what it looked like,” Carlisle said. “And that’s small beans compared to everything else. Small-market teams deserve an equal shot. They deserve a fair shot, … no matter where they’re playing.”
Indiana took just five fewer free throws (22-17) and were whistled for just three more fouls (17-14) — modest discrepancies.
But it felt like a delayed release of pent-up frustration after Monday’s Game 1 loss when the Pacers cited 29 calls that went against them, including an incorrect kicked-ball call on Aaron Nesmith.
“I decided not to submit them, because I just felt like we’d get a more balanced whistle [Game 2]. It didn’t feel that way,” Carlisle said.
“[With] 5:08 in the third, the whole world knows [Tyrese] Haliburton’s got a bad back, and [Josh] Hart comes up and shoves him in the back. And JB DeRosa is looking right at it You can see him, he’s got vision of the play. … He shoves Tyrese right in the corner, and there’s no whistle. Right in the back. That was shocking. And there are many others. But I promise you we’re going to submit these.”
Haliburton said he wasn’t hurt on the play, and they didn’t lose solely because of the refs — but that they have been getting the short end of the stick.
“Would I like more consistency? Yeah, but let’s not pretend like that’s the only reason we lost. We just didn’t play good enough,” Haliburton said. “Yeah, we’d like consistency. I don’t think he double-dribbled. But if you can overturn that call, why can’t you overturn the kicked ball? I don’t really understand that.”
