Detroit Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff accused crew chief John Goble of not being objective in his officiating after their 116-114 overtime loss against the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday evening.
Bickerstaff was incensed with Goble’s questionable calls in the game, including a technical foul and eventual ejection of Detroit Pistons swingman Ausar Thompson during the second period and a technical foul on Bickerstaff seconds after the halftime buzzer.
“So, that says to me that the referee is coming into the game not being objective,” Bickerstaff said via ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “OK? That same referee, at halftime, I get my technical foul. I don’t say anything to him. I go to grab Cade (Cunningham) 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.”
“This game is not about the referees. This was a highly contested game between two competitive teams with guys who laid it out on the line, but it needs to be addressed what happened out there on the floor tonight,” he continued. “You had one guy who wanted to make the game about the referees, and that is not what this should have been. This was two teams competing their tails off, playing high-level basketball.”
Detroit Pistons News: JB Bickerstaff is proud of his team despite the overtime loss
JB Bickerstaff was compelled to dig deeper into his bench following the ejection of Ausar Thompson and Duncan Robinson’s knee injury in the third period. The Detroit Pistons’ second unit recorded 58 points, giving them a massive boost.
“The strength of this team is the depth. We can go to any given guy on any given night, and they can help us,” Bickerstaff said via Coty M. Davis of The Detroit News. “We came up a little bit short. But it speaks to the team’s character and the depth. Guys being prepared and ready to go.”
Cade Cunningham led all scorers with 29 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists on 12-for-30 shooting from the field. Jalen Duren, Isaiah Stewart, Ron Holland II, and Daniss Jenkins added 17, 14, 12, and 11 points, respectively.
