The Oklahoma City Thunder and the Detroit Pistons played a physical game, which led to an outburst from head coach J.B. Bickerstaff following their 113-107 loss. He didn’t hold back, and he let the media know that he felt the refs weren’t showing them the respect that they deserved on the floor. The Pistons were frustrated as a group the entire night and ended up with five technical fouls all in the third quarter. On the other hand, head coach Mark Daigneault took the high road and thought that his team did a good job with the lack of fouls being called, and was asked about Bickerstaff’s frustrations.
“I think his stuff tonight, at least from what I could hear, was more game management than it was on how the game was called,” Daigneault said via Thunder reporter Joel Lorenzi. “He thought there should have been some reviews and thought they mismanaged some stuff. I thought our guys showed good resolve.
“That crew was the loosest whistle coming into the game that we’ve seen all season in terms of how little they call. … I thought our guys did a great job of not getting distracted by anything.”
The Thunder walked away with the win as it was another big game from Sha Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished the game with 48 points.
Mark Daigneualt responds to J.B. Bickerstaff’s criticism of refs
From the sound of it, Mark Daigneault and the Thunder were prepared for what kind of game it was going to be due to the analytics of the referees and what their tendencies are. J.B. Bickerstaff wasn’t a fan of how things were – or were not – being called in the game, and let it rip following the matchup.
“I’m disgusted by the way that game was officiated. The level of disrespect was above and beyond. They have a guy fall down and trip on his own teammate’s foot, they review us for a hostile act. They throw an elbow to our chest and neck area. I ask for them to at least take a look at it, and no one would take a look at it,” Bickerstaff said. “The disrespect has gone far enough, and I’m not going to allow our guys to be treated how they were treated tonight.”
The Pistons are known as a team that plays a physical brand of basketball, so the refs may not call certain things depending on the situation. Nonetheless, if there’s a blatant foul, the refs should call what they see instead of going by the play style of the team.
The post Thunder’s Mark Daigneault reacts to J.B. Bickerstaff’s ref rant after controversial Pistons game appeared first on ClutchPoints.
