DALLAS — Coach J.B. Bickerstaff claimed that crew chief John Goble didn’t come into the Detroit Pistons’ game against the Dallas Mavericks Thursday night as an objective referee.
The matchup in Dallas — which ended up a 116-114 defeat in overtime for the Pistons — featured a handful of major calls against Detroit that saw forward Ausar Thompson ejected and Bickerstaff, himself, get called for a technical.
While Bickerstaff never said Goble’s name in a fiery postgame press conference, he referenced the multiple calls Goble made during the game and said he had an interaction with the same referee where he claims the official said “night by night, this is how our interactions are.”
“That says to me that the referee is coming into the game not being objective,” Bickerstaff said. “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.
“So, the same referee who comes into the game who’s not objective, and then he goes out and makes those calls. The same referee, if you take a look at the play where he ejects A.T, he steps towards A.T., right? That’s where the minimal contact happens, where he steps towards him and initiates it.”
Postgame, Goble said that Thompson was ejected for contact with an official and Bickerstaff assessed his technical for “continuous complaining.”
The comment alleged by Bickerstaff from Goble, added with the series of calls against the Pistons led to Bickerstaff calling on the league to take action and that Goble “clearly has an unobjective point of view.”
It wasn’t just Bickerstaff expressing ire with officiating as center Jalen Duren was pronouncing a trend in how the Pistons are officiated.
Detroit (21-6) has never shied away from stating that they try to toe the line when it comes to playing with a lot of physicality and not wavering from that, even if it costs a few fouls.
As long as they’re not “silly” fouls, the Pistons are prepared to be physical and force teams to play through contact. But Duren believes the style of play is leading to unfair treatment.
“In my opinion, I think we get reffed different because of our reputation,” Duren told reports postgame. “The way we play every night we kind of deal with the same thing. Still could have done things to win this game. I wouldn’t hang it on or say it was because of officiating. He still made mistakes, could have came out way stronger.”
Bickerstaff echoed that message, saying that the officiating wasn’t the difference, particularly in a game the Pistons shot 39% from the field and 18% from deep and only lost by two points.
However, he wants the league to take a look at what happened Thursday night and he wasn’t quiet about his irritation with what took place in Dallas.
“This game is not about the referees. This was a highly-contested game by two really competitive teams whose guys laid it out on the line,” Bickerstaff said. “But it needs to be addressed what happened on the floor tonight. You had one guy who wanted to make the game about the referees and that’s not what this should’ve been.”