Something clearly boiled over in Cleveland on Monday night. The Detroit Pistons dropped Game 4 to the Cleveland Cavaliers 112-103, with the series now level at 2-2 after Detroit had built a 2-0 series lead at home. The loss itself was bad enough. But what followed in the postgame presser carried a different kind of weight.
Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff did not hold back after the game:
"It's unacceptable, it is. We didn't do enough, honestly, to help ourselves, and I'll start there. But ever since we came to Cleveland, the whistle has changed. There's no way that one guy on their team shoots more free throws than our team."
That was Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell, who went 15-for-15 from the free-throw line after a second-half explosion that shook the game.
The Cavaliers shot 34 free throws in Game 4 compared to just 12 for the Pistons as a team. Mitchell scored 43 points, including 39 in the second half, matching the NBA playoff record for points in a single half, originally set by Eric "Sleepy" Floyd in 1987.
The free throw numbers that have Detroit sending tape to the league
Bickerstaff made the argument that his team's style of play made the disparity even harder to accept:
"We're not a settle team; we're not a jump-shooting team. We drive the ball and attack the paint. What was done out there tonight, it's frustrating, but we can't allow that to be the reason why we didn't play to the best of our capabilities."
He also made a pointed connection to comments Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson made publicly before Game 3. Bickerstaff said:
"Since Kenny made his comments publicly about us, the whistle has changed in this series." He added that the Pistons would rewatch the game tape and submit it to the league for review.
The free-throw context over the full series complicates his argument though. In Game 1, the Pistons shot 35 free throws to just 16 for Cleveland. Game 2 was more balanced. Cleveland got six more attempts in their Game 3 win. The swings have cut both ways, which is part of why the online reaction to Bickerstaff's comments has been mixed.
Game 5 returns to Detroit, where the Pistons dominated the opening two games of this series.
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