Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff fined $15,000 for criticizing officials after 76ers loss
J.B. Bickerstaff didn’t hold back after his team's loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday, and now he’s paying for it.
The Cleveland Cavaliers coach was fined $15,000 by the league on Monday night for criticizing officials after the game.
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“We deserved to win that game,” Bickerstaff said after their 112-108 loss to the 76ers, via the Philadelphia Inquirer. “That game was taken from us.”
Bickerstaff wasn’t upset with one play in particular, but rather the amount of times 76ers players made it to the free throw line.
Philadelphia shot 42 free throws compared to just 31 for the Cavaliers in the contest. Joel Embiid, who put up 44 points and 17 rebounds, went 17-of-20 from the free throw line alone. Combined with James Harden’s 12 free throw attempts, that’s more than the 76ers shot combined. Cleveland was called for 28 total fouls.
“We did a great job defensively, making their two best players have a difficult time from the field. But one thing you can’t defend is the free-throw line,” Bickerstaff said, via the Philadelphia Inquirer. “That’s absurd. That’s absurd. Our guys deserve way better than what they got tonight.
“It was the rhythm of the night. They’re great players, right? They understand how to play through the rules, and they know how to manipulate the rules. This is no knock or disrespect on those guys. But the game has to be consistent on both ends of the floor. There’s contact on one end, it’s a foul. Contact on the other end, it’s got to be a foul. Tonight, we were searching for that consistency and I don’t think we ever found it.”
The Cavaliers have now lost three of their last four games, and are currently sitting in seventh in the Eastern Conference standings. With just three regular season games left, avoiding the postseason play-in is now likely out of reach for Bickerstaff and his team.
