Pacers reportedly file 78 disputed calls to NBA following Rick Carlisle's criticism of officiating in Knicks series
In what's been two down-to-the-wire wins for the Knicks in their second-round series against the Indiana Pacers, one story has been some controversial calls by the officials, and Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has apparently had enough.
The championship-winning coach started his Game 2 postgame news conference on Wednesday night talking about what he claims is an imbalance of calls from the officials.
"After Game 1 we always go through the film in games where it felt like the whistles weren’t balanced and we pull the clips and there’s a way you can submit them to the NBA office," Carlisle said. "In the playoffs, when you submit things the other team sees what you submit and so there were 29 plays in Game 1 that we thought were clearly called the wrong way. "
Carlisle said he didn't submit the Game 1 film because he thought the Pacers would "get a more balanced whistle" in Game 2, but he felt that wasn't the case.
As a result, the Pacers filed what they believed were 49 incorrect calls from Game 2, plus the 29 calls from Game 1, for a grand total of 78 calls that they have disputed with the NBA league office, according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst.
One example Carlisle gave was in the third quarter of Game 2 when he felt Josh Hart shoved Tyrese Haliburton in the back in front of an official and no call was made.
"The whole world knows that Haliburton’s got a bad back and Hart comes up and shoves him in the back," Carlisle pointed out. "And it’s all over Twitter right now because a few people have shown it to me and [official] JB DeRosa is looking right at it, you can see he’s got vision of the play and he shoves Tyrese to the corner and there’s no whistle, right in the back."
"Give New York credit for the physicality that they’re playing with," he added, "but their physicality is rewarded and ours is penalized time after time."
New York was called for 14 personal fouls while the Pacers were called for 17. The Pacers went to the line 17 times (made just 10 of them) while the Knicks were 18-for-22 from the free-throw line, two of which came off technicals from Carlisle in the waning seconds of the game, a move that the 64-year-old coach said was done to stand up for his players.
A critical moment in the final minutes of the fourth quarter came when the officials originally called Isaiah Hartenstein for a double-dribble but reversed the call after the refs got together.
Carlisle told how he saw the incident and how the reversal was communicated to him.
"One guy just said, 'he didn't double-dribble,'" Carlisle explained. "But it looked like Thibs went out there and argued it and they changed. I can only go by what I saw. That's small beans compared to everything else.
"Small-market teams deserve an equal shot. They deserve a fair shot no matter where they're playing"
The series will now shift to Indiana for Games 3 and 4, with Game 3 scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m.
