In the Knicks’ two wins in their second-round series against the Indiana Pacers, one story was controversial appeals from employeesand coach of the Pacers Rick Carlisle apparently he’s had enough.
The championship-winning coach began his post-Game 2 press conference Wednesday night by talking about what he claims is an imbalance in referee calls.
“After Game 1, we always looked at the film in games where it looked like the whistles weren’t balanced and we pulled the clips and there’s a way to get them to the NBA office,” Carlisle said. “In the playoffs, when you send things, the other team sees what you send, and so there were 29 plays in Game 1 that we thought were clearly called wrong.”
Carlisle said he didn’t send Game 1 film because he thought the Pacers would “have a more even whistle” in Game 2, but felt that wasn’t the case.
As a result, the Pacers recorded what they believed to be 49 incorrect calls from Game 2, plus the 29 calls from Game 1, for a total of 78 calls that they 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 pushed Tyrese Haliburton in the back, in front of an officer and no call was made.
“The whole world knows Haliburton has a bad back and Hart shows up and pushes him in the back,” Carlisle highlighted. “And it’s all on Twitter now because some people showed it to me and [official] JB De Rosa is looking directly at him, you can see he has vision of the play and he pushes Tyrese into the corner and there is no whistle, right behind.
“Give New York credit for the physicality they’re playing with,” he added, “but their physicality is rewarded and ours is penalized over and over again.”
New York was called for 14 personal fouls, while the Pacers were called for 17. The Pacers went to the line 17 times (making only 10 of them), while the Knicks were 18 of 22 from the free throw line, two of which came on Carlisle techniques in the game’s final seconds, a move the 64-year-old coach he said he was made to defend his players.
A critical moment in the final minutes of the fourth quarter occurred when the referees initially called Isaiah Hartenstein for a double dribble, but reversed the decision after the referees met.
Carlisle told how he saw the incident and how the reversal was communicated to him.
“One guy just said, ‘He didn’t dribble twice,’” Carlisle explained. “But it seemed like Thibs went there and discussed it and they changed it. I can only believe what I saw.
“Small market teams deserve an equal chance. They deserve a fair chance no matter where they are playing”
The series will now move to Indiana for Games 3 and 4, with Game 3 scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m.
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