Is Pacers’ Rick Carlisle right to be upset about Knicks series officiating and big market bias?

It wouldn’t be the playoffs we know and love without some campaigns and allegations that something nefarious is happening with the officiating.

Madison Square Garden, a rowdy and desperate Knicks crowd, the Indiana Pacers on the other side and a national TV audience.

Are we sure we’re not done with the 90s?

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle took the stand after his team destroyed Game 2 to the Knicks, putting them in an 0-2 hole before returning home to Indianapolis. No doubt he was frustrated after two games of shoddy officiating, some moments the refs wish they had back, and some unforgivable calls that pleased the Knicks.

The Pacers sent several dozen plays to the league office that they found questionable, which is standard practice for teams after games. This happens all the time, except in this case, the Knicks will be able to see exactly what the Pacers sent instead of it being a little more clandestine.

Carlisle wasn’t shy about how official he felt his team was and the possible reasons behind it.

“I’m always talking to our guys about not talking about the refs… but we deserve a fair chance,” Carlisle said. “There is no consistent balance and that is disappointing. Their physicality is rewarded and ours is penalized.”

And then, the coup d’état. Carlisle exploded when a double dribble on Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein was called for a recall, he believes, simply because Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said Hartenstein didn’t commit the infraction.

Now, it didn’t look like Hartenstein dribbled twice, but never, and emphasis on never, do you see a coach get a call like this changed as soon as the whistle blows.

“That’s small compared to everything else,” Carlisle said. “Small market teams deserve an equal chance. They deserve a fair chance no matter where they are playing.”

If the cause is getting the decision right, then Carlisle has a big point in this microexample. But given what occurred in Game 1, where the Pacers were actually wronged, that logic was not applied when the referees incorrectly called a shot for the Pacers when Aaron Nesmith picked off a pass from Jalen Brunson during a game-tying game with 52.1 seconds left. remaining.

The decision could not be reviewed, and instead of a 4-on-2 fast break for the Pacers, the Knicks got the ball back, so Donte DiVincenzo hit a triple to put the Knicks ahead, leading to the victory.

Carlisle is taking a page from the playbook of Phil Jackson, Chuck Daly, Pat Riley, the Van Gundy brothers, and exerting some pressure on a league that is very sensitive to perceived biases toward a team like the Knicks.

The aforementioned coaches adjusted the league and worked with the referees in the days between games, a clear agenda to draw attention to the referee teams that would work the upcoming games. It was part entertainment, part strategy, and we all leaned into it.

It’s fun and everyone loves a good conspiracy theory, especially when there is evidence to back up the claims. The thesis may not be correct.

Carlisle refused to blame the officiating after Game 1, then looked the right way two days later and took a step away from nuclear power.

Whether he believes it or not, Carlisle and other coaches around the league know who is being talked about nationally, which teams get the most media and television coverage across the league, and it seeps into their minds. And Carlisle, as president of the coaches association, knows he cannot make serious claims to the integrity of the game.

The NBA doesn’t control what ESPN says, and Carlisle is knowingly smart enough to know that. The Lakers get the ‘A’ block even when they are nowhere near the playoffs. Orlando, Cleveland and Indiana, no one knows they exist because of television coverage and, yes, sometimes in this space too.

And when you continually hear on broadcasts, “The NBA is so much better when the Knicks are relevant,” it’s hard to ignore — even if you ignore that the Knicks have been to a grand total of one Eastern Conference Finals since 1999.

There’s no denying that Madison Square Garden is electric in the spring, and for TV viewing, it looks like an intoxicating environment. The Pacers have a charm, but they’ve always been a small-market contrast to the likes of the Knicks, Bulls and even the Miami Heat when LeBron James was there.

Good versus not so good, famous versus unknown, it’s a story as old as time and makes a compelling introduction.

From a pure basketball perspective, however, it gets more complicated. The Knicks are an undermanned, aggressive group that plays physical everywhere on the court, starting with their bulldog point guard, Jalen Brunson.

He drops his shoulder and knocks opposing guards off his body like pins in bowling balls, and he’s done it all year — just like the Knicks did.

The Pacers were built like a race car in the way the game was officiated in the first half of the season. Little contact was rewarded, physical play was further excluded from the game.

But in the second half of the year, the pendulum swung and teams like the Knicks could be more hands-on – and once you establish a style, a physical style, you’ll probably have more leeway from the referees, subconsciously.

It can be difficult to change officiating standards in the middle of a season, especially when referees are trained and coached in the offseason and implement changes in the preseason as they gradually adjust.

And the games have been better, more compelling than the calls we’ve seen in the last two years, it’s a welcome change.

However, strange things have happened to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden this season when games were close. Pistons rookie Ausar Thompson was essentially hit on the sideline by DiVincenzo, with the Pistons holding a one-point lead with 6.9 seconds remaining, in full view of the referee who was more of a spectator than someone doing his job.

The Knicks scored on that play, won that game, and of course, like Game 1, the referees admitted their mistake right after, but nothing could be done.

The two-minute report frustrates everyone because it doesn’t change what we saw from a million angles the night before, and the last thing anyone wants to see is referees succumb to human error and interrupt competitive, compelling games.

Whistles blown, whistles swallowed, it comes in all forms. It’s not necessarily about the disparity in free throws, but about consistency in decisions – like Myles Turner’s questionable offensive foul on a screen where, yes, DiVincenzo was in the middle of it again. The Knicks’ talented swingman appeared to fumble, and while Turner wasn’t completely set, the contact wasn’t nearly as egregious — especially compared to the previous play, where DiVincenzo leaned on Nesmith and wrapped his arms around a screen to free Brunson. .

This was the play where Brunson made a bad pass and it was ruled Knick-ball, or kickball.

DiVincenzo seems to be everywhere, doesn’t he?

But bad decisions don’t have to equal a conspiracy on the part of the league office or officiating staff. Carlisle has the right to pull that lever, even when a fine might be coming, to at least plant the seed in everyone’s minds about what to watch out for as the series shifts locations.

The Pacers can’t change who they are, and while the Knicks are constantly short of bodies, they won’t change who they are.

Human nature cannot be changed, but we hope that our eyes and our prejudices do not see the same things.