J.B. Bickerstaff Sounds Off on ‘Unacceptable’ Officiating Since Pistons-Cavaliers Series Shifted to Cleveland

Donovan Mitchell had himself a night Monday with 43 points to lift the Cavaliers to a 112–103 victory over the Pistons that evened their Eastern Conference semifinals series at two games apiece. He had just four points at halftime but scored a whopping 39 in the second half to turn the game on its head, tying the NBA playoff record for most points in a half.

Cleveland outscored the Pistons 38–21 in the third quarter to take control and never looked back as the Cavs have yet to drop a playoff game at home this season. Mitchell got to the line 15 times and made 13 free throws in Monday’s victory. As a unit, the Cavs took 34 foul shots compared to just 12 for the Pistons.

Free-throw discrepancies are common across the NBA, but one that drastic is certainly extraordinary. Cleveland scored 30 points from the foul line in a game it won by nine. Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff was asked about the variance and he took the opportunity to sound off on the officials in what he says is an extraordinary change since the series headed to Cleveland for Game 3.

“It’s unacceptable,” he said postgame via Cleveland.com’s Ashley Bastock. “We didn’t do enough 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. ... What was done out there tonight, it’s frustrating, but we can’t allow that to be the reason why because we didn’t play well enough and play to the best of our capabilities.

“But again, you look at the foul count, you look at the disparity and that’s hard to overcome. And you wonder the reason why. It’s interesting since [Cavs coach] Kenny [Atkinson] made his comments publicly about us, the whistle’s changed in this series.”

In Game 3, the free-throw disparity wasn’t close to as drastic, as the Cavs shot 38 foul shots to the Pistons’ 22. Interestingly enough, the Cavs had more free throw attempts than the Pistons in Game 2 in Detroit, but the Pistons benefitted from a big discrepancy in their Game 1 win (35 foul shots to just 16 for Cleveland).

Now that that fortune has flipped, Bickerstaff may have tried to change the whistle back in his team’s favor after Atkinson called out the officiating before Game 3 for not calling presumed fouls on Mitchell.

What did Kenny Atkinson say about Donovan Mitchell’s whistle?

Before Game 3 in Cleveland, Atkinson commented about the Cavs needed to adapt to how the games are being called and specifically with Mitchell receiving less calls than he did in the regular season.

“[Mitchell’s] free-throw attempt rate has been cut in half from the regular season to the playoffs,” Atkinson said to reporters on Saturday via Jeff Schudel of The News-Herald. “So I think for him and just for us as a team, it’s on us to adapt to how the game’s being called and not called. That’s a big part of this.”

In Game 1, Mitchell had just two free throw attempts, well below his regular-season average of 6.1 free throw attempts per game. He took nine foul shots in Game 2, which the Pistons won to take a 2–0 lead into Cleveland. After Mitchell took more free throws than the Pistons roster combined on Monday night, we’ll see if Bickerstaff’s comments have an impact on how the series is officiated moving forward.

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