Referee admits a missed foul as ‘livid’ Pistons lose
NEW YORK — After the Knicks escaped with a 113-111 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Monday night — in large part because of an obvious missed call with
8.5 seconds left when New York guard Donte DiVincenzo plowed into Detroit forward Ausar Thompson — Pistons coach Monty Williams delivered a tirade over what he deemed a
season’s worth of mistreatment from the officials.
“The absolute worst call of the season,” Williams said a few minutes after
the game. He arrived in the media room before any reporters could get there
and did not answer any questions after issuing his statement about the
game’s final sequence. “No call, and enough’s enough. We’ve done it the
right way. We’ve called the league. We’ve sent in clips. We’re sick of
hearing the same stuff over and over again.
“We had a chance to win the game, and a guy dove into Ausur’s legs and
there was a no-call. That’s an abomination. You cannot miss that in an NBA
game. Period. And I’m tired of talking about it. I’m tired of my guys
asking, ‘What more can we do, Coach?’ That situation is Exhibit A to what
we’ve been dealing with all season long, and enough’s enough.”
“You cannot dive into a guy’s legs in a big-time game like that and there
be a no-call,” he continued. “It’s ridiculous, and we’re tired of it. We
just want a fair game called. Period. And I’ve got nothing else to say. We
want a fair game, and that was not fair.”
Referee James Williams, the crew chief, was standing right on top of the
play, which occurred during a frenetic closing sequence, and admitted in a
pool report after the game that it should have been called a foul.
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“Upon postgame review, we determined that Thompson gets to the ball first
and then was deprived of the opportunity to gain possession of the ball,”
James Williams said. “Therefore, a loose ball foul should have been
whistled on New York’s Donte DiVincenzo.”
But it wasn’t, and as a result, the Pistons (8-49) found themselves on the
short end of a heartbreaking call for a second straight game after
believing a travel should have been called on Magic forward Paolo Banchero’s winning bucket in Saturday’s home loss to Orlando.
“I’d say livid,” Pistons guard Cade Cunningham, who had a sensational performance with 32 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists
and 2 blocks in 36 minutes, said after Monday’s contest. “That’s the word
of the day: livid.”
Monday night’s chaos began with the ball in Knicks All-Star guard Jalen Brunson’s hands with 30 seconds to go and New York trailing 111-110. After Brunson
missed a 3-pointer over the outstretched arm of Cunningham, the rebound got
tipped by Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein out to the corner, where Pistons guard Quentin Grimes grabbed it and tossed it to Detroit forward Simone Fontecchio.
Josh Hart then knocked the ball away from Fontecchio on another play that looked
like it could be a foul — though James Williams, in the pool report, said
it was a correct call — and Hartenstein scooped it up and kicked it out to
DiVincenzo at the top of the key.
At this point, there was about 10 seconds remaining, and DiVincenzo tried
to fling a pass to Brunson on the right wing but instead threw it right to
Detroit’s Thompson. Then, as Thompson tried to go up the sideline,
DiVincenzo collided with him, sending Thompson, DiVincenzo and the ball
spilling onto the court.
“I went for the ball,” DiVincenzo said later, when asked for his view on
what happened. “I didn’t look at the play. You turn the ball over, the ball
is in front of you, and you go after the ball. Like I said, I respect
everyone’s opinion. I can’t speak on it until I look at the film.”
Thompson, meanwhile, said he “definitely” was expecting a call on the play.
But James Williams didn’t blow his whistle, allowing Brunson to scoop up
the loose ball and fire a pass to Hart, who laid it in while drawing a foul
on Pistons center Jalen Duren to put the Knicks (35-23) ahead for good.
“I was very confused when I was on the ground and the play kept going, I’m
not going to lie,” Thompson said. “But, I mean, that’s how it goes.”
Adding insult to injury for the Pistons was that this game was originally
scheduled to be played in Detroit — only for it to be moved to New York
because of an in-season tournament scheduling quirk that cost the Knicks a
home game when they were eliminated in the quarterfinals.
The Knicks, meanwhile, were on the other end of an officiating mistake two
weeks earlier when a referee admitted to a missed call in the closing seconds of a loss at the Houston Rockets.
“I’ve been a part of some crazy stuff that’s happened playing basketball,”
Hart said. “So, whether there’s basketball gods or not, you know what I
mean, crazy things happen in an 82-game season.”
Source: A season’s worth of frustration seemed to pour out of Pistons coach Monty Williams on Monday, after Detroit dropped a 113-111 decision to the Knicks in a game that included an obvious missed foul call on New York’s Donte DiVincenzo with 8.5 seconds left.
