New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau cut a frustrated figure at the podium during his press conference following his team’s 100-94 loss to the Detroit Pistons in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series. With that result, the matchup is now all square at 1-1, and the Pistons have stolen homecourt advantage.
While there was plenty for Thibodeau to be upset about, he singled out free-throw attempts, which were heavily in favor of the Pistons. The Pistons made more free throws (28 of 34) than the Knicks attempted (16 of 19), even though they were actually called for more fouls (24-22).
“Huge discrepancy in free throws, huge. So I gotta take a look at that,” Thibodeau said. “I don’t understand how on one side — you talk about direct line drives, the guy’s getting fouled, and it’s not being called. I really don’t give a crap how they call the game, as long as it’s consistent on both sides. If [Cade] Cunningham’s driving and there’s marginal contact and he’s getting to the line, then Jalen [Brunson] deserves to be getting to the line, it’s really that simple.”
In the first half in particular, the Pistons seemed to be getting the benefit of some 50/50 calls. They got to the line for 14 free throws before the Knicks had a single one, and the Knicks’ first trip to the line didn’t come until there were just 17 seconds remaining in the second quarter.
“Yeah, you feel that [on the court],” Knicks guard Josh Hart said. “I’ll let y’all examine that. That was an interesting thing. Y’all can figure that one out.”
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Cunningham, who struggled in his playoff debut in Game 1, looked much more comfortable in this contest, and a better whistle certainly helped. He went off for 33 points, 12 rebounds and three assists, and shot 10 of 12 from the foul line. His 12 free-throw attempts were more than double his five attempts in Game 1.
Jalen Duren and Dennis Schroder, who hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with less than a minute to play, also earned six free throws apiece for the Pistons, who had six players go to the line throughout the game. The Knicks, on the other hand, only had three players take a free throw, and Brunson took the vast majority of their attempts.
While it’s understandable that Thibodeau is going to stick up for his guys and try to influence the officials ahead of Game 3, few fans or observers outside of New York are going to be interested in hearing about why Brunson deserves more trips to the foul line.
Few players bait their way to more free-throw attempts than Brunson, who went 9 of 11 from the line on Monday en route to 37 points. For all of the complaints the Knicks had, the Pistons could have had just as many about some of the calls Brunson was getting in the second half. Brunson has now shot 21 free throws in two games.
There are at least three games remaining in this series, and with an extremely physical Pistons team on one side and Brunson on the other, this will not be the last time we hear about the officials.
