NEW YORK — After the Knicks' 113-111 win over the Detroit Pistons on Monday night — because of a clear missed call with 8.5 seconds left when New York guard Donte DiVincenzo plowed into Detroit forward Ausser Thompson — Pistons coach Monty Williams received a season's worth of fouls from the officials. He offered a scathing remark about what he considered to be behavior.
“Absolute worst call of the season,” Williams said minutes after the game. Arriving in the media room before any reporters got there, he did not answer any questions after making his statement on the final order of the game. “No call, that's enough. We've done it the right way. We've called the league. We've sent in clips. It's really sad that we're hearing the same things over and over again.
“We had a chance to win the game and a guy stepped into the foot of the outsider and there was no call. That's an abomination. You can't miss that in an NBA game. Period. I'm tired of talking about it. 'What more can you do, coach?' That situation is Exhibit A, we've been dealing with it all season, enough.”
“You can't dive into a guy's legs in a big-time game like this and not get a call,” he continued. “It's ridiculous, we're tired. We want a fair game. Period. And I don't have anything else to say. We want a fair game, it's not fair.”
Referee James Williams, the team captain, was standing right above the play, which occurred during a frantic finale, and admitted in a pool report after the game that it should have been called a foul.
“In the post-play review, we determined that Thompson was receiving the ball first and then lost the opportunity to take possession of the ball,” James Williams said. “So, 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 the second straight game after believing Magic forward Paolo Panchero's game-winning bucket should have been called on Saturday. Home loss for Orlando.
Pistons guard Kate 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 Knicks All-Star guard Jalen Brunson throwing the ball into his hands with 30 seconds left and New York trailing 111-110. After Brunson missed a 3-pointer over Cunningham's outstretched arm, the rebound sent Knicks center Isaiah Hardenstein to the corner, where Pistons guard Quentin Grimes caught it and threw it to Detroit forward Simone Fontecchio.
Josh Hart knocked the ball away from Fontecchio on another play. At the top of the key.
At this point, with about 10 seconds left, DiVincenzo tried to throw a pass to Brunson on the right wing, but instead threw it to Detroit's Thompson. Then, as Thompson tried to go up the sideline, DiVincenzo crashed into him, sending Thompson, DiVincenzo and the ball into the court.
“I went for the ball,” DiVincenzo said later, when asked for his take on what happened. “I didn't see the play. You turn the ball, the ball is in front of you, you follow the ball. Like I said, I respect everybody's opinion. I can't talk about it until I see it. On film.”
Thompson, meanwhile, said he was “definitely” expecting a play-call. But James Williams didn't blow his whistle, allowing Brunson to scoop up the loose ball and fire a pass to Hart. .
“I was really confused when I was on the field and the play went on, I'm not going to lie,” Thompson said. “But, I mean, that's how it goes.”
Adding insult to injury for the Pistons, the game was originally scheduled to be played in Detroit — which was moved to New York because the Knicks were kicked out due to an offseason scheduling quirk that cost them a home game. In the quarter finals.
The Knicks, meanwhile, were on the other end of a refereeing error two weeks earlier when a referee conceded a missed call in the final seconds of a loss to the Houston Rockets.
“I've been a part of some of the craziest things in basketball,” Hart said. “So, basketball gods or not, you know what I mean, crazy things happen in an 82-game season.”
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