Pistons, Knicks miffed by officiating in wild finish

DETROIT — It would seem that there’s no love lost between the Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks, who are engaged in the East’s most competitive first-round series by far.

In Thursday’s highly physical Game 3 — a down-to-the-wire contest that the Knicks survived to win 118-116 and take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series — there were five technical fouls and one flagrant foul whistled.

But for all the angst, both clubs seemed miffed, if not downright frustrated, by a pair of odd plays that were or weren’t whistled in the game’s closing seconds.

The Pistons trailed 116-113 with five seconds left and were preparing to foul Knicks star Jalen Brunson as he caught an inbounds pass from teammate Mikal Bridges to try to run out the clock. But as Brunson caught the ball around midcourt, his body appeared to be in the frontcourt first before his momentum pulled him into the backcourt, where he dribbled until being fouled by Detroit’s Ausar Thompson with 3.5 seconds to go.

Pistons fans, including ex-NBA star Jalen Rose, who was sitting courtside, immediately voiced their displeasure with the lack of a call on the Knicks, even more so when replays were shown on the Little Caesars Arena video screen. So did Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff, who was befuddled by it all.

“He catches the ball in the frontcourt, recognizes that he’s getting ready to go into the backcourt, then drops the ball,” Bickerstaff said of Brunson. “There are some things procedurally that I have questions about, and I’d be interested to hear some answers.”

In a postgame pool report interview, crew chief Zach Zarba said Brunson hadn’t truly established position in the frontcourt when he first caught the ball.

“Brunson and the trajectory of the pass were headed toward the backcourt. Brunson’s momentum was taking him there when he touches the ball,” Zarba said, citing Rule 4, Section 6G of the league’s rulebook. “That’s why that play is legal.”

The other controversy happened within the game’s final second, after Pistons forward Tobias Harris hit a triple to bring Detroit within a point at 117-116.

Detroit fouled Brunson with 0.5 seconds left, and he hit the first free throw to push the Knicks’ advantage to 118-116. The guard then looked back to the bench, where coach Tom Thibodeau instructed him to purposely miss the second free throw, knowing it would be virtually impossible for a Pistons player to grab the rebound and fling a shot the length of the floor with less than a second remaining.

But then something strange happened: Brunson bricked the shot on purpose, but the clock started, and the buzzer sounded before anyone from either team touched the ball.

After reviewing it all, officials awarded the ball to the Pistons, saying they had imminent possession, and gave them the ball on the sideline with the half-second left and a chance to win the game, even though Detroit possessed no timeouts at that stage.

It ended up being moot: Pistons center Jalen Duren overthrew Cade Cunningham on the crosscourt inbounds pass in the backcourt, resulting in the ball going out of bounds to all but hand the Knicks the victory.

However, Thibodeau and the Knicks were annoyed that the Pistons had been given an improbable chance to win it in the first place.

“It doesn’t seem right to me,” Thibodeau said. “That should never happen, ever, in a playoff game.”

Knicks wing Josh Hart took things a step further, saying the instance struck him as “home cooking.”

“That’s not a coincidence,” he said. “When it’s an inexcusable mistake like that, you should just let [the free throw shooter] go again. Because it was an intentional miss. … I feel like they for sure heard Thibs [telling Brunson] to miss it. They were right next to him. You know what that is, bro.”

Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns had a similar take.

“I ain’t going to lie to you, man; shoutout to the [scorer’s] table, man. Giving your team another chance like that is fire,” said Towns, who finished with a game-high 31 points. “I got to give them a lot of respect for that. I’ve never seen that in 10 years of basketball.”

Back in 2002, the NBA implemented a policy that put neutral clock operators at the scorer’s tables during the playoffs to eliminate any perception of bias.

The oddities in the game’s closing moments muddled what had been a chippy, highly physical game between the clubs — and heated between the Knicks and the Pistons’ rowdy fans, who profanely taunted Brunson and were taking in a home playoff game for the first time since 2019.

New York got out to a much better start than it had in the first two games of the series and played with more tempo early. It helped Towns find a rhythm after he weathered heavy criticism after Game 2 for logging just 10 points and six rebounds and going scoreless in the second half.

The Knicks had a balanced showing, featuring four starters with 20 points or more, while Hart — the one starter who didn’t hit that scoring mark — had 11 rebounds and nine assists.

Detroit got blitzed in the second quarter, allowing a 23-6 run to fall behind by 13 at halftime. But the Pistons — led by Tim Hardaway Jr. and Cunningham, who had 24 points each — battled back throughout the second half, making inroads whenever the Knicks’ offense grew stagnant.

The clubs will meet for Game 4 of the series in Detroit on Sunday afternoon.