After the Pistons fell to the Knicks 118-116 in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series Thursday night, J.B. Bickerstaff started his postgame press conference by asking for answers from the officials.
"It’s frustrating for a bunch of different reasons. I thought in the second half we played well enough to win the game. There’s some procedural things that we’ve got questions on," Bickerstaff said.
Bickerstaff first pointed to "the end-of-game situation" when the Knicks were inbounding from beneath their own basket with a one-point lead and 1.1 seconds remaining. Malik Beasley fouled Jalen Brunson as soon as Brunson received a pass along the baseline, but not before a full second came off the clock.
"The foul happens, you go back and look at it, with 1 second or 0.9 seconds (left)," said Bickerstaff. "Question I have is, how come we don’t go to make sure that we’re positive about the time on the clock?"
Brunson made one of two free throws, and the elapsed time didn't leave the Pistons another look at the basket.
Bickerstaff also took issue with the sideline inbound pass to Brunson on the Pistons' end of the floor with 5.1 seconds remaining and the Knicks leading by three. Brunson received the pass on the Pistons' side of half-court, then took his first dribble in the backcourt, but wasn't called for an over-and-back.
"He catches the ball in the front court, recognizes that he’s getting ready to go into the back court and then drops the ball," said Bickerstaff. "And we had a timeout with 5.8 seconds on the clock. So there’s some things procedurally that I have questions about, and I’d be interested to hear some answers."
Per the NBA rulebook, a player only commits a backcourt violation in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter if he first establishing "positive position" in the front court with both feet and the ball. The officials said Brunson's momentum carried him into the backcourt before he had established control in the front court, making it a legal play.
Bickerstaff wasn't buying that.
"If you catch the ball, have possession and put it down, to me, that’s possession in the front court," he said. "The ball has to be thrown into the back court. If you catch it in the front court, the ball’s not in the back court. Maybe I’m wrong, but we’ll see."
The Pistons will look to tie the series again in Game 4 on Sunday in Detroit.
"We won’t be deflated," said Bickerstaff. "Our guys are too committed to one another. We’re not results-driven. We’re going to show up Sunday, lay it on the line, fight like hell and see what happens."