The crew chief officiating the Knicks’ narrow victory over the Detroit Pistons on Monday admitted he missed a game-deciding foul call on Detroit’s Ausar Thompson with seconds left in the fourth quarter.
“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,” NBA referee James Williams said in the postgame pool report. “Therefore, a loose ball foul should have been whistled on New York’s Donte DiVincenzo.”
With the Pistons up one on the Knicks’ final offensive possession of the game, Jalen Brunson missed a go-ahead three, and Detroit’s Cade Cunningham chased down the rebound before vaulting the ball into play as he fell out of bounds.
Detroit’s Simone Fontecchio briefly corralled the ball before Josh Hart knocked it loose with Isaiah Hartenstein recovering the ball.
Hartenstein kicked the ball out to the top of the key to DiVincenzo, who pump-faked then tried to pass the ball back to Brunson.
Thompson deflected DiVincenzo’s pass. That’s where things get dicey.
Not for the Knicks, who were the beneficiary of a no-call lifting them to win No. 35 of the season, a victory helping New York evade what could have been its seventh loss in its last nine games.
Thompson deflected DiVincenzo’s pass and chased after the ball up the sidelines. DiVincenzo made a play on the ball but ultimately took out Thompson’s legs in the process.
And Brunson trailed the play from behind, creating a sandwich with Thompson in the middle. The star Knicks guard recovered the loose ball then hit Hart for a game-winning and-one layup.
Detroit head coach Monty Williams ripped into the officiating after the game. This has not been the first instance the league-worst Pistons have been on the wrong side of the whistle.
“Where’s the New York media now? The absolute worst call of the season. No call, and enough’s enough,” said Williams in a postgame tirade. “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 the guy dove into Ausar’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 asking our guys what more can we do, coach? That situation is Exhibit A to what we’ve been dealing with all season long. You cannot dive into a guy’s legs in a big-time game like that and there be a no call.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 called, and that was not fair. Im done.”
Thompson tried to give the officials an out after the game. He re-watched the play over and over after his Pistons picked up their 49th loss of the season with only eight wins to tout.
“Yeah I don’t even know. I feel like I got the ball. I know they dove at my legs. I guess I didn’t have possession,” he said. “There were things we could have done to avoid being in that position, but next time I’m gonna try to catch it and just grab it and hold it.”
The rookie Pistons forward said he was expecting a foul call and was surprised not to hear a whistle.
“Yeah definitely,” he said. “I was very confused when I was on the ground and the play kept going. I’m not gonna lie but I mean, that’s how it goes.”
Ex-Knicks guard Quentin Grimes was on the floor for the play in question. Grimes said the Pistons need to earn respect from officials by winning games before getting the benefit of the whistle.
“I saw it from directly in the view behind us,” he said. “I saw two guys ran into him, into his legs. Like you said, it was not a guarantee. “If [Jalen Brunson] and them was on the other side of that call, they getting that call.
“But it’s just a respect thing. You gotta earn your way. You gotta earn them stripes. You gotta get to the playoffs, win some games. So stuff like that, where you just gotta earn respect in this league. We’ll get there, for sure.”
The no-call prevented the Pistons from coming one game closer to double-digit wins on the season.
This is the second game in a row Detroit has lost by three or fewer points.
“Today I felt like we were — last two games, we lost at the last second,” said Thompson. “Today I felt like we were about to get the ninth win. So it’s encouraging and I’m very confident. Good for us to figure it out sooner rather than later.”
“Last second play, I think everybody on the team, everybody in the country thought Ausar got fouled, loose ball,” added Grimes. “Game goes a totally different way if he gets fouled and we get that call, so that’s just how it is. I kind of seen it being with the team four, five games now. Young team, it’s hard to get calls. You’ve got to get established, so I told the young guys after this game, you’ve got to get respect. I’ve been on the other side of that call many times and not getting that call. We’ve gotta keep fighting, just keep on our way every game, gotta earn respect in this league. Nothing’s handed to you but everyone in here was mad as we should be, but it’s a learning game.”
Meanwhile, the Knicks narrowly escaped what would have been their most disappointing loss of the season by far.
“You can go back the whole game and nitpick calls,” said DiVincenzo. “Do I think we dodged a bullet overall? Yes. I have great respect for Monty and everybody over there. Like I said, we dodged a bullet with the win.”
