“Small market teams deserve an equal opportunity

NEW YORK — When Rick Carlisle was asked about the illegal screen thrown at Myles Turner after the Pacers’ Game 1 loss to the Knicks, he was initially hesitant. He didn’t even respond as hard to the called punt against forward Aaron Nesmith, which the officiating crew acknowledged after the game was wrong when Nesmith hit the ball with his hand.

“I don’t want to talk about the officiating,” Carlisle said Monday night. “We don’t expect to get any calls here.”

But on Wednesday night, after the Pacers’ 130-121 loss to the Knicks in Game 2 in which he committed two technical fouls and was ejected in the final minute of the game, the first thing he wanted to talk about was arbitration and he did so without being invited. . He said he thought the entire officiating in the first two games showed the Pacers weren’t getting a fair shake.

Pacers news:Pacers coach Rick Carlisle criticizes referees ejected against Knicks

“I always tell our guys not to talk about the officials,” Carlisle said. “But we deserve a fair chance. There’s no consistent balance, and that’s disappointing. Give New York credit for the physicality they play with. But their physicality is rewarded and ours is penalized. Over and over again. I’m just very disappointed.”

Carlisle went further to suggest that the discrepancies he sees are linked to where the two teams involved play. New York is obviously the largest market in the country, while Indianapolis is one of the bottom 10 cities in the NBA.

“Small market teams deserve an equal opportunity,” Carlisle said. “They deserve a fair chance no matter where they play.”

Carlisle opened its postgame news conference by describing the process by which teams can submit clips of calls they believe were misplayed to the league office. He said the Pacers were still evaluating games they deemed “unbalanced,” but noted that during a playoff series, when one team submits clips, the other team can see what they submitted.

“There were 29 plays in the first game that we felt were clearly poorly decided,” Carlisle said. “I decided not to submit them because I just felt like we would have a more balanced whistle tonight. That wasn’t the case.”

ESPN reports that the Pacers responded to 49 calls in Game 2, in addition to the 29 calls Carlisle mentioned for a total of 78 calls they believed were incorrect.

Carlisle in particular called a play with 5:08 left in the third quarter when Knicks guard Josh Hart appeared to shove Pacers All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton in the back as he ran in transition. No foul was called on the play. Notably, Haliburton has been listed as questionable the last three games due to lower back spasms.

“The whole world knows Haliburton has a bad back,” Carlisle said. “Hart comes in and shoves him in the back. It’s all over Twitter right now. A few people showed it to me. (Official) JB DeRosa looks at him. You can see it. He has a vision of the play. He (Hart) pushes Ty into the corner and there’s no whistle in the back. That was shocking. There’s a lot more.

Carlisle attacked the officials in the final 1:20 of the game. Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein was initially called for a double dribble with 1:19 left, but after Hartenstein and Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau objected, officials conferred and overturned the call . It doesn’t appear that Hartenstein dribbled twice – arguably he could have been called for carrying but he never appeared to pick up the ball with both hands – but the Pacers seemed particularly perplexed after being informed of the aftermath of the kick. ball against Nesmith that this play could not be reviewed or changed. Officials also didn’t go and review that call, but they still corrected a call they found to be incorrect.

“The only guy just said he didn’t double,” Carlisle said. “It looked to me like Tibs went out there and argued and then they changed it. That’s what it looked like. I can only go by what I see, what I ‘have seen.”

Carlisle spent much of the timeout in the 41st second attacking the officials while his assistants tried to keep him out, which is when he was called for his first technical fault. He kept going and was called for another with 33 seconds left and ejected.

“Both technical aspects, you have to take a stand for your guys,” Carlisle said. “You have to stand up for what’s right and what’s wrong. That was it.”

Carlisle said this time he will submit clips to the NBA league office.

“We’ll submit them tonight,” Carlisle said. “New York can prepare. They’ll see them too.”