The Pistons dropped a second consecutive game on Monday, falling 112-103 to the Cavaliers to tie their second-round series up at two games apiece as the Central rivals head back to Detroit. Free throw shooting was the difference in Game 4. While Detroit out-shot Cleveland from the floor and from three-point range, the Cavs went 30-of-34 from the line while the Pistons made just 9-of-12 free throws.
“It’s unacceptable. It is,” Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said of the free throw disparity, according to Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN.com. “We didn’t do enough obviously to help ourselves, and I’ll start there. But ever since we came to Cleveland, the whistle has changed. There’s no way that one guy on their team shoots more free throws than our team.”
Bickerstaff’s remark was a reference to Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, who went to the line 15 times on his own and made 13 of those tries. The majority of those attempts came in the third and fourth quarters, as Mitchell matched a playoff record by scoring 39 second-half points after registering just four in the first half.
“We’re not a settle team,” Bickerstaff continued. “We’re not a jump shooting team. We drive the ball, attack the paint. So, what was done out there tonight, it’s frustrating, but we can’t allow that to be the reason why, because we didn’t play well enough and play to the best of our capabilities.
“But again, you look at the foul count, you look at the disparity, and that’s hard to overcome, and you wonder the reason why. It’s interesting since (Cavaliers coach) Kenny (Atkinson) made his comments publicly about us, the whistles changed in this series.”
As Oyefusi observes, through the first two games of the series, the Pistons had earned 55 free throws to 43 for Cleveland, prompting Atkinson to speak about Detroit’s physical defensive play ahead of Game 3. Atkinson said his team would have to find a way to protect the ball and gain separation from defenders if the Pistons were going to “chuck and swipe” and turn it into a “clutch and grab and hold game.”
As Shawn Windsor of The Detroit Free Press writes in a subscriber-only story, Pistons star Cade Cunningham, who attempted just three free throws, said during his post-game media session that the officiating was “not why we lost the game.” Still, Cunningham agreed with Bickerstaff that Detroit wasn’t exactly getting a friendly whistle, telling reporters that the free throw disparity “definitely doesn’t help,” per Oyefusi.
“I realized early on it was going to be one of those type of nights. I got hit on my arm early. I didn’t get a whistle,” Cunningham said. “Everybody didn’t want to look at me after that. I kind of knew what it was.”
