Pacers coach claims officials are biased against 'small market' teams

“I’m always talking to our guys about not making it about the officials,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said in his postgame news conference. “But we deserve a fair shot. There’s not a consistent balance and that’s disappointing. Give New York credit for the physicality that they’re playing with. But their physicality is rewarded and ours is penalized, time after time. … Small-market teams deserve an equal shot.”

The implication is that the NBA wanted the Knicks to win, because they play in a more valuable TV market. This even after a game in which foul shots were equal before the Pacers started fouling to stop the clock late. Carlisle also picked up two technical fouls.

The Pacers made the same mistake that the Houston Rockets did in 2019, when they revealed an elaborate spreadsheet listing a whopping 81 missed calls in Game 7 of the 2018 Western Conference Finals. 81 missed calls, in 48 minutes of basketball. That’s simply not a credible number of mistakes.

The Pacers have claimed that they found 78 missed calls against them in the first two games of their series against the Knicks, which is also an unreasonable number. Complaining about two or three calls is defensible. Claiming the league and the referees let whistles go 78 times is ridiculous.

It looks like whining to blame the officials after tough losses, but even more than that, claiming the officials were biased against them 49 times in Game 2 – more than once a minute – makes it seem like Carlisle and the Pacers brass are wearing tin foil hats and searching for conspiracy theories to explain why their defense gave up 130 points. Claiming the refs blew almost 50 calls to punish small markets is somewhat akin to asserting that the referees are lizard people.

Other “small market” teams are thriving in these NBA playoffs, unless Carlisle thinks Minneapolis and Oklahoma City are considered big markets. The Timberwolves and Thunder are a combined 11-0 in this postseason, one year after the Denver Nuggets won the NBA title. Three years ago, the not-so-large market Milwaukee Bucks won it all and no one considered the Golden State Warriors a large-market team before 2015.

But the worst part of Carlisle’s complaints is that they happened after a game in which the Pacers got plenty of breaks. Jalen Brunson missed the entire second quarter. OG Anunoby left with a hamstring injury late. The Knicks are already missing normal starters Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson to injuries.

It would be easier to take Carlisle’s comments more seriously if the Knicks hadn’t scored 112 points in Game 2 without free throws. Or if he wasn’t getting criticized for leaving T.J. McConnell on the bench. Or if other small market teams weren’t dominating.

Instead, it feels like Carlisle has a persecution complex, rather than a legitimate beef with the NBA.