Pistons’ J.B. Bickerstaff: ‘I’m disgusted by the way that game was officiated’ after Cunningham ejected

J.B. Bickerstaff had seen enough. His team was given five third-quarter technical fouls — including two for All-Star Cade Cunningham, who was ejected — in a hard-fought 113-107 loss to Oklahoma City, and after the game he went on a rant (via the Associated Press).

“I’m disgusted by the way that game was officiated,” Bickerstaff said. “The level of disrespect was above and beyond. They have a guy fall down and trip on his own teammate’s foot, they review us for a hostile act. They throw an elbow to our chest and neck area, I ask to at least take a look at it (on video). … No one would take a look at it.

“The disrespect has gone far enough, and I’m not going to allow our guys to be treated the way they were tonight.”

At the heart of the issue was the third-quarter ejection of Cunningham.

That seems like a quick trigger, although we don’t know what was said. Crew Chief Brian Forte — who gave Cunningham the technicals and ejected him — said this postgame, speaking to a pool reporter.

“Cunningham was given his first technical foul for disrespectfully addressing an official with profanity. After the free throw for the first technical was shot, Cade continued to use profanity toward the official and received his second technical foul and was ejected.”

Thunder coach Mark Daigneault had an interesting comment on the officiating postgame, saying their metrics on officials (something every team tracks) led them to tell the team to expect this level of physicality (quote via ESPN).

“That crew was the loosest whistle coming into the game that we’ve seen all season in terms of how little they call,” he said. “I thought our guys did a great job of not getting distracted by anything.”

Detroit didn’t lose only because of the officiating. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looked every bit the MVP, dominating the game and scoring 48 points.

Bickerstaff will be fined for his comments in the coming days.