UNBELIEVABLE: Detroit Pistons OUTRAGED as Referees Steal the Show—Does the NBA Even Care?

UNBELIEVABLE: Detroit Pistons OUTRAGED as Referees Steal the Show—Does the NBA Even Care?

The Detroit Pistons lose to the Dallas Mavericks in overtime. And no Pistons fans, it’s not the ref’s fault. I’m not going to talk about the refs in today’s episode. You are Locked on Pistons, your daily Detroit Pistons podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. >> What’s the deal? Welcome back to another episode of the Locked On Pistons podcast. Per usual, I am your host Cahill. I’ve been covering the Detroit Pistons for the last four years for the Lockdown Network. Be a potential media member over the last three years. And I appreciate all of you guys who make Locked On Pistons your first listen of every single day. We’re free and available on all your podcast platforms. If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel at Locked OnPistons. Hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to this on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. And I also want to thank you guys for helping make the Lockdown Podcast Network the number one sports podcast network in America. Later on, we’ll talk about a rough game from Tobias Harris and why I believe while I am very happy to have Tobias Harris on this team. He’s someone that have wanted to retire in Detroit. I’m very open and happy with that being the case. why I believe every single game, even with the Pistons having this extraordinary season they’re having, why I believe each game is kind of showing that they need something different from that forward position. And then also, we’ll talk about this moving forward potentially being Jay Ivy’s moment, Jay Ivy’s chance. We’ll talk about it coming up. But let’s start with the loss itself. Pistons lose this game 116 114 to the Dallas Mavericks in overtime. And a lot of the talk from Pistons fans, from the Pistons community, is going to be about the refs. And listen, I’m not going to come on here and be one of those people that complains about the ref all the time. I’m not going to be one of those people come on here and act like the refs are the reason why you lose a game. It’s not going to be me. I’m not going to come on here and do that. I lied. Yes, I am. The refs were terrible. They were absolutely horrific. Horrific. Horrific. This game should be showed to the NBA office. And I want Goal fired. Actually, you know what? We’re going to look up his name. They have to have his name in the box score. They have to have the Yeah, John Goble, I need you gone, buddy. I need you gone. I need John Gobble sent to the goolog and the other person can have a weapon. I want him out there with bare hands. Send him to the goolog. No reason respond. He’s that that performance. If you look at if you watch us on YouTube and you see over on what we have to talk about on today’s show, I have what a bad performance as the first segment. I’m sure a lot of people after hearing me for the first minute and a half, you would have thought I was going to be talking about what a bad performance by the Pistons. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about what a horrific performance by your NBA referees. In the first half, Assar Thompson is having maybe his best start to the season in a game. eight points, two assists, two rebounds in one quarter. Was ultra aggressive. Exactly what we want to see from him. He gets ejected. He gets ejected for walking up on a ref. Walking up on goal. Walking up on him gets him ejected. Immediate two T’s. Assar is one of the most mildmannered players we see. Everyone talks about a men being this violent dude, the the violent twin. A Assaar got punched in the face a few weeks ago and just turned around, walked away. HE’S NOT HE’S NOT LIKE THAT. THAT’S NOT HIM. HE AIN’T LIKE THAT. AND JUST WALKING UP ON the ref was enough to get him two two out. I watched the replay. Ain’t no way Sar said anything. It didn’t even look like he said more than three words. There’s no way he said something so offthe-wall that he deserved him backto back te like that. So you get the best defender after he’s having maybe the best start to a game all season throwing out the game. I mean for just walking up on him WALKING WE WATCHED LEBRON DAMN near run through a ref a few weeks ago. Not nothing happened, but god forbid I saw Thompson walk up on a ref. Oh my god, you’re trying to kill me. Let me get you out. Just pathetic, horrific. Then to keep it going, Kade gets teed up. And then at halftime, we believe, now look, let’s break this down. At halftime, we are told by the Pistons broadcast that Cade gets teed up and now he’s ejected. His gets a second turn technical and he gets ejected during the halftime performance. Not during the game, during the halftime performance, we are told Kay gets ejected. Then all of a sudden, he’s on the floor warming up in the second half and people are like, “Okay, well, what’s going on?” Then the broadcast comes out and says, “Okay, never mind. They say it was on JB.” So then they play the replay for all of us, right? They play the replay for all of us to show us, well, this is why we thought it was on Cade. John Goble, I am not fooled by your games. John goal, I am not fooled. You are not tricking me. You are not a magician. YOU DID NOT GET ME. YOU CALLED THAT TECHNICAL ONCADE. JOHN GOA walked past Kade on purpose while he was talking to another ref. Purposely walked in front of Kade. So when Kade turned around, IT LOOKED LIKE HE BUMPED HIM BECAUSE AS soon as Kade TURNED AROUND AND ACCIDENTALLY touched Gobble because Gobble cut in front of him, he didn’t tee up JB until then. He wasn’t even looking at JB. AS SOON AS KADE TURNED AROUND AND ACT LIKE HE ACCIDENTALLY MADE CONTACT BECAUSE GOBBLE Ronda run in front of him, all of a sudden goal turns around, tees up, looks right at Kade, points at him, calls a tee on him, and even Cade reacts like, “Man, get out of here, bro. whatever, forget it. And turns around, walks away, throws his hands at him. John goble, I know what happened. You called the tea on Kate at THAT HALFTIME. YOU GOT him ejected. You ejected Kane at that halftime. But everyone else let you know that if you would have called this tea on on Kate Cunningham, the city of Detroit would have flew to Dallas before the end of that game and would have had to have something happen like it would have been just one of the most insane things I’ve seen. AND THANK GOD WE have the video coverage that that’s what happened. John Goal, I need you fired. Am Silver, get control. He needs to be gone. He needs to be out. And then don’t forget me starving the rest of the game. The rest of the game got out of I’m surprised the fight didn’t break out. They lost complete control of the game. It was it was one of the worst refereed games I have seen in my entire life. I want Let me make sure I get the names of the officials I’m talking about here. We already talked about John Goble. We’re going to keep saying his name so everyone knows. We got Brent Barnicki and then we got Sugosh Meta. All of them go. All of them. All Get them all out. Get them all out. That was horrific. Just terrible. I can’t even talk about the game. We’re going to talk about Tobias’s rough game later and then this potentially moving forward being Jane Ivy’s moment and what I mean by that. But I don’t want to talk about this game any further outside of what we’re going to talk about with Tobias where I’m going to just briefly touch on Tobias’s game and really talk about a bigger picture issue. I don’t care what happened in this game. The fact the Pistons had the resolve and the fight in them to come back in this game with everything that was going against them with guys getting ejected with fouls being called with the the Dallas Mavericks taking 16 more free throws than them with the refs just very clearly being against the Pistons. JB Bickerstaff was cussing out I believe Gold. He was walking off the floor at the end of the game. The fact the Pistons were able to come back and fight like they did and almost pulled this one off, I give them credit for. They get credit from me for doing that wasn’t the prettiest game, but the rest contributed to that. K didn’t have his best shooting game. He’ll be fine. Jaylen Dur have didn’t have a very good game. He’ll be all right. Like, I’m flushing this game down and just moving on to Saturday. My only purpose here is to let you know that this game got out of hand because of the referees. And if the referees aren’t on absolute dirt, the Pistons win this game in regulation. Absolute dirt. This This was one of the worst games I’ve watched all season. The referees decided they wanted to be the star of the game. They wanted to be the superstars of this game. Not Cooper Flag, who’s a demon. He gets my respect. Not Cade, not JD, not AD, not at none of them. Nope. They had the the referees had to be the star of this game. That was horrific. That was a terrible showing by the referees. I don’t even care about this game. One loss. Who cares? They’ll move on to Saturday. Hopefully they never have to deal with the game refereed by this crew ever again because that was terrible. Terrible. Coming up, Tobias Harris did not have a very good game. I want to talk about why. It’s not just about this game with Tobias, but something we’re seeing that I believe needs to be addressed in the bigger picture of the Pistons team building. We’ll talk about it coming up. Today’s episode is brought to you by Door Dash. 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He decided to play Ron Holland. He decided to play Javvante Green. He even went small with Dannis Jenkins instead of playing Tobias Harris. Now, a lot of that had to do with also, and we’ll talk about this a little bit later, Duncan Robinson got hurt. But Tobias Harris did not have a very good game at all. And JB basically went to everyone else and said, “Tobias, this isn’t your night.” I know people don’t want to talk about this kind of some there’s not people, there’s some fans out there, they don’t want to talk about trades, and that’s fine. But I have I’m going to because the Detroit Pistons need a power forward. They need a four who wants to shoot a lot of threes. I have talked about this over and over and over and over again. I’m going to continue to talk about it over and over and over again. The more it becomes even the more it becomes clearer and clearer each game that it’s becoming it’s a it’s a hindrance for the Pistons. earlier in the in this game in the first quarter. I literally have it written down in my notes for a play I wanted to break down. I believe it happened around the six-minute mark in the first quarter. Kade runs a pick and roll with with uh Jaylen Durn on the right side of the floor. They have Assar in the opposite weak side corner. They the Mavericks decide to trap Kade out of that pick and roll and he throws the ball to Jaylen Duran rolling in the short roll. Now, if they trap J or they trap Cade and JD slips and rolls to the rim and then Kade gets the ball to JD and you have Assar in the weak side corner, you’re thinking that you’re going to get to this four and three situation where either JD is going to get a layup at the rim, Assar is going to get a dunk at the rim or what’s the next option? the shooter that’s on the same side as Assar if his defender decides to tag down on Assar and take away that role or that cut. This is something we saw the Pistons do a ton and we they do this a decent amount, but we saw them do this a ton in the playoffs against the Knicks. I broke this down multiple times in games four, five, and six. The Pistons would put Assar in the weak side corner and they’d put either Tim Hardway Jr. or Malik Beasley on that opposite wing and force the defense to pick. Problem is instead of having Malik Beasley or Tim Hardway Jr. or both of them on the floor most of the time to be honest, they have Tobias on the wing. And Tobias, look, Tobias is a good basketball player and he provides things for the Pistons that they need. I’m not sitting here saying that that I that they have to get rid of Tobias and he shouldn’t be on the team. Tobias provides real value. He’s a release valve when it comes to scoring on mismatches in the post. He likes to get in that little mid-range area. He can hit a jumper from within 10 feet. He’s a veteran presence. I get all of that. However, in the situation and play that I just described to you guys, that is something that is happening every single time. or not, let me not say every single time, but it’s happening a lot. 90% of the time, I want to say defenses have now adjusted from how they were playing the Pistons earlier in the year. And earlier in the year, they were trapping Kade and they were giving JD this easy roll to the rim, letting him punish a tagging attacking player and just score at the rim. Now, they’re bringing more pressure to JD and also tagging down on Assar’s cuts because this is all a domino effect. They are not afraid of Tobias hitting above the break threes. They just aren’t. They’re not afraid of him taking above the break threes. They know he doesn’t really want to take threes. We’ve talked about this over and over on the podcast. He does not want to shoot threes. That is not what Tobias Harris wants to do. And defenses know that. He’s taking 4.4 three-point attempts a game. I think that might be like the most he’s taking he’s taken in like years. Last year he took 3.6. six the year before that 3.7. He’s not someone that wants to shoot threes and defenses are are adjusting to that. They know how they want to play Kade. They know how they want to play JD and they know that how the Pistons want to use Assar. So what they’re choosing to give the Pistons is we’re not going to give you the role to JD. We’re not gonna allow Assar to punish the four and three in the weak side. What we’re going to instead have happen is we will force you to throw a kick out to Tobias and either one or two things or I I guess one or three things are going to happen. He’ll make the shot which he’s capable of making sometimes but they’ll take the chances with him making or the other two possibilities. one, he hesitates to shoot the ball, which allows them to get a late contest, which will then result in him not even taking the shot because he doesn’t want to take it. And they know they can get a late contest on him to bother him. That’s two. Or three, he doesn’t really want to take it. He forces himself to take it anyways and he misses. Tobias this year is shooting 30% on above the breakthroughs. 30% above the breakthroughs. The Pistons team, the the core of the Pistons is very clear. The core of this team has been made abundantly clear by Tan, by JB, by the guys who impact the game the most every single night for the last year and a half. It’s Cade, it’s Assar, and it’s Duran. That is the Pistons core. That’s who they’re building around. That’s what they need everyone else around them to to to elevate. They need everyone around them to put them in the best positions possible. Duncan Robinson is a great fit with dope because they need a movement shooter. K needs one of those guys. We saw it with Malik. But what they also need at the four position is someone who’s going to get threes up. And I tweeted this out. They need someone instead of Tobias when he gets a three, it’s like I got to take it. Instead, they need someone that when they catch the ball and there’s even a sliver of space, THEIR EYES GET BRIGHT. They they get they smile. You see their teeth from grinning because they’re like, “OH MY GOD, I GOT A SLITHER OF SPACE. I CAN’T BELIEVE I got this open look and they’re letting it fly. That’s what they need at the floor. Not someone who’s like, I guess I got to take it. They need someone’s like, OH MY GOD, YOU GUYS GAVE me this slither of space. You guys gave me just this amount of space. This is going up and this is buckets. That’s what they need at the position. Because if you’re going to build around a Cade, Assar, Endurance, which clearly they should, which clearly has worked, which clearly they’re the first seed in the East, which clearly is a team that everyone wants to believe in. and what we want to see them move into the East Finals. Heck, even NB possibly the NBA finals. If you want to reach them, reach that kind of ceiling. What’s going to hold them back is that right there. Because let’s go through the whole domino effect again. Teams love trapping Cade. They love trapping Cade. So Kade gets trapped in a pick and roll. They throw it to JD. If now all of a sudden instead of Tobias, you have insert X player that is a great three-point shooter for the four position and wants to get one up. Now defenses are not picking picking the their what they would like to do. They’re just taking the the the it’s a loss either way basically for them right now. They’re they’re believing they’re taking a dub with what they’re choosing to do. You put someone else like I’m talking about in that four position. Now it’s okay. Well, if we if we don’t tag down JD, he’s going to dominate us in the paint. If we do tag down on JD and send more attention to him, Assar’s coming down off this weak side and he’s going to go up for an alley ooper. He’s going to catch this ball and dunk the ball. Oh, and if we decide to tag down off the shooter off of that to then take away Assar’s back door cut, man, now we’re giving insert X player this wide open three. What what’s what do we want to live with here? That that’s the situation you put the the the team in, the opposing team in when you have someone like that at the four position. And it’s the same thing. This is why I’m hesitant to be completely bought in on the stew endurance big man rotation where you can run the double bigs at times. It does do I think it does well in spurts. It’s that’s the reason why I’m not buying completely in on that because that’s clearly what the Pistons need. Like we didn’t see the zone in tonight’s game, but like that’s I mean I’ve said this over and over about the zone as well. Zone defenses. You get taught this from middle school, high school, college, like you get taught this. Zones obviously have gaps in the zone. There’s gaps in the defense. And if you have good enough shooters that and and a and good enough guys that are able to to force the defense to react to you getting to the middle of the defense, you will be able to find quick openings beyond the ark to get shots up for good shooters. And the Pistons run into this problem over and over with Tobias where he doesn’t really want to take those threes. A slither of space for Tobias. It turns into a late shot clock violation or a late shot clock bomb because someone will kick out to Tobias and maybe in this zone defense problem. They kick out to him and he gets this slither of space. Instead of him going up with the clean look, he hesitates, dribbles and now instead of getting an open good look, the Pistons now end up dribbling the clock out and they don’t end up getting a nice look. I like it’s it’s becoming more and more like evident to me every time I watch them how defense are deciding to guard the Pistons now within the half court. They are adjusting. You’re seeing Duran I feel like struggle a little bit as of late because defenses are setting so much attention to him. Now Duran needs to do a better job of making reads off of that. But also, if they had somebody who made them scared and terrified to help off of and not someone they felt like they could get a late contest on and still have and be effective, I think teams maybe one will be less intrigued to do that to to help so much on Duran. And if they do, they would be a little bit more scared of what would happen if he actually made the reads. Like it just opens up. You have to look at how the Pistons core what they need. And what they need is someone, if you’re going to run two non-shooters, you can do it. But the other guys around them, the two offball players need to be high volume three-point shooters. They have to be guys with gravity that make teams pay for wanting to crash down on them in the paint. And then eventually once they start making these threes from beyond the arc, now they won’t start crashing down to the paint. Now, instead, Assaar’s drives are going to be open or Assaar’s cuts going to be open or JD’s rolls are going to be open or JD’s drives going to be open. Like, that’s where it opens up. But right now, teams are openly giving Tobias these looks because they don’t think he really wants to take them. So, that’s a long-winded way of saying Tobias, I I I look, he can retire a Pistant. He’s great for the locker room. Not saying he’s a bad player. He’s just not what this team needs anymore in the starting lineup. He can. He has a role in this team. His his ability to be a release valve and provide offense against mismatches. It’s valuable, but he’s no longer what this starting lineup needs the most. No longer is that. They need someone who’s deadly above the break. Not someone shooting 30% above the break. They need someone who’s going to take more than four and a half threes a game. Take closer to six, seven threes. That’s what they need. And if they want, I feel like if you want to make the next step and kind of like really secure yourself and try to go for the NBA Finals and try to go for the Eastern Conference Finals, that’s something that they need to acquire because I’m telling you right now, that is going to be something they’ve run into a problem with in the playoffs when the game slows down. I like if you look at the Knicks series this past year, if you had this level of cade, how he’s played in the clutch, combined with the roster the Pistons had against the Knicks last year and how they were able to kind of scheme and JB made these adjustments in the latter three games about how they were guarding in the half court. If you had that, I think they beat the Knicks last year. Problem is, they don’t have that roster no more. They don’t have those two shooters that they’re playing at the same time. They need they they absolutely need a stretch a high volume three-point shooter at the fourth position. They need it. They I I they absolutely need to trade for one. If they had that, I’m picking them to go to the NBA finals. If if they had that because I don’t know how you’d guard them in the half court. I don’t know how you like it would you would provide so much pressure on teams and ma and and cause so much indecision and indecisiveness on for teams in the half court about how you want to guard K. Do you want to really trap him now? Oh, if you don’t trap him now he’s getting into the mid-range. Okay, well now we have to trap him. Well, you really want to do that now? Like all of that. The Pistons would have counter to counter to counter to counter on all these things right now. I don’t think they do. And I think you’re watching teams adjust to that and that’s why their half court offense has fallen from the efficiency it was the first 15ish games of the year. Let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter how you guys feel about this. You guys agree, disagree with me, let me know. But coming up, we might be witnessing Jane Ivy’s chance in his moment to get that starting spot back and secure it for the rest of the season. We’ll talk about why that is coming up. Let’s be real. No one starts a business for the joy of calculating tax withholdings or managing payroll spreadsheets. That’s where Gusto comes in to take the stress out of payroll, benefits, and HR, so you can focus on running your business, excuse me, and supporting your team. Gusto is the all-in-one remote friendly payroll and HR platform that makes managing your team simple, transparent, and fast. 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Let me like, you know, let me go ahead and make see if we got an update. I’m recording this like an hour after the game. Um, so let’s see if JB provided an update. I don’t think they had an update. Yeah, they didn’t have an update. All right. So, so Duncan left this game after having some need and need contact. Um I forget with who it was. I think it was PJ Washington. And at first I thought, oh yeah, it’s interesting. He’ll be, you know, he’ll come back. But he really limped off the g off the floor. They made sure to call him out. He went straight to the locker room and we didn’t see him again. So it that that might be something that at least keeps him out one game. But even if it just keeps him out one game, that’s the window. That’s the That’s the That’s the door that opens up for Jay Ivy to take advantage, get his starting spot back, and hold it for the rest of the year. That’s his chance. In this game, he only played 14 minutes, which that wasn’t minutes restriction. He played 20 last game, so JB must not have liked what he was doing out there. I thought he was playing fine offensively. I thought he was playing fine. Um, I think maybe it had to do more so with how great Dannis played. Like Danis got a chance and he was fantastic. Like he he was part of the people that led the comeback and then he went to Marcus Sasser I I think to maybe try to provide a spark or try to, you know, get something. I um but Ivy only played 14 minutes and he hasn’t played over 20 last this past game was the first game he went over 20 minutes. For him to only play 14 in this game is kind of interesting. But I have to imagine that if Duncan Robinson were to miss a singular game, Jane Ivy would be the guy that goes in the starting lineup. And I’ve said before this injury that the starting lineup had been so good that Duncan Robinson, the onoff numbers with him have been amazing. That Duncan Robinson has been tremendous for the Pistons that I would not take Duncan Robinson out the starting lineup. And I I know people’s response will be Jay Ivy’s in contract year. You got to pay Jay. You need to find out. No, that’s not what you actually need to do. The Pistons are first in the East. I care about what makes this team better right now and what’s helping them win games. What’s going to help them win games and what’s winning them games? Same playing with Duncan. So, that’s my stance. Starting lineup’s been great. Duncan Robbins has been fantastic. They’re dominating the minutes. Keep playing it. That’s where I’m at. But Duncan’s out. Or if he’s Let me not say he’s out as if I know for sure, but he could be out. And if he misses a game and Jay and Ivy comes in and they play really well together, those five guys play really well together and they win a game and Jay and Ivy plays well and they all function off of each other, it’s going to be incredibly difficult, if not borderline impossible, for JB to avoid that conversation and avoid the decision of having to then put Jane Ivy back to the bench. If you want my read on things, I was thinking for I’ve been thinking that it was going to be a while before we saw Jane Ivy get a chance to do that. If Duncan didn’t get hurt, I was thinking we were trending towards Jane Ivy being a six-man. I think that I thought that’s where we were trending towards. But this if Duncan misses a game, this opens up the chance for Jane Ivy to walk into the starting lineup, play really well, then win a game, the starting lineup play well with him, and then make that a discussion. Make the discussion, okay, should we take Duncan out and put Ivy in? Make it happen. Give them evidence to want to do it. If that happens, this could be the chance for all the Jane Ivy fans that want to see him back in the starting lineup. This could be the silver lining to where if Duncan misses a game, Jane Ivy gets a chance to prove it. I I’d be shocked if they went If Duncan misses a game, I would be shocked if they started literally anybody else. Shocked. And if they did start anybody else that I’d start reading into things at that point. There’s no way that if Duncan missed the game, they wouldn’t start Ivy. No way. I I don’t see why that would make how that would make sense if they didn’t. So, we’ll see if Duncan misses a game. That is definitely No one wants to see Duncan get hurt. No one wants to see anyone get hurt, obviously. Knock on wood. But, if he were to miss a game, that does open up a fun little interesting plot point here that I’m really gonna be interested to watch. So, it could be fun. A silver lining someone missing a game. This could be a fun scenario. So, let’s see what happens. But that’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Thank you guys for making Locked on Pistons your first listen of every single day. Free up on all your podcast platforms. Hit that subscribe button at the YouTube channel. Leave us a fivestar review. Whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. Till next time, I’ll see you guys later. Stay safe out there and peace out everybody.

Detroit Pistons fall to the Dallas Mavericks in overtime amid wild officiating chaos—was this loss due to poor refereeing or deeper roster concerns? Ku Khahil sounds off on the controversial ejections of Ausar Thompson and the technical fiasco with Cade Cunningham, spotlighting how inconsistent NBA officiating shifted the game’s momentum and tested Detroit’s resilience.

Key insights center on Tobias Harris’s struggles at the power forward spot, raising the debate: do the Pistons need a high-volume stretch four to unlock their star trio of Cade, Ausar, and Jalen Duren? With Duncan Robinson potentially sidelined, could Jaden Ivey seize this moment to reclaim a starting role? Dive into sharp analysis on Detroit’s offensive adjustments, roster needs, and the ripple effects of officiating on a promising Pistons squad fighting for Eastern Conference supremacy.

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