Sports

Indiana Pacers Coach Rick Carlisle Claims Pacers Aren’t Getting Calls Against Knicks Due To Market Size

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The Indiana Pacers have found themselves down 2-0 after blowing yet another sizable lead to the New York Knicks in game 2 at Madison Square Garden.

But, instead of blaming his own coaching decisions or crediting the Knicks, Rick Carlisle spent a large chunk of his press conference going off on the referees.

The big call in the game that seemed to set Rick Carlisle off was a double-dribble whistled on Knicks center Isiah Hartenstein late in the 4th quarters , only for the referees to confer and wave off the call as an inadvertent whistle. Carlisle received two technical fouls between the call and the end of the game.

The problem is, the refs ultimately made the right call, as Hartenstein didn’t double-dribble.

After the game, Carlisle went off on the officiating. While he claimed that the double-dribble controversy wasn’t that big of a deal in his mind, he simply thinks that the Pacers aren’t getting calls because they’re a small-market team.

To his defense, the Pacers did get absolutely jobbed at the end of Monday’s game 1 on a costly incorrect kick ball call that led to the Knicks’ go-ahead three-pointer in the final minute.

That’s a bad call, and he has every right to be mad about it. But, Wednesday’s game two seemed to be officiated pretty evenly. Foul shots were even until the Pacers were forced to foul in the game’s final minute.

And, the small market thing really doesn’t hold much weight when you look at the evidence. If the league was interested in helping big-market teams win, the New York Knicks the 2nd-most valuable franchise in the sport in the league’s biggest market, would’ve been a lot more successful over the past 25 years. Instead, half of the NBA titles won since 2023 have been won by teams in San Antonio, Oakland, and Miami. Those aren’t exactly the league’s marquee markets.

Ultimately, it seems like sour grapes. The Pacers are facing a Knicks team that’s without Julius Randle, Bogdan Bogdanović, and Mitchell Robinson. They’re likely to be without OG Anunoby too, who looked like he pulled his hamstring in the second half of game two.

At this point, if the Pacers can’t beat a severely depleted Knicks team that has starters playing all 48 minutes in some cases, that says more about the Pacers than it does the referees.

The series goes to Indianapolis for Game 3 on Friday.