Cavaliers Coach Criticizes Officials After Game 4 Loss To Celtics

The Cleveland Cavaliers came close to stunning the Boston Celtics in Game 4 on Monday night even without Donovan Mitchell available due to a calf injury.

In fact, it was Boston’s first game of the postseason decided by single digits.

Perhaps a few more free throws would have helped the Cavaliers, who fell, 109-102, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff couldn’t help but notice the free-throw disparity. The Celtics took 24 attempts from the charity stripe, which was 17 more than the Cavaliers.

Bickerstaff took issue with the referees over that and called out the officiating crew following the defeat.

“I’ll be honest with you, I was disappointed with the way the whistle blew tonight,” Bickerstaff told reporters, per Logan Potosky of Cavs Insider. “I thought our guys deserved much better, the way that they were competing. They were attacking the paint, they were getting after it the same, both teams were. We’re not asking for anything more, but we’re asking for equal. And I don’t think we got an equal opportunity at it tonight from that standpoint.”

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Bickerstaff didn’t have a reason for why he felt the Cavaliers weren’t getting a friendly whistle, especially on their home court.

“I don’t know, I can’t answer that,” Bickerstaff said. “I’m not inside those guys’ heads. But what I do know is they (Boston) had zero fouls in the fourth quarter, until late in the game.”

Bickerstaff wasn’t the only member of the Cavaliers to take exception with the officiating in Game 4. Cavaliers guard Darius Garland also sounded off and criticized the referees.

Cleveland certainly will look for more calls to go its way in Wednesday’s Game 5 as the Cavaliers look to stave off elimination in Boston.