Blake Griffin made it very clear how he felt about the officiating in his team’s playoff-ending Game 4 loss on Monday night.
The Detroit Pistons big man was caught on camera joining fans as they chanted “Ref, you suck” following a questionable call late in the first half the game. The Pistons were outmatched during the opening-round matchup against the Eastern Conference top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks, but many fans believed that the refs had made it even more tilted by favoring the Bucks — and Griffin is apparently among them.
The incident came just after refs had whistled Griffin for a shooting foul on Sterling Brown with 1:36 remaining in the first half. Brown sank both free throws to bring the Bucks to within three points. The Pistons actually went into the half with a six-point lead, but the Bucks blew the doors off in the second half, outscoring Detroit 71-42.
The whistles were favoring the Bucks for most of the night, and at one point Milwaukee held a 27-8 free throw advantage over the Pistons while the game was still within reach. By the end of the game, the free throw advantage had grown to 41-12 in favor of the Bucks, ESPN noted.
The seemingly one-sided game led to some frustration for the Pistons fans as they watched the season wither away against the Bucks. Griffin couldn’t resist joining in on their chant, as the viral video showed.
https://twitter.com/WorldWideWob/status/1120498873133338624
But Griffin himself was getting some criticism as well for another viral video that showed him overselling a non-elbow in an attempt to draw a foul. The replay showed that Sterling Brown’s elbow never came within a foot of Griffin’s face, despite Griffin trying to make it seem like he’d taken a hard hit to the jaw.
Blake Griffin is pathetic pic.twitter.com/ansStCFPwN
— NoTechBen (@NoTechBen) April 23, 2019
Griffin almost didn’t make it into the team’s final contest of the year. As the Detroit Free Press noted, Griffin had been suffering a sore left knee that was aggravated during a collision in Game 3.
Griffin had played through the pain for Game 3, but said afterward there was little his team could do to slow the top-seeded Bucks.
“Last night was a pretty good example of the type of team Milwaukee is,” Griffin said.
“Not only do they have weapons, but they use their weapons really well and they’ve designed a team that ream complements each other and Giannis (Antetokounmpo).”
Blake Griffin never got a chance to express his disappointment at the conclusion Game 4. The Pistons big man fouled out with a little more than seven minutes remaining in the contest.
