The Cleveland Cavaliers lost a close game against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night with the final score coming out to being 118-120. There were many internal reasons why the Cavs didn't close this one out, but head coach J.B. Bickerstaff believes there is more to it than that.
There was more than one questionable call going both ways throughout the game. However, some of the more blatant ones came at the end of the game and ended up hurting the Cavs the most.
Bickerstaff didn't shy away with his frustrations about how the referees handled the final few possessions. He said,
"They called a foul that wasn't a foul. That matters. The defensive player (Evan Mobley), should be covered and have a spot to land just like the offensive player. When you kick your feet forward, that's not a natural drift in a shot. That's a huge play. There's a play they made a three and stepped out of bounds, they didn't call that. So, our defense was good enough, it's tough to overcome those types of mistakes.
The play that Bickerstaff was alluding to came at the end of the game when Dejounte Murray took a jump shot and Evan Mobley landed on his feet. However, it did appear that Murray tilted his feet forward to draw the foul.
Cleveland tried to challenge the play, but it was deemed unsuccessful. This caused the Cavs to lose a timeout which would've been helpful during the last possession of the game.
Instead, they had to settle for a Donovan Mitchell half-court shot which just missed.
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