INDIANAPOLIS -- The NBA fined Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle $35,000 on Friday for criticizing the officiating in his team's playoff series with the New York Knicks -- comments that also drew the ire of guard Josh Hart.
"Rick's saying whatever he feels. It has nothing to do with us at the end of the day. I think it's pretty disrespectful to us," Hart said after shootaround Friday morning. "Because at the end of the day, we're out there playing and competing at a high level. It's not about officiating. It's not about anything like that."
As part of his case, Carlisle flagged a non-call when Hart made contact with Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton in the third quarter of the Knicks' 130-121 Game 2 victory Wednesday. It was presumably one of the plays the Pacers sent to the league office Thursday. Sources told ESPN the Pacers identified 78 plays to the NBA where they felt disadvantaged by a referee decision in Games 1 and 2 combined.
Carlisle also questioned whether the Knicks were getting preferential treatment as a big-market team compared to his small-market Pacers. The NBA said Carlisle was fined for, in part, "questioning the integrity of the league and its officials."
"Small-market teams deserve an equal shot," Carlisle said Wednesday. "They deserve a fair shot no matter where they're playing."
Hart rejected Carlisle's stance that the Pacers were not getting a fair whistle because of their market size.
"F--- no. That's so stupid, bro. We're gonna say the big market always wins? The Knicks ain't won the chip in 51 years, so obviously that don't really hold much weight," said Hart, who played in small markets in New Orleans and Portland before coming to New York last season. "I think that's just idiotic. At the end of the day, it's playing the best, and I've never seen a ref shoot a free throw or make a 3 or miss a rotation, you know what I mean?"
Carlisle had said the Pacers decided not to send the Game 1 calls to the league office for review but reversed that decision after Game 2 had similar officiating issues, from their perspective.
"We're always talking to our guys about not making it about the officials, but we deserve a fair shot," Carlisle said after Game 2. "Give New York credit for the physicality that they're playing with, but their physicality is rewarded and ours is penalized just time after time."
The Knicks lead the best-of-seven series 2-0 ahead of Friday's Game 3 in Indianapolis (7 p.m. ET, ESPN).