Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy has backtracked on comments he made suggesting NBA referees are biased toward LeBron James.
In an interview with ESPN at the end of the first quarter of the Pistons' 106-101 loss Sunday in the opening game of their Eastern Conference playoff series against the Cavaliers, Van Gundy expressed frustration at the supposedly favorable calls James received.
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"A couple calls have upset our guys," Van Gundy said. "They've got to understand, LeBron's LeBron. They're not going to call offensive fouls on him. He gets to do whatever he wants. They've got to understand that."
However, Van Gundy offered a different view on the officiating after the game, saying: "Look, I thought it evened out really well. But early on, I thought there were two pretty obvious offensive fouls down there on him.
"But it's two calls in an entire game after that. Look, the refereeing had nothing to do with tonight. They did a good job. It went both ways. I thought they did a really good job. It was decided by the players on the floor, as it should be.
"There's some things that I regret, myself. I'm proud of our guys. I thought they competed hard. I think there's some things I got to do to help them a little bit more."
The eighth-seeded Pistons led the top-seeded Cavaliers by seven points with just over 11 minutes remaining in Cleveland, but Kevin Love's late 3-pointers made the difference in giving the hosts a 1-0 series lead.
Game 2 is at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday in Cleveland (TNT).