The Detroit Pistons lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 113-107, on Saturday night, and suffice it to say Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff was not in a pleasant mood afterward.

His anger was not directed at his players, but rather … you’ll never guess … at the officials. If you want the numbers, the Pistons only got to the line 13 times against the Thunder’s 22, but judging the equity of officiating in a given game by free throw totals is a flawed measurement.

For the most part, teams that shoot a lot of free throws earn them with downhill initiative and physical creation. But Bickerstaff wasn’t just angry at the fouls that were called or not called, but mostly with what he believes was a refusal on the part of the officials to extend a basic level of respectful consideration and communication to the Pistons.

Bickerstaff’s anger clearly hit a boiling point when Cade Cunningham was ejected late in the third quarter. A foul was reviewed for a flagrant but was deemed a common foul, and Cunningham, per the pool report, was hit with a technical foul for using profanity toward the officials, and then was hit with a second tech for more profanity.

Magic words aside, this doesn’t seem like a very demonstrative brand of arguing.

“[‘I’m] disgusted by the way that game was officiated,” Bickerstaff said. “The level of disrespect was above and beyond. [The Thunder] have a guy fall down, trip on his own teammate’s foot, they review us for a hostile act. [The Thunder] throw an elbow to our chest, neck area, I ask [the officials] to at least take a look at it, just show us the respect to take a look at it, no one would take a look at it.

“The disrespect has gone far enough. And I’m not going to allow out guy to be treated the way that they were treated tonight. … We understand that we play a style of ball that’s physical, that’s on the edge, I coach my ass off with a passionate way, I’m into the games, our players are into the games, we understand that. But we deserve a level of respect because we’re competing our tails off and bringing something positive to this league.”

Now, here’s where Bickerstaff nearly lost it, pounding his fists on the table as he unleashed an emphatic, voice-cracking close to his rant before wadding up the stat sheet and spiking it down as he walked off.

“We’re growing young players. Our young players are competing their tail off. The least that they could do is get the same level of respect that everybody else in this league gets, and get refereed the same way that everybody else in this league gets reffed. Enough is enough of it. What you saw tonight was disgusting. It was a disgusting display of disrespect toward our guys and what we’re trying to do.”

Even though you’ve now read the script, this is worth a watch.

Bickerstaff clearly believes this has been going on longer than this game. This was a total straw-that-broke-the-camel’s back meltdown, but in the end, it’s not going to get Bickerstaff or the Pistons anywhere. They lost the game, their second straight and fourth in six games, and they’re losing ground on a top-four seed — though they’re still only two games back from No. 4 Milwaukee.

To say every coach thinks his team gets officiated worse than everyone else goes without saying. This sort of frustration is even more pronounced against the Thunder and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is going to drive you crazy with his foul hunting and post-contact antics. But again, the Cunningham ejection is likely what sent Bickerstaff over the edge.

It’s a tough deal for the Pistons trying to knock off maybe the best team in the league without their best player for the fourth quarter, and good on Bickerstaff for coming to his players’ defense. But chances are, the only thing that’s going to come of it is a fine.

The Washington Wizards were leading the way for the worst record in the league a couple weeks ago, but now — just as tank season has kicked into full effect — they’ve suddenly won four of their last seven including Saturday night’s 126-123 thriller over the Denver Nuggets.

Washington trailed by seven with under five minutes to play but worked itself into the lead with a Jordan Poole floater with 44 seconds to play. From there, the teams traded baskets before Jamal Murray, who knocked down the game-winner against the Lakers on Friday, tied the score with five seconds left with another clutch jumper for his scrapbook.

That left 5.1 seconds on the clock, which was more than enough time for Poole to send the Nuggets packing with a 35-foot bomb from the logo as time basically expired.

Again, these “wins” are actually losses for the Wizards at this point. They’re still tied with Utah for the worst record and safely inside the bottom three, which would give them the maximum 14% chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick. But Washington’s “lead” over the Pelicans, who own the fourth-worst record, is now just three losses with 16 games to play.

They can still blow this if they keep winning games, but don’t tell that to Poole, who certainly isn’t in the business of missing shots on purpose. He saw a game-winning opportunity in front of him, and he splashed it with conviction. Good for him.

He’s been turned into a punchline since Golden State traded him to Washington before last season, but he’s actually been pretty damn good this season. He’s averaging 21 points per game and making 38% of his nine 3-point attempts per game. The circus blunders have mostly been erased. And now you can add this game-winner to the ledger.

The New York Knicks are in a slide. Jalen Brunson is expected to be out for at least the rest of March and perhaps through early April with an ankle sprain. They register as the third-worst offense with a bottom-10 net rating since the All-Star break. And they’ve now lost four of their last six games after a 97-94 defeat at the hands of the Golden State Warriors on Saturday.

Forgive everyone in Knicks land if they’re running a little hot under the collar at the moment.

It is with this context in mind that we bring you this, shall we say, spirited exchange between Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau and forward Josh Hart in a timeout huddle during Saturday’s loss.

“I love Josh, you guys know that,” Thibodeau said after the game, implying he was simply trying to stoke a fire in his team. “Just whatever can get us going, just try to get us going.”

The Athletic’s Fred Katz followed up by asking Thibodeau if he would classify the exchange as a “passionate moment” and Thibodeau said, “Yeah, that’s it.”

So here’s the deal: These little dustups do happen all the time in competitive environments. In a vacuum, it isn’t anything to get worked up about. But there is clearly some tension within the Knicks right now. Mikal Bridges and Thibodeau just had to have a “productive” meeting after Bridges essentially called out Thibs for playing the Knicks’ starters too many minutes. And again, the offense has been a mess for a while and the losses are piling up without Brunson. Hart didn’t score a single point on Saturday, missing all seven of his shots.

This little square-off in the huddle was likely a a result of the cumulative stress that’s been building inside the Knicks’ walls. Losing will do that. The good news is the Knicks have a really easy run of games ahead, with matchups against the Heat, Spurs, Hornets, Wizards, Mavericks, Blazers and 76ers in seven of their next nine. Perhaps they can reverse their mojo a little over this stretch and then get Brunson back for the close of the season before heading into the playoffs on a good note.