Rick Carlisle accuses referee of 'baiting' Deron Williams into a technical foul

Rick Carlisle blasted official David Jones for a technical foul he gave to Deron Williams midway through the third quarter in the Mavericks' 102-96 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday, saying he "baited" him into the play.

"For the first time in a 33-year NBA career, I saw a referee make a point of going out of his way and walking into our huddle and baiting one of our guys into a technical," Carlisle said in a post-game press conference. "I've never seen anything like that in my years in the league. I don't see how that can ever be excusable."

Here's video of the play, video SI's Ben Golliver.

Here's video RT @espn_macmahon: Rick Carlisle: Ref David Jones baited Deron Williams into T https://t.co/ZRKGQQTpyf pic.twitter.com/cdLVDX8XFR

— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) March 10, 2016

The technical was handed out after the team went to timeout and Reggie Jackson missed the one-shot penalty with 7:33 left in the third quarter. David Jones, a 27-year referee veteran who has called over 1,500 NBA games, declined to comment when asked through a pool reporter.

"I'm not getting into that, but he clearly did, he clearly did," said Carlisle, asked how Jones baited Williams. "He went out of his way, could have walked away from it, but made a point of going back. I said, 'I got it, I got it, let it go.' He said, 'No, I got it,' and he walked back essentially into our huddle and baited Deron Williams into getting a technical.

"I don't think that that's right. An official's job is to defuse a situation, not blow it up. The referee we're talking about is an experienced guy. I've never seen anything like this. But those kinds of things, we've got to rise above them."

Deron Williams wouldn't talk about the situation following the game.

"You know what, I've never commented about officials in the 10 years of my career and I'm not going to start now," Williams said. "Things happen during a game. I got T'd up. That's all there is to it."

When pressed, Williams said he "didn't know" what the altercation was about and then repeated his answer above almost verbatim.

Carlisle only brought up the referee dispute six minutes into the post-game press conference, on one of the final questions. Asked about the confrontation after the game, both Wesley Matthews and Zaza Pachulia said they didn't see the play closely.

Updated at 11:53 with video of the technical foul.