Stan Van Gundy backtracks and praises refs after Game 1

During the first half of Game 1, Stan Van Gundy was interviewed and did not hold back on his thoughts as to how the refs are going to swallow their whistles for LeBron James.

"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," Van Gundy said during the mid-game interview.

Van Gundy wasn't wrong, but after the game, he pulled back a little bit (via ESPN):

"Look, I thought it evened out really well," Van Gundy said. "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."

The Pistons picked up 21 personal fouls, which led to 20 free throws for the Cavs. (They shot another due to Reggie Jackson's technical foul.) The Pistons shot 16 free throws.

Van Gundy was right for deflecting attention away from any refereeing after his halftime comments got a lot of it. The Pistons were only down two when Van Gundy made his comments, up five at the half, and lost a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter without any shooting fouls called either way. Were the calls or no-calls always right? No. Is LeBron LeBron and going to get some star treatment? Yes. But Detroit didn't lose Game 1 because of any blown calls.