NZ Breakers coach Mody Maor doesn't play ball with suggestions referees favour his side, after Sunday's ANBL finals victory over Sydney Kings.
An 80-70 win at Spark Arena on Sunday night levelled the best-of-five series at 2-2 and set up a decider on Wednesday, with the winners to be crowned ANBL champions for the 2022/23 season.
After the final whistle, Kings coach Chase Buford hit out at the Breakers' physicality, accusing referees of favouring the Kiwi side.
Buford has made such allegations before, doing the same at the start of December. When asked to clarify his comments, Buford promptly ended his post-match press conference.
Now one win away from a title in his first season as head coach, Maor does not take Buford's claims seriously, seeing them as an attempt to sway officials before the championship decider.
"I've heard what happened," said Maor. "Honestly, it doesn't even bother me, the reaction.
"Everybody is doing the best they can. I sat after three games in the series and I didn't say one peep about referees.
"They are doing the best they can. All the other noise belongs somewhere else, so don't ask me about it. I, for sure, didn't get any help from anybody to win this game."
In the match, the foul count favoured the Kings 20-17.
Meanwhile, Maor also praised Buford and the Kings' style of play, saying it's exactly what the finals series needed.
"Chase Buford is a fantastic coach, his team play fantastic basketball," he added.
"His team plays very, very physical basketball. Don't paint this as 'we play physical and they don't' - they play extremely physical and we love it.
"This is what we want in the playoffs. All the noise to try and get a whistle in the next game... I'm not taking part in this."
Join Newshub at 9:30pm Wednesday for live updates of the ANBL finals decider between the Breakers and Kings
