After the New York Knicks dropped Game 3 of the NBA Finals, 115-111 to the San Antonio Spurs, Mike Brown didn’t hold back with his thoughts about how the officiating went against his team.
The Knicks head coach spoke for nearly five minutes about how lopsided the fouls were, particularly in the second half, mentioning several examples of missed calls.
“I never thought I’d be in the NBA Finals and see a team get 24 free throw attempts in the second half to another team’s eight,” Brown said in his lengthy rant.
“Maybe we were fouling. Maybe we were fouling, but they fouled too,” Brown also said postgame. “There were opportunities for fouls to be called to at least try to even the free throw opportunities out.”
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Brown didn’t hesitate to give credit to coach Mitch Johnson and the Spurs for winning the game and admitted his team also “didn’t play well,” but felt they officiating was certainly not how it should’ve been.
One of the biggest missed calls may have arrived in the first half when Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama was tangled up with Knicks guard Jalen Brunson on a play and shoved him down in the back of the head.
The replay clearly showed the aggressive move which should’ve been a flagrant foul, according to ABC and ESPN commentator Richard Jefferson.
“San Antonio played great. We could’ve played better. There were a lot of things that we didn’t do that we’ve done in Game 1 and Game 2, but to go 24 free throw attempts in a second half. That’s 48 for the game if you think about the way that they called that second half, compared to eight. All the shots we took, we got fouled four times,” Brown said.
The Knicks coach reiterated how he doesn’t play much but “never thought” he would witness that sort of foul discrepancy in an NBA Finals.
For the game, there were 21 personal fouls for the Spurs compared to 23 personal fouls for the Knicks. Overall, the Spurs made 25 of 32 free throws, while the Knicks made 18 of 22 free throws for the game.
Another issue for the Knicks was their 13 turnovers, which led to 21 points for the visiting Spurs.
Still, the Knicks once again won the battle of the boards with 46 rebounds compared to 37 for San Antonio, and had a chance to win in the final minutes after once again battling back to cut down an opponents’ lead in the playoffs.
With the loss, the Knicks’ playoff winning streak ended at 13 games, and the Spurs have now made it a 1-2 series, with Game 3 on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. ET in New York.
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