After his team suffered a 115-111 loss at Madison Square Garden on Monday to cut its lead in the NBA Finals to 2-1, Knicks head coach Mike Brown expressed displeasure during his post-game press conference about the free throw disparity between the two teams.
The Spurs attempted 32 total free throws to the Knicks’ 22. In the second half, the gap was even more pronounced, with San Antonio going to the line 24 times while New York was awarded just eight free throws.
“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 (Twitter video link via Michael Scotto of HoopsHype). “I don’t think I complain much about officials or the fairness when it comes to the free throw attempts. San Antonio is a great team. It’s going to lower our odds big time if we play Game 4 and in the second half they get 24 free throw attempts to our eight. Maybe we were fouling, but they fouled too.”
As Vincent Goodwill of ESPN observes, Brown brought up the officiating multiple times while speaking to reporters after the game. Presumably, the Knicks’ coach believes that making it part of the conversation about the game could result in a more favorable whistle on Wednesday in Game 4.
“I talked to [the officials]. They outshot us 14-3 in the third quarter from the free throw line. I talked to them, and they said, ‘Well, this is a foul, this is a foul,'” Brown said. “That’s the question I had with them is, ‘You’re right. Maybe we did foul. But they fouled, too.'”
Although Brown griped about the officiating, his players weren’t inclined to blame the referees for the loss. Knicks guard Landry Shamet suggested that the Spurs were the more physical and assertive team, while forward Josh Hart said San Antonio came out of the gates with “a sense of urgency and a sense of desperation.”
Stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, meanwhile, said the Knicks’ turnovers were a bigger problem than how the game was called. New York committed 13 turnovers that led to 21 points while San Antonio turned the ball over just eight times, leading to seven points.
“I think we turned the ball over a lot, first and foremost, and also we were fouling a lot and put them at the line about 30 times,” Brunson said, per Goodwill. “With our live ball turnovers, got them out in transition.”
“(The officiating) didn’t cost us the game,” Towns added, according to Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press. “Turned the ball over. Didn’t execute. Didn’t do what got us 13 straight wins in a row. That’s how you lose a game.”
Spurs needed the refs to barely win…
Not sure what game you watched – but Spurs should easily have won that by 10 and Knicks are lucky ithet aren’t down 2-1
Tuck, are you saying analytically the Spurs are up 3-0???
Can anyone explain why they blew the whistle after that inbounds when Spurs were trying to sub? Feels like that was a case where the officials actually did screw up.
How can Mike Brown or anybody else for that matter, forget that this is an entertainment business? More games means more money. Very simple really.
WE know that, but HE’s coming off two sweeps, so Im sure he’s not thinking that.
There was money to be made in those rounds, too.
KAT was blatantly grabbing Wemby multiple times at the top of the key.
Brunson uses his off arm almost every play to push defenders away.
It goes both ways. The issue for me is that the refs seem to pick and choose when they want to call the foul. It’s inconsistent, which can really determine the outcome of the game. Call it straight up all game, for both sides.
Personally, I was pretty disappointed with the Adam Silver interview.
Anything he stated regarding improving the game or fixing issues were empty words.
They’re not going to fix the flopping.
They’re not going to fix the referees.
They’re not going to fix the tanking.
Just empty, deceiving, indifferent rhetoric to temporarily soothe the fans and the media. Nothing more.
I agree. Especially his claiming that the flopping is actually players just selling actual fouls – that was really sad.
Gary, That’s too much bad news for me for 7am. Were you pulling for the Knicks?
I like Brown but this is the move of a loser. This was the best officiated game of the series – his guys spend 48 minutes beating the crap out of Wemby and he doesn’t like it when the other guy hits back. He knows he should be down 2-1 and he’s panicked that something changed last night. I thought he was better than this.
Delusional Spurs fan in aisle 2. Stating that this was the best officiated game of the series isn’t saying much. NBA officiating is barely a step up from watching a WWE match. It’s been painfully obvious for years when NBA officiating ebbs and flows throughout the course of a game and/or series depending on what the expected outcome will be.
Anyone who has watched enough NBA basketball over the years knew that the Spurs would get a favorable whistle this game. The league couldn’t have the Knicks sweep the series and lose out on all the money in addition to the perception of Wemby taking a hit.
Is he the first coach in history to use his post-game media availability to try to get a better whistle next game?
Are you saying he’s being cutting edge?
Or is this pretty common?
Were the other coaches supposed to be “better than this”… or just Mike Brown?
Btw Mike the rules are very simple – your team committed 4 very obvious fouls in the first 4 minutes of the 4th quarter – that means lots of FTs. What part don’t you understand.
Knicks have gotten away with 20 fouls at the rim throughout the series but the Spurs were more under control last night and forced the refs to do their job.
Considering that the league’s fines for complaints about officiating are minor compared to salaries, Brown is just being smart to bring this up.
With the extremely predictable NBA we have, game 4 will have Zarba and Williams and ftas for each team will be within 2.
Wemby had another cheap shot this time to Brunson and of course he gets nothing.
The refs missed it.
Wemby should have been ejected from the game with 7:04 left in the third quarter.
The Brunson shove was obviously a flagrant 1 if not a flagrant 2 but let’s say flagrant 1
And if you’re gonna call I forget the spurs shooter who landed on Brunson ankle a flagrant 1 on Brunson then Wemby should have gotten a flagrant 1 when he closed out Hart and Hart landed on Wembys ankle cause Wemby didnt leave Hart room to land as well
Two flagrant 1 fouls = automatic ejection
The right thing to do would be for the NBA to retroactively assigned Wemby 1 if not 2 technicals for those fouls he should have received but we all know they’re not gonna do that.
If Hart had fallen too the floor after landing on Wemby instead of running back on defense that review and flagrant call would have happened.
And the 2 flagrants getting him to 4 flagrant points would result in an automatic suspension in the next game, not an automatic ejection.
If you receive 2 flagrant 1 calls in the same game you’re automatically ejected from the game.
Wemby shoving Brunson to the ground and Wemby not giving Bart enough space to land both happened last night in game 3
That game was officiated with a clear emphasis on extending the series for tv revenue purposes.
I’m not a fan of neither team but it was Pretty obvious