Mike Brown sounds off on officiating after Knicks game three loss

The Knicks let the Spurs back in the series with a sloppy loss in Monday's game three, but Mike Brown made it clear after the game that not all of New York's misfortunes were within the team's control.

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In one of his first postgame comments following the loss, the Knicks head coach sounded off on the officiating, particularly in the second half, noting the free throw discrepancy in which San Antonio shot 24 free throws in the final 24 minutes compared to New York's eight.

"I never thought I’d see that in an NBA Finals game, and I saw it tonight,” Brown said. "San Antonio is a great team. They are a great team, OK. It’s going to lower our odds big time, 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. Maybe we were fouling. But they fouled, too."

The officiating was once again under the microscope in game three, as Knicks fans were enraged by a no-call when Victor Wembanyama shoved Jalen Brunson to the ground by the back of his head, and Brunson was later whistled for a reckless closeout on a Julian Champagnie 3-pointer, but Wembanyama was not called for a similar looking play later in the game. The officials were viciously booed by the Madison Square Garden crowd throughout the night, and Brown seemed to share in some of those frustrations. Brunson told reporters after the game that the Knicks did foul "a lot," but Brown made it clear that he felt his group should have had more trips to the line as well.

“There were a lot of things that we didn’t do that we did in Game 1 and Game 2,” Brown added. “But to go 24 free throw attempts in the second half, that’s 48 for the game, if you think about the way they called that second half, compared to eight. All the shots we took, we got fouled four times, roughly, for eight free-throw attempts."