Jason Burgos
While Mike Brown wasn’t happy with the officiating of the New York Knicks Game 3 NBA Finals loss to the San Antonio Spurs, Karl-Anthony Towns believes the referees had very little to do with their 115-111 defeat on Monday.
Despite a raucous, celebrity-filled crowd on Monday night, the Spurs were able to do something that no other team has been able to do to the Knicks in close to two months: Hand them a playoff loss. Behind a strong game from MVP candidate Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio ended New York’s impressive 13-game win streak and posted its first victory in the series.
Yet, when it came to the whys for the 115-111 loss, Knicks coach Mike Brown foisted a lot of the blame on the game’s officials.
“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 8,” he said in his post-game press conference. “I don’t think I complain much about officials or the fairness when it comes to 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. And maybe we were fouling. But they foul too.”
Karl-Anthony Towns says NY Knicks got away from what won them 13 straight
The coach has a fair point for what has been a very physical series. It does seem a bit odd to have such a massive differential in free-throw attempts in the second half. The Spurs shot 10 more FTs overall (32 to 22) on Monday night. However, Towns felt very differently about why the Knicks really came up short in Game 3.
“That ain’t cost us the game,” he said after the game when asked about more foul calls against his team in Game 3. “We 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.”
The Knicks had 13 turnovers to the Spurs’ eight, and quite a few of them were unforced errors that were just simply mental lapses. The Spurs outscored the Knicks 21 to 7 on those turnovers. In a game that was so close late, three or four fewer turnovers probably means New York heads into Game 4 with a 3-0 series lead.
