While Knicks head coach Mike Brown admitted that his team did not play its best game Friday night 116-107 defeat against the Philadelphia 76ers, during which they turned the ball over 18 times, he wasn’t too happy with the officiating either.
Raising some questions regarding non-calls involving OG Anunoby when he walks to the rim, Brown made it clear that he thinks the 6-foot-7, 240-pounder is officiated differently from other smaller players in the league.
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“It’s one, it’s a weird game and the officials have a tough job, but I don’t know if I’ll ever understand what’s a foul and what’s not because the guys, especially the fast guys, they’ll put their heads down and they’ll drive the ball from point A to point B,” Brown said. “And if you’re leading with your chest and they’re able to collapse or fall pretty well, that’s a foul.
“OG is a big, strong guy. When he drives, he doesn’t do that. He tries to attack the rim and he gets sidetracked on his route, but he can’t get a call.”
Anunoby had just two points in 32 minutes on a tough 1-for-9 shooting night — well below his season average of 15.4 points per game on 46.5 percent shooting. He finished with a plus/minus of -11.
But after Anunoby went offside, his head coach supported him and felt he should have benefited from many more fouls.
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“I thought his aggression was there, he just couldn’t get to the free throw line,” Brown said. “I thought he had some good looks from the three-point line and it got away from him a little bit, but I’m not sure what he can do right now to get a call on his drives.
“Not necessarily always at the rim, but I’m talking on the drive because he gets hit like everyone else, but he’s a little bigger than some of these other guards that get the calls.”
Of course, the lack of calls wasn’t the only reason Anunoby struggled as the normally 40 percent three-point shooter this season went 0 of 4 from three-point range. The Knicks, as a team, shot just 25 percent from downtown with Mikal Bridges (3-for-7) the only player to make more than one from deep.
When shots aren’t falling, it makes sense to try to score in other ways, which is what Anunoby did by driving to the basket and looking for contact to get to the line where he is a career 76.1 percent shooter. But if officials don’t call fouls during these practices, there’s not much that can be done.
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“I thought OG had some great looks from the three-point line and I thought he was aggressive in his drives and didn’t get any calls,” Brown said.
For what it’s worth, the Sixers were called for 24 personal fouls, compared to 21 for the Knicks. However, the only players to make free throws for New York were Jalen Brunson, Cities of Karl-Anthony And Mitchell Robinson.
