While Knicks head coach Mike Brown acknowledged that his team didn’t play their crispest in Friday night’s 116-107 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, in which they turned the ball over 18 times, he wasn’t exactly pleased with the officiating either.
Raising some questions regarding non-calls involving OG Anunoby when he drives to the rim, Brown made it clear that he thinks the 6-foot-7, 240-pounder gets officiated differently than other, smaller players around the league.
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“It’s one of those, it’s a weird game and the officials they got a tough job, but I don’t know if I’ll ever understand what’s a foul and what’s not a foul because guys, especially quick guys they’ll put their head down and they’ll drive the ball from point A to point B,” Brown said. “And if you lead with your chest and they’re able to flop or fall off you good enough it’s a foul.
“OG’s a big, strong guy. When he drives, he doesn’t do that. He’s trying to attack the rim and he’s getting rerouted on his drive, but he can’t seem to get a call.”
Anunoby had just two points in 32 minutes on a rough 1-for-9 shooting night — way below his season average of 15.4 points per game while shooting 46.5 percent. He finished with a plus/minus of -11.
But after Anunoby’s off-game, his head coach had his back and felt he should’ve benefitted from a lot more foul calls.
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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 a couple of good looks from the three-point line and it just kinda got away from him, 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’s getting hit just like everybody else is, but he’s a little bit bigger than some of those other guards that are getting 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-for-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 and score in other ways, which is what Anunoby did by driving to the basket and looking for contact to go to the line where he’s a career 76.1 percent shooter. But if the officials aren’t calling fouls on those drives, there’s not much that can be done.
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“I thought OG had a couple of great looks from the three-point line and I thought he was aggressive on his drives and he didn’t get any calls,” Brown said.
For what it’s worth, the Sixers were called for 24 personal fouls compared to the Knicks’ 21. However, the only players to shoot free throws for New York were Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson.
