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\u201cI never thought I\u2019d be in the NBA Finals and see a team get 24 free-throw attempts in the second half to another team\u2019s eight,\u201d he told reporters. <\/p>\n
\u201cNow I don\u2019t think I complain much about officials or the fairness when it comes to the free-throw attempts. San Antonio is a great team. They\u2019re a great team. It\u2019s 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. Maybe we were fouling, but they fouled too.<\/p>\n
Head coach Mike Brown of the New York Knicks reacts during the fourth quarter against the San Antonio Spurs in Game Three of the 2026 NBA Finals (Photo by Al Bello\/Getty Images)Source: getty<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 There were opportunities for fouls to be called to at least try to even the free throws out. Now, we didn\u2019t play good. San Antonio played great. We could have played better, there were a lot of things that we could have done that we did in Game 1 and Game 2. But to get 24 free throws in the second half? \u2026 All the shots we took, we got fouled four times, roughly, for eight free-throw attempts? \u2026 That\u2019s tough to overcome when you\u2019re playing a great team.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Brown pointed to the second-half disparity, the final free-throw count finished 32 attempts for the Spurs compared to 22 for the Knicks.<\/p>\n
There was also a clear sense the Spurs\u2019 urgency played a role in the shift. Facing a 2-0 series deficit, San Antonio made a concerted effort to attack the paint, feeding Victor Wembanyama in the lane while also putting pressure on the rim through Stephon Castle.<\/p>\n
New York struggled to contain that combination without giving up contact, which likely contributed to the difference at the free-throw line.<\/p>\n
Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns was more measured in his assessment, opting not to focus on the officials and instead pointing to his team\u2019s own errors.<\/p>\n
It is not the first time Brown has raised concerns during the series, although his tone was very different after Game 1. <\/p>\n
Following that win, he revealed assistant coach Rick Brunson had helped settle the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all bitching too much at the officials. Rick Brunson was great,\u201d Brown said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me to shut the hell up and he told the rest of the team to be quiet and leave the officials alone. It was great of him because we were all kind of losing our minds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the frustration, the Spurs\u2019 performance was the story of the night. Wembanyama led the way with 32 points, eight rebounds and six assists on 11-of-18 shooting, adding three blocks and two steals at the other end.<\/p>\n
He was supported by 23 points, five rebounds and five assists from Castle, while De\u2019Aaron Fox delivered a key late shot alongside eight assists, as San Antonio finally responded after dropping the first two games.<\/p>\n
Even so, Brown\u2019s post-game comments ensure the officiating will remain a talking point heading into Game 4 on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown was left frustrated with the officiating after his side\u2019s 115-111 defeat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-725243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}