{"id":696907,"date":"2026-06-11T03:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T03:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/696907\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T03:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T03:00:09","slug":"knicks-quickly-meltdown-after-controversial-foul-calls-in-nba-finals-game-4-against-spurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/696907\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks quickly meltdown after controversial foul calls in NBA Finals Game 4 against Spurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Knicks<\/a> had the worst start possible in Game 4 against the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> in the 2026 NBA Finals. The Knicks were forced to pull Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> only 62 seconds into the game on Wednesday night after the star center picked up two controversial fouls. From there, the Spurs started a two-way avalanche that helped the team take a 19-point lead into the second quarter, and a 76-49 lead into halftime.<\/p>\n

Towns was called for a foul on the very first play of the game when defending De\u2019Aaron Fox<\/a> on a drive. A couple possessions later, KAT was called for another foul after the refs reviewed his drive to the basket and determined he hooked Victor Wembanyama<\/a> on his way to the rim.<\/p>\n

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Those weren\u2019t the only calls the Madison Square Garden crowd was upset about. There was an apparent missed goaltend on Spurs center Luke Kornet<\/a>, plus a botched out of bounds call that favored San Antonio<\/a>. Knicks fans also won\u2019t love that big man Mitchell Robinson<\/a> was called for a flagrant-1 for hitting Wemby with a forearm to the head after the French star got away with decking Jalen Brunson in Game 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The refs didn\u2019t tell the whole story for the Spurs\u2019 dominant start. The Spurs shot 65 percent from the field in the first quarter while the Knicks shot 29 percent. San Antonio didn\u2019t turn the ball over while New York turned it over four times. San Antonio was getting easy looks and hitting everything, while the Knicks\u2019 offense was stuck in the mud.<\/p>\n

The officiating was a storyline after Game 3, with Mike Brown pleading with the refs for more consistency after the Spurs shot 10 more free throws in a tight win. It\u2019s bound to be a storyline again after Game 4. Watch the calls for yourself and be the judge. First, let\u2019s start with Towns\u2019 first foul on the very first play of the game:<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t love that call so early in the game, especially after the refs allowed so much physicality earlier in the series.<\/p>\n

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The second foul on Towns was more legit to me. This was originally ruled a foul on Wembanyama, but San Antonio challenged, and the refs overturned the call. Towns clearly hooks Wemby on his drive and holds it all the way to the rim before the Spurs star gets a clean block. Watch the play here:<\/p>\n

There are sharp basketball minds who disagree with this foul call on Towns<\/a>, but ultimately Towns hooked him, and I don\u2019t think Wembanyama had the opportunity to get his arm free.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure how the refs missed this out of bounds call on Wembanyama:<\/p>\n

This also should have been goaltending on Kornet in my opinion.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama was also taunting Robinson, which appeared to coax the Knicks backup big into a flagrant foul. First, Wembanyama hit Robinson was a beautiful pirouette to finish a layup. Wembanyama started barking at Robinson as they ran down the other end, and when the Spurs star got a little too close for his liking, Robinson decked him with a forearm to the neck.<\/p>\n

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The refs reviewed the play and determined it was a flagrant-1 on Robinson. Wembanyama called and pointed to his noggin, appearing to say \u201cI\u2019m in your head.\u201d<\/p>\n

The refs aren\u2019t the reason the Knicks got smoked in the first half of Game 4. San Antonio\u2019s offense was just too spectacular, while New York couldn\u2019t get anything going. Still, the early foul calls on Towns were a game-changer, and the inconsistent nature of the officiating throughout the series has put players on both teams in a bad spot.<\/p>\n

The refs allowed a ton of physicality in the first three games. In Game 4, the officials were even calling some ticky-tack fouls, and it clearly took the Knicks out of their rhythm. It also made Madison Square Garden go eerily silent.<\/p>\n

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The Knicks won the first two games in San Antonio. The Spurs won Game 3, and they\u2019re already routing the Knicks through the first half of Game 4. Two days ago, it seemed like this might be a sweep. Not anymore.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Finals feel like they\u2019re just getting started. This series couldn\u2019t be more intense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Knicks had the worst start possible in Game 4 against the San Antonio Spurs in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[28138,199437,36783,36782,25169,58831,25161,355,6999,2116,99,60950,32090],"class_list":["post-696907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-deaaron-fox","tag-foul","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-knicks","tag-luke-kornet","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-nba","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports","tag-the-spurs","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}