Knicks Call Out Refs After Pistons Loss

Game 2 will perhaps be best remember as a physical bout, as the two teams were called for a combined 46 fouls/. But the Knicks could hardly buy the idea that officials were "letting them play": the game was interrupted at least 34 times for Detroit free throws. New York, in turn, was allowed to take only 19, including only a mere couple during a first half that saw the Pistons build a lasting lead.

"I don't understand how on one side you talk about direct line drives. [Brunson] is getting fouled and it's not being called," head coach Tom Thibodeau said, per the Associated Press. "I don't really give a crap how they call the game, as long as it's consistent on both sides. So, if [Cade] Cunningham is driving and there is marginal contact and he is getting to the line, then Jalen deserves to be getting to the line. It's really that simple."

Detroit was actually charged with two more fouls than the Knicks and standout defender Ausar Thompson fouled out of the game with 5:34 remaining. That was far from enough to soothe both the Knicks' bench and their fans, who frequently offered their thumbs-down reviews for officials through rhythmic chants.

Thibodeau critiquing the way Brunson is policed is hardly anything new in the realm of the Knicks but such a free throw difference was dangerously glaring on Monday: the Knicks' net of minus-15 in singles is their worst in a postseason game since they had a minus-28 during the infamous Game 6 loss to the Indiana Pacers in the 2013 conference semifinals.

It was enough to render the animated Josh Hart relatively speechless, as he encouraged questioners to simply draw their own conclusions when asked about the free throw issue in the aftermath. Hart had as big of a right to complain as anyone: he was one of many who believed that his equalizing double with 1:15 remaining in regulation should've received an and-one opportunity after Jalen Duren descended upon him.

Hart's double briefly tied the game and completed a comeback from as many as 15 down before the Pistons scored the last six tallies to create the final margin.

"I'll let y'all examine that. That was an interesting thing," Hart said in video from SNY. "Y'all can figure that one out."

Though boiled frustration was a common ingredient in the New York locker room, metropolitan leaders were nonetheless quick to take responsibility and blame blue-and-orange rather than black-and-white. Game 2 goes down for a missed opportunity for New York in more ways than one, as they lost the rebounding battle by 14 on a night where Detroit interior threat Isaiah Stewart sat due to knee inflammation.

"Regardless if fouls are being called or not called, we've got to adjust, and I feel like we did that a little too late into the game," Brunson, who received nine of the Knicks' 17 awarded free throws in the second half, remarked in the AP report. "Regardless of how it's reffed, we've got to adjust and we've got to adapt to that and go on from there."