New York – The New York Knicks left the court for half a time for six on the scoreboard and far back in free throw statistics.
The Detroit Pistons ended up shooting 34 free throws on Monday night in their 100-94 victory over the Knicks, which took 19 in game 2 of the First Round confrontation of the East Conference.
The series is uniform, and the Knicks coach, Tom Thibodeau, later said, the free throws must also be.
“Obviously, a great discrepancy in free throws,” said Thibodeau. “Huge. I have to take a look at that.”
Thibodeau felt Jalen Brunson, his shipowner, did not receive the same type of calls his partner All-Star Cade Cunningham received. The Knicks clearly want to be physical with Cunningham, since they were in their victory of game 1, but they fought to do so without being whistled for faults on Monday.
“I don’t understand how, on the one hand, you talk about direct line units. The guy is being a foul and is not called,” said Thibodeau. “And look, I really don’t care how they call the game, whenever it is consistent on both sides. So, if Cunningham is driving and there is marginal contact and is reaching the line, then Jalen deserves to reach the line. It is really so simple.”
The free throws for those two players were really even. Cunningham finished 10 of 12, while Brunson had 9 of 11. And Ausar Thompson, Brunson’s main defender, received a lack of the game.
But the Knicks fought to shake their frustration with the trade in the first half. The Pistons took 14 free throws in the first two rooms and Brunson tried the only two delivered to the Knicks.
Thibodeau frequently complains about Brunson’s blows, and the Knicks closely monitor the officiants, even giving the rare step of including a breakdown of the three game officials and some of their relevant statistics in their media notes prior to the game.
Brunson thinks that they may need to worry less during the games.
“Regardless of whether they are called or not, we have to adapt, and I feel that we did it too late in the game,” he said. “And, therefore, regardless of how he refers, we have to adapt and we have to adapt to that and continue from there.”
