Groundhog Day

The Knicks - with an assist from the refs - leaned into all their worst tendencies at the worst possible time

Good morning.

That sucked.

Game 5: Celtics 127, Knicks 102

This isn’t the Celtics Film School Newsletter - thank goodness for that - so I’m not going to spend much time on what Boston did last night to extend their season, but I’d be remiss to start anywhere besides praising a championship-level effort from the reigning kings of the sport.

Jaylen Brown and Derrick White played like the stars they are, Jrue Holiday and Al Horford filled in every gap like they’ve been doing for 34 combined seasons, and a certain former Knick now has a game on his resume that will forever bear his name. What a gutty performance when most of the league had already written them off.

This also isn’t 645 Fifth Avenue; aka, the NBA’s league office. For that reason, I’m not going to spend a lot of time discussing the performance of the refs, and Jalen Brunson’s five, yes five third quarter fouls.

I know a lot of fans probably want me to discuss nothing but those fouls, because really, what other superstar can you ever remember getting such a crap whistle in such a short span of time? I get it. Going back and rewatching all five, I can say that three were, at the very least, questionable calls, while a fourth might have been questionable except TNT didn’t show a replay. Most egregious were the overturned offensive foul that was originally whistled on Derrick White and then this whistle that came after Jaylen Brown dislodged Brunson’s chin with his elbow:

Not only did these calls contribute to Boston getting 18 free throws in the period and eventually fouling Brunson out of the game midway through the fourth quarter, but they impacted New York’s ability to counter the Celtics strategy of attacking the paint rather than settling for semi-contested threes.

Even pointing out the final margin of victory isn’t enough to completely dismiss the impact of the one-sided refs because you never know how these games might go. If Boston’s lead heading into the fourth was, say, nine points instead of 15, maybe the Knicks have a little more wind behind their sails to make a fourth quarter push.

It’s all fair. And New York still can’t use it as an excuse for why they lost.