The NBA officials are standing on an end-of-the-game no-call on Jalen Brunson in the Knicks’ one-point loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday.
Brunson drove on Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren and banked in a layup to put the Knicks up, 112-111, with 4.1 seconds left on the game clock, but Holmgren’s teammate, Lugentz Dort, helped on the play in an attempt to block Brunson’s layup.
Dort missed the block and clipped Brunson, who went tumbling into the stanchion looking for a foul call.
He didn’t get one, and Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hit a turnaround fadeaway jump shot on the next possession to secure a 113-112 victory at Madison Square Garden.
On the NBA’s Last Two Minutes Report, an officiating body reviewed the play and confirmed a non foul call as the right decision, blaming starting Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein for the contact sending Dort into Brunson.
“Dort [OKC] jumps to contest Brunson’s [NYK] shot, and following contact by Hartenstein [NYK] on Dort, Dort makes incidental contact with Brunson after the shot is released,” the report explains.
The non-calls have become a regular occurrence for Brunson, who is among the league-leaders in drives to the rim but sits at the bottom of his peer group when it comes to free throws generated on those rack attacks.
Brunson ranks second in all of basketball in total drives to the rim (1,314) this season behind only Gilgeous-Alexander. Yet Gilgeous-Alexander, who has 361 more drives to the rim than Brunson as of Tuesday afternoon, has nearly double the number of free throws off drives to the rim (312) than Brunson (160).
Dallas’ Luka Doncic has taken 67 more free throws this season despite driving to the rim 143 fewer times than Brunson. A similar trend follows physically imposing forwards like Zion Williamson, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Paolo Banchero, and the league’s active pump-fake king, DeMar DeRozan.
Fewer drives to the rim. More trips to the line.
Yet among Brunson’s guard group, he has attempted fewer free throws than Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox, Utah’s Collin Sexton despite driving to the rim close to 300 more times than Edwards.
The Knicks’ All-Star is among 13 players who drove to the rim at least 200 times across the month of March, including Gilgeous-Alexander (who only took four foul shots in Sunday’s win over the Knicks), Williamson and Edwards.
Yet of those 13 players, Brunson ranks third-last in free throws attempted on drives despite ranking seventh in total drives to the rim in the month.
In fact, there are 20 players in the month of March who drove to the rim fewer times than Brunson yet took more trips to the foul line, including: both Portland’s Scoot Henderson and Dalano Banton, Chicago’s Coby White, Charlotte’s Vasilije Micic, Utah’s Collin Sexton, Sacramento’s Malik Monk, Detroit’s Jaden Ivey and Brooklyn’s Dennis Schroder.
Brunson, as a reminder, is coming off his first NBA All-Star appearance, is averaging just under 28 points per game, and will be in the running for his first All-NBA appearance at season’s end. Only two players both drove to the rim as much as or more than Brunson and average more points than the Knicks’ star: Gilgeous-Alexander and Dallas’ Luka Doncic.
And while both Western Conference stars have gotten the benefit of the whistle in their own markets, the foul calling has not been as generous as the buckets Brunson has provided at Madison Square Garden.
To drive the point home, Brunson led the NBA in total drives over the last eight games — but he only attempted 10 free throws during the stretch, including a zero-attempt game on a 7-of-24 shooting night in a March 23 victory over the Brooklyn Nets.
Among the 15 players who drove to the rim at least 100 times over the last eight games, Brunson ranks sixth-worst in free throws attempted off drives.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said he sends video clips of missed foul calls to the NBA’s league office regularly for review.
“Yeah we send clips,” Thibodeau said on Sunday, “but it doesn’t seem to be doing any good.”
He has also run out of energy to explain how Brunson can generate fouls that continually get overlooked.
“Write what you see,” he repeated throughout his postgame presser after Sunday’s loss to the Thunder. “That’s all I can say: Write what you see.”
On display at Madison Square Garden is an undisputed prize fighter, punching the Knicks’ second consecutive ticket to the playoffs in impressive fashion.
Many of the punches Brunson takes along the way, however, are going un-called — and Sunday’s uncalled foul went uncorrected.
