Knicks' Mike Brown talks no-call on Thunder that led to technical foul: 'It didn't sit well with me'

The MSG crowd saw more than just a heavyweight fight on Wednesday night.

As the Knicks and the defending champion Thunder duked it out on the court, Mike Brown did something he hasn't done as the head coach of the Knicks. He picked up a technical foul.

Now, Brown has a public persona of being calm, especially during games -- he's no Tom Thibodeau -- but the frustrations with the officiating boiled over for the first-year Knicks coach. And in the first quarter, Brown erupted. 

With the Thunder up, 20-18, with two minutes remaining in the first quarter, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shed his defender and drove to the basket, where Jalen Brunson met him. The Knicks captain stood his ground to take a charge, the defending MVP ran through Brunson and finished the play with a bank shot. No foul was called on the play. What made the no-call more significant was that SGA had already committed two personal fouls. A third foul would have put OKC's best player on the bench for a good portion of the first half, and perhaps the result of the game would have been different.

Instead, the teams played on, Brown drew a tech and OKC wound up winning, 103-100. 

Mike Brown gets a technical foul after this no-call on a collision between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Brunson.

A charge would have been SGA's third foul of the first quarter pic.twitter.com/PkJAmXMBL2

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After the game, Brown pointed to the free-throw difference as a major factor in the loss while complimenting SGA's play. 

"SGA, he’s a tough cover. He does a great job of convincing the referees -- better than anybody in the league -- that he’s getting hit," Brown said. "Them shooting 84 percent from the free-throw line compared to our 73 percent was a factor throughout the course of the game."

Brown was asked about picking up his first technical foul of the season and why Wednesday night was different for him when it came to the officiating. 

"One of the things I wanted to get across to the guys is that we're good enough to win despite whatever the officials are calling out on the floor," Brown explained. "We need to have that mentality. 

"Trying to leave the officials alone is something I pointedly tried to do. Tonight, SGA had two fouls and Jalen was there, and he ran him over. Just like the call they made on OG [Anunoby]. I don’t understand why that was a no-call. That should have been his third, the bucket shouldn’t have counted and we should have gone the other way with the basketball. To see that, knowing that Jalen is standing there and he’s putting his body on the line and our guys are fighting their asses off to try to win a ball game, it didn’t sit well with me."

"I’m going to have his back every single night. He has ours," Brunson said of Brown. "Regardless of what he does or the tech he gets, or whatever. I’m going to have his back."

Although both teams shot a similar number of free throws -- OKC had 25 attempts to New York's 22 -- it was the timing and magnitude of the calls that seemed to tip the game in the Thunder's favor. 

Another example came in the fourth quarter. Karl-Anthony Towns was having an impressive game, dominating the boards and giving the Knicks offense a lift in spurts. However, he picked up a fifth foul late in the final frame after a Thunder review overturned an out-of-bounds call. Towns then picked up his sixth foul shortly after, trying to guard SGA. 

"It’s obviously frustrating. You want to win the game and this one’s tight. You want to win the game and be out there with your teammates," Towns said of his late foul calls. "It’s unfortunate that it was called. After the review, it was called. At the moment, I’m not even thinking of the foul, I’m just thinking about staying locked in at the goal at hand…just go out there, play solid basketball and give us the best chance to win."

Despite Towns being out of the game for the final possessions, the Knicks had a chance to send it into overtime. However, Brunson missed a three and Anunoby missed a wide-open three-pointer of his own after the offensive rebound as time expired.

Brunson said after the game he wished he had his shot back, but when asked about the noticeable mark under his right eye, the Knicks captain said it was a little black eye before ending his availability with a quip.

"Probably a no-call."