Wednesday night was an all too familiar scene for the Knicks.
It wasn’t just Trae Young leading the Hawks to an impressive 108-100 win at The Garden in the NBA Cup Quarterfinals, eliminating New York from yet another tournament, it was questionable officiating from a familiar face.
Wednesday’s game had Jacyn Goble as part of the officiating crew. Knicks fans may remember that Goble was the referee who called the phantom foul call on Jalen Brunson in New York’s last-second loss to the Houston Rockets back in February. The Knicks would protest the result of that game, and eventually lose.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau certainly remembers Goble when he was asked about the officiating after Wednesday’s loss.
“I just looked at who was refereeing and I knew what it was going to be like,” he said.
The Knicks had one more personal foul called on them than the Hawks in Wednesday’s contest, but there was a stretch of time in the third and fourth quarters where it seemed calls were uneven.
Atlanta was not getting called for fouls when they were rebounding and defending, but also the Knicks were getting hit when them, especially Karl-Anthony Towns who fouled out late in the fourth.
Of course, Thibodeau will never say that the officiating is what lost them the game. In fact, the longtime Knicks coach puts the loss on his players from not being able to overcome the physical nature of the game or keep their energy up.
That was especially the case in the third quarter when the Hawks erased a double-digit deficit and outscored New York, 34-18.
“When [the lead] got to be 10 in the third, we missed some threes, we started giving them a second and third shot. That was a problem,” Thibodeau explained. “We were plus two [rebounding] at the half and the third quarter was a problem.”
The Knicks were outrebounded 58-49 including 22-14 on the offensive glass.
“They erased the deficit they had and it went quickly,” Thibodeau added. “Our energy dipped and it can’t dip. Misses are part of the game. We win with our defense, rebounding. They are long and It was a physical game. You have to play through that and that’s part of it.”
The loss drops the Knicks to (15-10) and out of the NBA Cup. They’ll host the Orlando Magic on Sunday while the Hawks head to Las Vegas to play the Milwaukee Bucks in the semifinals on Saturday.
