ORLANDO, Fla. — The Knicks have shown their frustration with the officiating during each of the two games on this road trip, but Tom Thibodeau clearly will hear from the NBA and take a fine over his outburst Friday night.
Thibodeau said he “didn’t know what a foul was” in the second half of the Knicks’ 117-108 loss to the Magic, and he specifically defended point guard Jalen Brunson in his criticism.
“I am so, like, what this guy is going through is ridiculous. Ridiculous,” Thibodeau said after the Knicks dropped their second straight game to fall to 17-14. “You’re getting hammered time after time, I’m just getting sick and tired of it.
“Like, I watch . I send it in. I see it all. And it’s, they’re fouls. It’s plain and simple, they’re fouls and there’s no other way to say it, except their fouls. They’re fouls. No one drives the ball more to the rim than this guy does. And if you rake across his arm, you rake across his arm. And if you hit him in the head, you hit him in the head. Those are fouls. Those are fouls. [I’m] sick and tired of it. Sick and tired of it.”
With that, Thibodeau atypically stormed out of his postgame press conference less than three minutes after it began.
Julius Randle and the Knicks also had expressed frustration with the officials following Wednesday’s loss in Oklahoma City, despite the two-time All-Star forward getting to the line a season-high 13 times that night.
Brunson shot 12 free throws against the Magic, and made them all, but he repeated the same response he gave following the Thunder game multiple times Friday night.
“Next question,” he repeated twice.
Randle had a push-off foul on Goga Bitadze on an offensive rebound late in the game upheld by replay, but he added that the officiating is “not consistent” from game-to-game.
“That’s all I can say, man, it’s just not. It’s not consistent,” Randle said. “A couple of plays before, when they called me for grabbing a guy’s arm, he pushed me in the back.
“We talked about [arm] extension last game [in Oklahoma City]. I mean, if you look at the replay, I still didn’t extend my arm. There’s going to be contact. It’s in the paint, it’s a box-out, there’s going to be contact. He sold the call. It’s just the consistency. I know they have a tough job.
“So I’m not going to sit here and kill them about what they’re doing, whatever they’re doing. Just a little bit more consistency would be appreciated.”