Mike Brown Calls Out Refs After Knicks' Game 3 Loss to Spurs, Cites FT Disparity

New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown was not happy with the officiating following his team's 115-111 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Monday's Game 3 of the 2026 NBA Finals.

While he wanted to make it clear the Spurs deserved the win, he also criticized the officiating in the second half.

"I never thought I'd be in the NBA Finals and see a team get 24 free-throw attempts in the second half to another team's eight," he told reporters. "Now I don't think I complain much about officials or the fairness when it comes to the free-throw attempts. San Antonio is a great team. They're a great team. It's going to lower our odds big time if we play Game 4 and in the second half they get 24 free-throw attempts to our eight. And maybe we were fouling. Maybe we were fouling, but they fouled too. 

"… There were opportunities for fouls to be called to at least try to even the free throws out. Now, we didn't play good. San Antonio played great. We could have played better, there were a lot of things that we could have done that we did in Game 1 and Game 2. But to get 24 free throws in the second half? … All the shots we took, we got fouled four times, roughly, for eight free-throw attempts? … That's tough to overcome when you're playing a great team."

While Brown highlighted the second-half disparity, the final free-throw tally was 32 for the Spurs compared to 22 for the Knicks.

There is also something to be said about the amount of urgency the Spurs played with facing a 2-0 deficit. They made a point to get the ball to Victor Wembanyama in the lane while also attacking the basket with Stephon Castle.

Spurs-Knicks Highlights

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New York could only do so much against that tandem without fouling, which surely contributed to the free-throw difference.

Karl-Anthony Towns didn't want to blame the officials and instead pointed to the Knicks' own mistakes:

This isn't the first time Brown has commented about the officiating during the NBA Finals, although he had a much different tone following his team's Game 1 victory. At that time, he told reporters assistant coach Rick Brunson had an important message for the team.

"We were all bitching too much at the officials. Rick Brunson was great," Brown said. "He told me to shut the hell up and he told the rest of the team to be quiet and leave the officials alone. It was great of him because we were all kind of losing our minds."

Notably, Brunson's son, Jalen, lost his cool with the officiating during Game 1:

Ultimately, the Knicks had no answer for Wembanyama in Monday's loss. The big man finished with 32 points, eight rebounds and six assists behind 11-of-18 shooting from the field while also notching three blocks and two steals on the defensive end.

Throw in 23 points, five rebounds and five assists from Castle and a clutch shot from De'Aaron Fox to go along with his eight assists, and the Spurs responded with the win they needed after dropping the first two at home.

Yet Brown's comments mean the officiating will be a storyline going into Wednesday's Game 4.