The New York Knicks fell to the Houston Rockets, 105-103, on Monday night. The end of the game came under major scrutiny, as Jalen Brunson was called for a foul on Aaron Holiday with 0.1 seconds left that sent Holiday to the free throw line and gave Houston a win.
The Knicks were unsurprisingly unhappy about it, particularly because it did not look like Brunson committed a foul. Fast forward to Tuesday evening and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that New York will go as far as to file a protest with the league about the end of the game, even though there are no more meetings between the two teams on the schedule that would give them a natural way to play overtime.
ESPN Sources: The Knicks are filing a protest with the NBA to dispute the 105-103 loss to the Rockets on Monday. Both the NBA’s L2M report and crew chief Ed Malloy acknowledged foul call on Jalen Brunson leading to Aaron Holiday’s two winning free throws was incorrectly called. pic.twitter.com/SKHKV6SNGJ
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 13, 2024
The Knicks and Rockets aren’t scheduled to play again this season, but the hope would be to win the protest and play an overtime period to complete the game. Only six protests in league history have been upheld.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 13, 2024
It certainly helps the Knicks case that, as Wojnarowski mentioned, they received confirmation from both Ed Malloy and the league’s Last Two Minute Report about the call. After the game, Malloy — who was the crew chief during the game — explicitly said that the officials got the call wrong, while the NBA’s official report that dropped on Tuesday afternoon indicated that Brunson legally contested the shot.
Ed Malloy, to pool reporter @FredKatz, on the call in the Knicks game, which Malloy admits was the wrong call. pic.twitter.com/Y0E2T3w9rg
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) February 13, 2024
In its Last Two Minute report, NBA says Jalen Brunson legally contested Aaron Holiday’s shot late in Knicks’ 105-103 loss to Rockets on Monday. In a pool reporter interview, referee crew chief Ed Malloy acknowledged after the game that the call on the floor was incorrect. pic.twitter.com/oOJtTPNQKK
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) February 13, 2024
Protests are not normally successful, so the Knicks do have a bit of an uphill battle ahead of them here. Still, this one is pretty unique in that the very last play of the game is at question and both the crew chief and the league itself confirmed that this was the wrong call, so maybe New York is able to get the seventh upheld protest in NBA history.
