SAN ANTONIO — It was an MVP performance from a player who should be getting more MVP attention.
But Jalen Brunson’s near-record scoring binge wasn’t enough to beat Victor Wembanyama’s domination, and the Knicks dropped an overtime thriller Friday night, 130-126, with Tom Thibodeau again lamenting the lack of whistles for his star player.
“A foul is a foul. That’s what I do know,” said Thibodeau, who noted the 32-12 free-throw discrepancy in favor of the Spurs. “And what I’m hearing [from the referees], I don’t really like. I don’t know what else you could do, what else you can say. It’s clear as day. It really is that simple.”
What explanation are the officials providing about why Brunson isn’t getting calls?
“Not a very good one,” Thibodeau said. “I’ll leave it at that.”
Despite taking just six foul shots, Brunson finished with 61 points and could’ve surpassed Carmelo Anthony’s single-season Knicks record with the game winner.
Instead, his 3-point attempt bounced off the rim with 5.4 seconds left in OT.
And Wembanyama was the victor with 40 points and 20 rebounds, kicking the ball in the stands in celebration of the best NBA performance of his short career.
Goliath beat David.
Brunson still surpassed Bernard King’s 60 points and now sits second on the all-time, single-game Knicks scoring list.
He shot 25 of 46 in 43 minutes, surpassing his own career-high — established earlier this season — by 11 points.
He also tied Patrick Ewing’s 1995 franchise record for points in a second half with 38. Brunson’s 46 field goal attempts were the most of any NBA player since Kobe Bryant’s final game in 2016.
The Knicks All-Star was uninterested in discussing these accomplishments.
“It’s great, but that s–t — excuse me — that stuff is washed out the window with a loss,” Brunson said. “So it doesn’t really matter.”
The Knicks trailed early and often, falling behind by 21 points in the second quarter.
But Brunson’s explosion set up the Knicks for a thrilling comeback.
They had a chance to win in regulation — when Miles McBride’s open trey off Brunson’s dish sailed left — and then in OT with Brunson’s miss.
Wembanyama hit the biggest shot of the evening — a trey with 1:12 left in OT that gave the Spurs a 128-124 advantage.
The center shot 13 of 22 with seven assists in 38 minutes, saying afterward that Brunson’s performance was motivating.
“I’ve never seen so much greatness before,” he said. “Our season has been going on for just some months, and I’ve just witnessed so much greatness [in the NBA], and I want to be a part of it.”
According to the Knicks, Wemby is already getting the star calls. He took 12 foul shots — double that of Brunson — and fouled out Isaiah Hartenstein in 29 minutes.
“The way they were officiating, I have to notice that. They were giving Wemby a lot of small calls, so that’s not on the refs, that’s on me adjusting,” Hartenstein said. “Since the All-Star break, they’ve been letting us play more, and this game it was more — he was getting small calls. … I have to adjust to that and be better.”
The fouls aside, Wemby dominated in a way the Knicks couldn’t have faced in their long existence. /im
He worked an array of super rim protection, rebounding, dunks, assists, dribbling displays and jumpers with an 8-foot wingspan.
His first half included 14 points, six assists and eight rebounds in just 15 minutes.
Still, there was a brief panic over Wembanyama in the first quarter.
The Frenchman appeared to hurt his leg and limped to the locker room, with trainers and Spurs top executive RC Buford close behind.
He returned to the bench a few minutes later, then checked back in the game.
“I was just hitting the knee pretty hard, but I was hit on the bones so it just hurts but nothing bad,” Wembanyama said.
The Rookie of the Year front-runner, who reached the 65-game threshold for awards with Friday night’s appearance, helped lay waste to Thibodeau’s defense, which allowed 74 points in the first half and trailed by 17 at the break.
But the Knicks and Brunson took over in the third quarter, and took their first lead of the game — 114-113 — on Donte DiVincenzo’s 3-pointer with 4:39 remaining.
It was DiVincenzo’s sixth 3-pointer on a night the shooting guard set the franchise record for treys in a season.
He finished with 20 points in 49 minutes.
The Knicks (44-29), who had a chance to move within a game of No. 2 Milwaukee if they won, snapped a three-game winning streak despite Brunson’s brilliance.
It’ll be a long time until Brunson looks back at the performance with fondness.
“When I retire,” he said.
