Thunder 113, Knicks 112: “Infuriating loss.“

Two games, five points, two losses. That’s the summary of the Knicks’ weekend for you.

On Friday, New York visited San Antonio and rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama and fell 130-126 in overtime.

On Sunday, the Knicks hosted the Thunder and lost by one meager point, 113-112.

Two games, five points, two losses. Against one of the worst and one of the best teams the League has to offer.

Now, watch this play.

Knicks one point ahead, 112-111, with barely four seconds on the clock. The Thunder called time, advanced the ball to midcourt, Shai got it, shot it, put it through the rim; 113-112, advantage OKC.

Rewind. Now, watch this slow-mo.

I’m not one to complain about refs, but as Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau has repeated an endless amount of times, at least give us some consistency, folks.

Or as he put it simply following Sunday’s loss, “Write what you see.” I don’t think I need to write about this thing. Watching it is more than enough, isn’t it?

Stefan Bondy of the New York Post wrote an interesting column before yesterday’s contest touching on the lack of scoring the Knicks boast outside of the hyperpowered Jalen Brunson.

Without knowing what was about to happen, Bondy discussed Brunson’s free-throw shooting numbers and the number of times opponents get called for fouls (or not, more accurately) committed on the tiny point guard.

“[Brunson] has emerged as a star with a high usage rate but takes only 6.1 free throws per game,” he wrote. “His number of attempts is basically in line with ball-dominant guards his size but the big discrepancy is in the ratio of drives to fouls.”

He listed some interesting information next.

“Brunson is second in the NBA in drives per game, behind only Sunday’s opponent, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander,” Bondy started. “However, Brunson was 15th in free-throw attempts on average. Gilgeous-Alexander, for instance, averages 2.6 more free throws per game than Brunson.”

That’s what Knicks fans and Brunson-backers will quote.

What they won’t is the next sentence wrote by Bondy, which is also valid and perhaps more important in the grand scheme of things and how things are called (or not) in the League (emphasis mine).

“The other part with Brunson, as scouts and evaluators have explained, is that he’s difficult to officiate as a foul hunter who often initiates the contact,” Bondy wrote.

That’s all you need to know to understand how things go. Right or wrong, as long as scouts, evaluators, and—by extension—the officiating body of the NBA set the bar at a certain level and put those perceptions in place, there is nothing Brunson can do to punch more tickets to the charity stripe. As simple as that.

What sucks is that this team, without three starters and deploying DaQuan Jeffries on the play in which Shai dropped the game-winning bucket, was this close to beating the No. 1 seed in the West.

What sucks is losing to a 13-win team in San Antonio, in a game that went to extra innings, and against a team that necessitated a historic, 40-20 performance by an alien rookie to pull that off.

“We’re a basket away from winning the ball game, and so Alexander’s shot goes out, we’re sitting here talking about a whole different narrative,” Thibodeau said after the game. “And so, it didn’t, we’ve gotta regroup, go down to Miami and we’ve gotta get ready for that. And that’s the mindset I want us to have.”

As Ethan.K said:

“Infuriating loss. Bullshit missed calls in the fourth quarter after they swallowed the whistle in the first half… bad refereeing.”

“But, it’s hard to blame the refs when we missed way too many free throws, our three point shooting stunk, and after every turnover in the fourth we were sprinting up court like deranged idiots.”

Don’t focus on the negatives just because a rock or two went through the rim or didn’t. The seeding in the Eastern Conference is wild. Nobody is clearly above any other team this season between those ranked from No. 2 to No. 6—perhaps even No. 8.

Up next, the Heat in South Beach. The last time both teams met in late January, this happened.

Now, Josh Hart is telling us Julius Randle—and OG Anunoby, to put the cherry on top of a turd cake—might not return at all this season.

“I’m looking at it like this is the team we’re going to have,” Hart said. “I think that’s how we have to approach it, that those guys aren’t coming back—and obviously we’ll be pleasantly surprised if they come back.

“I’m not in those medical conversations or anything like that, so I don’t know s—t from s—t. But we’ve got to approach every game and the end of this season that those guys aren’t coming back, and if they do, be pleasantly surprised.”

Sweet Baby Jesus.