Knicks coach Mike Brown is frustrated with the officiating involving OG Anunoby

While the Knicks coach Mike Brown He acknowledged that his team didn’t play their best in Friday night’s 116-107 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, in which they turned the ball over 18 times, but he wasn’t exactly happy with the officiating, either.

Raise some questions regarding non-calls involving OG Anunoby when driving to the rim, Brown made it clear that he thinks the 6-foot-7, 240-pounder is officiated differently than other smaller players in the league.

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“It’s one of those, it’s a strange game and the refs had a hard job, but I don’t know if I’ll ever understand what’s a foul and what’s not because the guys, especially the fast ones, will put their heads down and they’re going to drive the ball from point A to point B,” Brown said. “And if you lead with your chest and they’re able to flop or fall pretty good, that’s a foul.

“OG is a big, strong guy. When he drives, he doesn’t. He’s trying to attack the rim and gets hijacked on his drive, but he can’t seem to get a call.”

Anunoby scored just two points in 32 minutes on a tough night of 1-for-9 shooting, far below his season average of 15.4 points per game while shooting 46.5%. He finished with a plus/minus of -11.

But after Anunoby’s arrest, his coach had his back and felt he should have benefited from a lot more foul calls.

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“I thought his aggressiveness was there, he just couldn’t get to the free throw line,” Brown said. “I thought he had a couple good looks from the three-point line and it kind of got away from him, but I’m not sure what he can do right now to get a call on his drives.

“Not necessarily always on the edge, but I talk on the ride because he gets hit just like everyone else, but he’s a little bigger than some of the other guards that get the calls.”

Of course, the lack of calls wasn’t the only reason Anunoby struggled as, normally a 40% three-point shooter, he went 0-for-4 from three-point range this season. The Knicks as a team shot just 25% from downtown Mikal Bridges (3 of 7) the only player to score more than one from deep.

When shots aren’t falling, it makes sense to try to score in other ways, which is what Anunoby did by driving to the basket and looking for contact to get to the line where he is a career 76.1% shooter. But if the refs don’t call fouls on those drives, there’s not much that can be done.

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“I thought OG had a couple of nice touches from the three-point line and I thought he was aggressive on his drives and didn’t get any calls,” Brown said.

For what it’s worth, the Sixers were called 24 personal fouls to the Knicks’ 21. However, the only players to shoot free throws for New York were Jalen Brunson, City of Karl-Anthony AND Mitchel Robinson.