Mike Brown applauding Knicks for using cooler heads with officials

Mike Brown has criticized the Knicks repeatedly of late for constant arguments with officials. 

After Sunday’s 123-114 win over the Trail Blazers, though, he had a different sentiment. 

“I thought our guys handled the officiating fantastic,” the head coach said. “And I keep telling our guys that we control whether we’re going to win or lose and not the officials. And sometimes, things will go our way; sometimes, it will go our opponents’ way. And if we continue to lock into what our job is, we’ll be able to nine times out of 10 control that outcome with a win. When you start barking at officials, which we could’ve because it was six to 16 in fouls at one point, but if you start barking at the officials — first of all it takes energy away from what you’re trying to do and focus, too. So I applaud all of our guys. 

“And I’ve been talking to our veterans — Jalen [Brunson], Josh [Hart], Big [Karl-Anthony Towns]: ‘Hey, it starts with you guys. You guys have to leave the officials alone so everybody else falls in line,’ and I thought that our guys were fantastic tonight with it.” 

New York Knicks guard Josh Hart (3) talks with referee Leon Wood (40) during the second half at Moda Center. Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images

Brown praised the fourth quarter defense, which had been a problem in recent weeks, after Sunday’s game. 

“It shifts the momentum a lot because you feel good when you get a stop,” Brown said. “There’s a level of confidence that just grows inside of each individual when you get key stops. And now when you get stops and get out and run, especially when you get a good look in transition, that can kind of deflate you, whoever we’re playing against. So for us to do that was huge. We got some big stops in that fourth quarter, and we got out and we ran. We took the right shots.” 

The Knicks turned the ball over just 12 times Sunday, fewer than in all but eight other games this season. 

“We talked about it at halftime,” Brown said. “We got to stop these guys from getting out in transition. They had gotten out in transition in the first half with 20 first-half fast break points. A lot of that was because of our turnovers. We did a better job in the second half of taking care of the ball, so they weren’t able to get out there. They had seven fast break points in the second half compared to 20 in the first half.”