The Thunder beat the Knicks 111-100 on Sunday. It was what some might consider a stereotypical Oklahoma City game as the Thunder shot 38 free throws with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander taking 16 of them. Meanwhile, the poor New Yorkers earned just one more free throw combined.
With the sheer free throw volume came the usual clips of the reigning MVP earning some of them unethically, like this one near the end of the third quarter where he kicked his legs out and fell down without being touched and earned a trip to the line to shoot three.
Completely natural shooting form by SGA here pic.twitter.com/KxbxSYMZMt
— BrickCenter (@BrickCenter_) March 30, 2026
Shockingly, that was not the play that made Mike Brown erupt to the point where he earned his second technical foul of the season. That actually happened a few minutes earlier when Jalen Brunson didn't get a call:
As noted on the broadcast, both of Brown's technical fouls this season have come in games against the Thunder. After the Knicks lost the first game by three points, Brown said that Gilgeous-Alexander "does a great job of convincing the referees—probably better than anybody in the league—that he’s getting hit." And that was after a game where SGA attempted just seven free throws.
Following another technical and another loss, Brown had even more to say, but he again chose his words carefully while complaining about the whistle.
Brown: "OKC fantastic getting officials to think foul…gamesmanship off charts…SGA best…I got T'd, they still shot 38 FTs…so can't waste energy on refs. [Instead] let's yell at each other: 'Box tf out' 'Take care of tf ball'…things you have to do on road to beat r good teams" pic.twitter.com/RrBB1KekFQ
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) March 30, 2026
"It was a hard fought ballgame," said Brown. "The thing that I was most disappointed in was the amount of energy that we expended on the officials. They shot 38 free throws. Were all of them legit? I don't know. I know some of them were because we reached. You can't reach versus this team. 'Cause the team does a fantastic job, starting with SGA, in getting the officials to think that a foul has occurred. Their gamesmanship is off the charts from top to bottom. Shai's the best at it in the league."
That's a masterclass in avoiding a fine right there. When Brown admits that some of the free throws the Thunder shot were "legit," he's also pointing out that some of them weren't. And rather than criticizing the bad calls, he's complimenting the Thunder for their gamesmanship. It's a beautiful tightrope walk.
Brown also admitted that the Knicks spent so much time and energy complaining about the officiating that they lost the turnover battle, which led to the Thunder having more points off turnovers, fast break points and second chance points.
"You can't waste your energy on the officials. And I thought we did that too much tonight and it still didn't change," said Brown with a chuckle. "We yelled at the officials, I got a tech and they still shot 38 free throws at the end of the day. So we have to figure out okay, you know what? We're not going to be able to control the officials. Let's control what we can control. And if they get an offensive rebound, let's yell at each other, box the F out. If we turn the ball over two or three times in a row, take care of the F-ing ball."
There was certainly plenty to be mad about and in this case it seems like this is one of those things where multiple things can be true. Shai rightfully earns many free throws, but he also gets some that he shouldn't. Sometimes teams get so caught up in the bad calls that they don't execute other, more important tasks, and for the Knicks that means they've lost two games this month to the Thunder by a total of 14 points.
They're a team that has averaged 116 points per game this season and in both loses they only reached 100 points. On top of that, they have the fifth best scoring defense in the league with opponents averaging 110.5 points this season and they held the Thunder at or below that mark.
Could the Knicks have played better on offense and complained about the officiating a little less? Yes, but as opponents continue to point out, don't let that distract you from the free throw disparity.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mike Brown Finding Creative New Ways to Complain About SGA’s Free Throw Shooting.
