The current winner of the player of the week, Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks, lost against the Toronto Raptors in an overtime thriller last night. This would be their second loss in their last five games.
The game produced a tie of 110 points after regulation time, which led the game into overtime. Both teams fought neck to neck but the Knicks bites the dust at the end of OT. However, alongside a nail-biting competition, the game also delivered some controversy.
What actually happened in the Knicks-Raptors game?
In the dying moments of the fourth quarter, Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson was penalized for a foul on opponent point guard Fred VanVleet. The referee was instantly challenged by the Knicks coach but didn’t move from his decision.
But after the game, two-time NCAA champion Jalen claimed he was pummeled into the opponent. He directly blamed last year’s rookie of the year, 21-year-old Scottie Barnes.
“I think it was Scottie that bumped me into him. They felt otherwise, and that was that,” Brunson pointed finger at Scottie. Surely his coach, Tom Thibodeau, also felt similarly.
“Hard to tell what a foul was.” Tom Thibodeau critical of officiating https://t.co/IVbREXgHGS #knicks
— Zach Braziller (@NYPost_Brazille) January 17, 2023
“I don’t really care if a game’s called tight or if it’s called loose. I just want consistency,” Thibodeau said. “That’s what I look for. And so, it was physical. It was. There was a lot going on. And so again, I wanna watch to make sure I saw what I thought I saw.”
Brunson scored 26 points with seven rebounds and two assists in his 43 minutes of play. Despite his dominant performance, the Knicks fell short by two points in the end.
His counterparts, Barnes and VanVleet, played an influential role in the win; they scored 59 points between them with 12 rebounds and 12 assists combined.
The Raptors are the Eastern Conference’s 11th seed.
