New York Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns had no interest in filling out a Last Two-Minute Report.
The metropolitan stars were perhaps already exhausted after guiding their Knicks to a vital 94-93 victory over the Detroit Pistons in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. It was a victory that will likely carry some controversy, referee David Guthrie ruled that "a foul should've been called" against Josh Hart when he made a defensive play on would-be Motor City hero Tim Hardaway Jr., who fired a futile three just before time expired in the one-point game.
True to their respective forms, Brunson and Hart deflected any controversy with humor, eager to simply get back home in the aftermath.
"I don't really know what to say to that," Brunson replied with a hint of a smirk when asked to address Guthrie's pool report from Coty Davis of the Detroit News (h/t New York Basketball on X). "Simple as that."
"What you want me to say? Going back to Madison Square Garden happy we got a win," a humored Towns replied to the same query. "You like that answer? Is that good?"
Towns and Brunson were good and then some on Sunday afternoon, as the duo united to score all but 10 of the Knicks' 44 points in the second half. New York now owns a 3-1 series lead in the best-of-seven set and will have a chance to clinch their third consecutive visit to the Eastern semifinals on Tuesday night at home (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG/TNT).
As a result, one could hardly blame Brunson and Towns for shirking on the officiating extra-cirriculars: Brunson put in 15 points in the last period after dealing with an apparent lower body injury while Towns sank what proved to be the game-winning triple in the final minute of play, one sure to silence any consternation about the polarizing trade that acquired his services from the Minnesota Timberwolves last fall.
In contrast, the Pistons were anything but quiet in the aftermath of dropping both scheduled games of the Detroit portions of this series. Pistons head coach Bickerstaff made sure officials heard his side of the Hart/Hardaway incident as they left the floor and he continued his rant in his postgame statements.
"You go back and look at the film, [Hart] leaves his feet," Bickerstaff said, per Alejandro Avila of OutKick. "There’s contact on Tim Hardaway, his jump shot. I don’t know any other way around it. There’s contact on his jump shot. The guy leaves his feet, he’s at Timmy’s mercy, and I repeat, there’s contact on his jump shot."
More must-reads: