76ers take complaints over Game 2 officiating to the next level

The song Streets of Philadelphia by Bruce Springsteen begins with the line, "I was bruised and battered, I couldn't tell what I felt." It's a fitting lyric for the Philadelphia 76ers, who added to their list of heartbreaking playoff losses last night in especially painful fashion by blowing a five-point, last-minute lead to the New York Knicks in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.

The stars aligned for the Knicks in completing their improbable comeback. First, the Sixers missed a free throw that would have pushed the lead to six, then Donte DiVincenzo came up with a loose ball and found Jalen Brunson, who got a shooter's roll on a 3-pointer to cut it to two.

Josh Hart then stole the inbound pass from Tyrese Maxey and got it to DiVincenzo, who missed the go-ahead three but got another shot at it after Isaiah Hartenstein came flying in for an offensive rebound. This time he buried it to earn the incredibly rare double0bang from announcer Mike Breen, and then Hartenstein blocked Maxey's go-ahead layup attempt on the other end. After OG Anunoby knocked down two free throws, Joel Embiid's last-second 3 to tie clanged harmlessly away.

The Sixers are angry about the officiating, not only in the final minute of Game 2, but in the entire series so far, and a team spokesperson went so far as to say that the team plans to file a grievance with the NBA.

The Sixers don't have a leg to stand on in their grievance against the officiating

Let's begin by looking at that final minute, which is where most of Philly's ire with the refs comes from. The two main complaints coming from the Sixers are that a) Tyrese Maxey was fouled on the inbound play, and b) Nick Nurse called a timeout once Maxey recovered the ball, and the refs ignored him.

In regards to the Maxey foul that wasn't called, yes his jersey was grabbed by Jalen Brunson, but only after Maxey pushed off on Josh Hart to get free in the first place. You can't howl about the Brunson no-call and conveniently ignore your own foul a second before that.

As for the timeout, there are two issues. First, Maxey traveled when he went to the ground with the ball. It wasn't called. Then when Nurse finally did call timeout, Maxey didn't have full control of the ball. Even if you can freeze frame the video to the exact millisecond and say that Maxey did possess it while Nurse was signaling for a timeout, the length of time that those two things coincided is about a thousandth of a second, at best. No referee is ever going to be able to make that call. If Maxey just held the ball rather than panicking and trying to roll over with it, he wouldn't have lost possession, as no Knick was attempting to steal it from him.

There's also the missed free throw, the inability to come up with the first loose ball and the lack of a box-out on Hartenstein to consider. Even after this series of events, Maxey still could have won the game, but Hartenstein made a clean block on his driving layup attempt. The Sixers had every opportunity to win, and they couldn't do it.

If you want to look at the larger picture, the Knicks shot 28 free throws compared to 22 for the Sixers in Game 1. Game 2 was almost dead even, with the Knicks holding a 23-22 free throw advantage. A 51 to 44 edge is hardly a disparity worth arguing about, especially when both games took place on the Knicks' home court.

Joel Embiid led the NBA with 11.6 free throw attempts per game this year, or at least he would have if he played enough games to qualify. Each of the last four years, he's finished either first or second in the league in free throw attempts per game, so maybe the Sixers have become so used to getting whistles that when the officiating is even or slightly against them, they lose their minds.

The Knicks are up 2-0 in this series because they've been tougher than the Sixers, not because of the officiating. Complaining about calls only reinforces that toughness disparity, and it doesn't bode well for Philly's chances to turn this series around when they get back to the Wells Fargo Center for Games 3 and 4.

Streets of Philadelphia's final verse contains the line, "The night has fallen, I'm lyin' awake, I can feel myself fading away." If the Sixers want to avoid a similar fate and extend their season, they need to let the past go and focus on what's to come. Anything less will guarantee a first-round exit.