Knicks protest controversial loss to Rockets

The Knicks are filing a protest with the league, disputing their controversial 105-103 loss to the Rockets on Monday, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports.

Both the NBA’s L2M (last two minutes) report and crew chief Ed Malloy acknowledged that the foul call on Jalen Brunson in the final second, leading to Aaron Holiday’s two winning free throws, was erroneous. Had the call not been made, the game would have gone to overtime.

Teams have 48 hours to file a protest with the league office and five days to provide evidence of the protested action. The league office has five more days to make a decision.

Only six protests in league history have been upheld. It’s unlikely the Knicks will get their wish, since a successful protest requires the team to prove that a rule was misapplied, not just that a judgment call was wrong.

An example of that is the last protest that was upheld. Miami protested a Dec. 19, 2007 loss to Atlanta, ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes. Shaquille O’Neal was removed from the game when he supposedly fouled out with 51.9 seconds left overtime. Upon review, he only had five fouls, not six and those last 51.9 seconds were replayed.

New York and Houston are not scheduled to play again, so there could be complications with rescheduling the OT session if the Knicks win the protest.