Tom Thibodeau is annoyed by the Knicks' controversial decision: “Big Play”

HOUSTON – Tom Thibodeau felt his team was let down again by a call in Houston.

This time, however, the piece was less consequential.

After his team struggled in Monday's 109-97 loss to the Rockets, the Knicks coach brought up a foul on Josh Hart several times with 2:45 left and a three-point deficit .

Hart was whistled for running into Rockets center Alperen Sengun for an offensive rebound.

“I thought the big play was Josh’s foul. It looked like a clean bargain to me. Sometimes things go according to your wishes; Sometimes that's not the case,” Thibodeau said, adding in his next response: “I thought Josh beat him to the ball. It just didn’t go our way, I guess.”

The problem with this call is that Thibodeau had a challenge that he didn't take advantage of, and the Rockets committed a shot clock violation after the foul, meaning there were actually only 14 seconds on the clock.

Last season, the Knicks filed a formal protest after losing in Houston because of a last-second phantom call by Jalen Brunson to make game-winning free throws for the Rockets.

Overall, the Knicks made a lot of contact on Monday – particularly with Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns – but didn't feel like they received the appropriate calls.

They still won the free throw battle 21:18.

“I mean, at the end of the day, referees are going to make mistakes,” Hart said. “We disagreed with many of their calls. There were some that they missed, we let that dictate our energy levels. We have to give them credit, the coach (Houston's Ime Udoka), he's obviously been in winning situations. He always has a strong, physical team that plays well. That’s what they did.”

The Knicks' bench was depleted with two of their regular backup players – Precious Achiuwa and Cam Payne – in street clothes with hamstring strains.

Payne was a new DNP and was replaced in the rotation by rookie Tyler Kolek, who scored three points in six minutes with no garbage time in his first appearance of his professional career.

Thibodeau's career suggests he has no desire to play as a freshman, but given the injuries, he had no choice and was impressed by Kolek in practice.

“I really like (Kolek),” the coach said. “I think he’s learning like most young guys coming into the league. He is a gymnastics freak. Works extremely hard. Invest a lot of time in film study. Additional work. Practice. He has really good veterans around him. This helps advance the way you learn. And then a lot of it is the trial and error of going out and doing it. So I think he puts everything he has into it. So we’ll see.”

Thibodeau did not play Kolek in the second half and was with Brunson at point guard for the entire 24 minutes.