NBA Finals Refs Already Under Fire For Calls In Game 4

It's early, but the NBA Finals referees are already under fire for their calls in Game 4 tonight.

The New York Knicks are hosting the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4. The Knicks are leading the Spurs, 2-1, heading into Game 4. New York fell in Game 3 but hoped to bounce back in Game 4. Mike Brown's team isn't off to the best of starts, though.

Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns has already been hit with two big foul calls. The second one was extremely controversial. Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama was initially called for a foul, though the referees ultimately reversed the call upon a review. Towns was then hit with a foul call - his second of the game.

NBA fans are not happy.

NBA fans accuse refs of 'blowing' the game

"Wemby is reaching in with his arm on KAT's body. What is KAT supposed to do?" one fan wrote.

"Refs blowing it already," one fan added.

"I don't get it man. Wemby could easily pull his arm away. KAT is just driving to the rim. Just completely ruins a game before it can even get going," one fan added.

"Victor Wembanyama got caught reaching and restricting Karl-Anthony Towns on the drive. That arm was in jail. It's called a defensive foul 99% of the time. But not tonight, and not on Wemby. Because of course not. 🤨," one fan added.

"KAT's arm isn't on his body. Wemby leaves his arm in there anyway and gets the offensive foul. I feel crazy right now," one fan added.

Knicks coach Mike Brown previously called out the refs

Brown previously called out the refs after Game 3.

"[The Spurs] came and took the game. But I will say this: I never thought I would be in the NBA Finals and see a team get 24 free throw attempts in the second half to another team's eight," Brown said after Game 3. "I don't think I complain much about officials or the fairness when it comes to the free throw attempts….Maybe we were fouling. But they fouled, too. 

"KAT gets the ball off of a loose-ball rebound and he shoots it, and he gets whacked across the arm and they hit the ball and it goes out of bounds on the baseline. There's no foul. There were opportunities for fouls to be called, to at least try to even the free throws out," he continued.  

"Now, we didn't play good. San Antonio played great. We could have played better. There was a lot of things that we didn't do that we did in Game 1 and Game 2. But to go 24 free throw attempts in the second half, that's 48 for the game if you think about the way they called that second half, compared to eight. All the shots we took, we got fouled four times, roughly, for eight free throw attempts. Again, I don't complain much. I never thought I'd see that in an NBA Finals game, and I saw it tonight. That's tough to overcome when you're playing against a great team."

It's early, but the officiating appears to be going against the Knicks once again.

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This story was originally published June 10, 2026 at 6:01 PM.