It’s a clear foul, and the nearest official missed it. Karl-Anthony Towns pump-faked Philadelphia’s Dominic Barlow out of his sneakers at the 9:54 mark of the first quarter of their 130-119 loss to the 76ers on Saturday, and Barlow came crashing into the Knicks big man’s shoulder. By every boo k, there should have been a whistle. But there wasn’t — and when Towns lofted the ball into the air expecting one, the entire Madison Square Garden crowd collectively rose to their feet screaming for a foul. That is for fans. Not for the players. Far too often, the Knicks let their emotions and egos get the best of them, as infuriating as it may be, when it comes to missed foul calls. Knicks head coach Mike Brown wants it to stop. “The officials are human. They’re gonna make good calls. They’re gonna make bad calls. We can’t rely on the officials to win us the ball game. We have to go win it ourselves,” Brown said after the game. “The reality of it is even with us fouling late, they shot 23 free throws, we shot 32. We had 18 fouls called against us, and they had 23 called against them.” Players are human, too. So when Jalen Brunson gets whistled for a tick-tack foul on one end, Towns gets whacked with no call, and Barlow marches to the foul line on the very next possession, it’s only natural for them to seek an explanation. Tyrese Maxey, too, sought answers from the whistle when Brunson drove into his chest for an and-one floater at the 8:28 mark of the first quarter. “We have to do a better job of focusing on what our job is or what we can do to help the group get over the hump and win the ball game,” Brown continued. “Nobody has to do anything extraordinary. But we’ve gotta give a little bit more in a lot of areas to help us get over the top, but the officials are the officials, They’ve been fine. And now we’ve just gotta figure out a way to win and not focus on them at all.” WHY START MCBRIDE? Brown explained his decision to insert Miles McBride into his closing lineup against the 76ers on Saturday while moving Mitchell Robinson back to the bench. He was asked pointedly if the move was to help alleviate Mikal Bridges’ struggles defending Tyrese Maxey (36 points) at the point of attack. “We needed to score, so we needed to spread the floor and see if we could touch the paint and spray it and knock down a couple threes, so that’s one of the reasons I went small,” he said. “But I’ve said this before: Deuce is really good at the point of attack in terms of pick and roll defense when he’s on the ball, trying to get to a body and getting over the top of the ball. That’s why I threw him out there. A combination of those two things made me do that.” GETTING OUT OF A SLUMP No. 1 seed or No. 11 seed, Brown doesn’t care. He wants to win a basketball game to snap the Knicks’ three-game losing skid, and if it has to come in a dogfight against the East’s top-ranked Detroit Pistons on Monday, then so be it. “For us it really doesn’t matter,” said Brown. “It’s whoever’s in front of us. We need to figure out how to go play the right way on both ends of the floor and get a win. It’s as simple as that.” POST NBA CUP BLUES The Knicks have now gone 5-5 after taking an 18-7 record into the NBA Cup Final. Last season, the Milwaukee Bucks entered the NBA Cup Final with a 14-11 record, beat the Oklahoma City Thunder to win it, then found themselves at a 17-16 record by Jan. 4. The same goes for the Los Angeles Lakers, who were 14-9 entering the inaugural 2023 NBA Cup Final then immediately proceeded to lose 10 of their next 13 games. ...read more read less