The Philadelphia 76ers will file an appeal against the refereeing decisions in the first two games of the series with the New York Knicks

The Philadelphia 76ers will file a complaint with the National Basketball Association regarding the refereeing decisions in the first two games with the New York Knicks of the Eastern Conference playoffs, ESPN reported.

The Knicks took a 2-0 lead after home wins of 111:104 and 104:101, and at the end of both games there were controversial refereeing decisions, or rather the lack of them. A particular upset in the staff of visitors from Philadelphia caused the end of the second game of the night, when an apparent foul on Tyrese Maxey was not called, which allowed the hosts to steal the ball under the basket of their opponent and take a 102-101 lead after a three-pointer by Donte DiVincenzo.

27 seconds before the end, New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson scored a three-pointer, which reduced his team’s deficit to 99:101. Kyle Lowry’s attempt to restart the game saw Maxey pressured by Brunson and Josh Hart, with Brunson holding his opponent’s jersey from behind. At that point, Philadelphia head coach Nick Nurse was denied a timeout by the referees. The ball found its way to Maxi, who, however, fell to the ground due to the contact with the home player. At that point, the refs ignored Nurse’s second attempt to call a timeout, meanwhile Josh Hart stripped the ball and passed it to an uncovered DiVincenzo. He missed a 3-pointer, but Isaiah Hartenstein scramble followed, who again connected with DiVincenzo, who this time was accurate to put the Knicks ahead with less than 13 seconds left. By the end of the meeting, Philadelphia was unable to reach new points and will need to win four of the remaining five games if they want to advance in the playoffs.

Last season, the National Basketball Association acknowledged that key officiating errors were made against Philadelphia in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals series with the Boston Celtics, which led to a 95-86 victory for the Celtics after a 14-1 run in the the last quarter. Subsequently, Boston won the seventh game and eliminated its opponent with a 4:3 success.