We have seen this all before. Your team loses the first two playoff games on the road in New York. The games are physical. The refs are letting a lot go and you believe that your team is getting hosed. What’s a coach to do?

That’s an easy one. You pull out the Phil Jackson playbook from his days at the Chicago Bulls. “Outrageous officiating!” “We are getting man-handled!” “So many missed calls!” Blah, blah, blah. And of course, this being the NBA, what happens in game 3? The road team, up 2 – 0 in the series, has most of its starters in foul trouble in the first 5 minutes of the game. It is the classic over-reaction by the refs. And it happens time and time again.

Nick Nurse is in over-drive this morning. Filing a grievance with the NBA on the officiating in the first 2 games vs the Knicks. Please. You are getting clobbered on the offensive glass – start there. In SU’s view, Brunson is getting abused on every possession, and Kyle Lowry gets away with murder. The Sixers’ strategy is to foul on every possession and dare the refs to call it. The strategy says they won’t call it on every possession and you can establish a more physical style of play for the entire game.

At the end of last night’s game, Maxey fell down and Brunson did grab his jersey from behind but unclear to SU that caused him to fall down. In real time, it sure looked like a foul but in slow motion, much less so.

I saw LeBron walked out of his media session unhappy with the refs from his game last night. He is also a master at getting his team better calls in the next game. We know reffing in the NBA is very challenging. The players are so good, athletic and fast. It’s not an easy job. But the Knicks will be up against it in game 3. SU believes the over-reaction usually only lasts one game, and game 4 will be officiated better. But no way in this next game.

The Aaron Boone ejection yesterday was a classic if you get to check that out. The YES broadcast picked up the audio. SU says MLB should allow all managers and umpires to be miked up – it definitely spices up the action and the back and forth is fun to hear. OK, so there is some profanity but hey, it’s all about entertainment here. Boone obviously should not have been ejected as he didn’t say anything but in baseball, you can still call the shots in the runway under the dugout. Not a big deal especially with the Yankees’ bench and the fact that they rarely play the non-starters.