NBA denies Knicks’ protest of loss

NEW YORK — The Knicks’ protest of a last-second loss to the Houston Rockets was rejected Wednesday, the NBA announced, despite that game’s lead official admitting a decisive foul call against Jalen Brunson was incorrect.

To overturn the Feb. 12 defeat, the Knicks needed to prove a “misapplication of the official playing rules” rather than a judgment error by the referees.

“Because the foul call at issue reflected an error in judgment,

New York did not demonstrate a misapplication of the playing rules, and the extraordinary remedy of upholding a game protest was not warranted,” the NBA said.

The Knicks filed a protest after a leaping Brunson was called for a foul as the Rockets’ Aaron Holiday unleashed a deep, one-handed desperation heave late in regulation in a 103-103 game in Houston.

With 0.3 on the clock, Holiday made two free throws to clinch a 105-103 victory in a game that otherwise would have gone to overtime.

“In live action it was felt that the lower body contact was illegal contact,” crew chief Ed Malloy said in the subsequent postgame pool report. “After seeing it during postgame review, the offensive player was able to return to a normal playing position on the floor. The contact which occurred after the release of the ball therefore is incidental and marginal to the shot attempt and should not have been called.”

With Wednesday’s denial, the outcome remains a hard-luck loss for a banged-up Knicks team that’s dropped six of its last eight games, all of which came without the injured Julius Randle or OG Anunoby in the lineup.

The NBA has only upheld six protests, most recently in 2007.