Sixers appeared to be on unlucky side of crunch-time officiating — again — in Saturday’s loss to New York Knicks

Nick Nurse assumed Tyrese Maxey felt contact from the New York Knicks’ Landry Shamet and tried to draw a whistle in the shooting motion.

But Maxey would not bite when asked if he believed he was intentionally fouled, when he hoisted an off-balance three-pointer with the 76ers trailing by three points and 5.8 seconds remaining.

“Nope,” the Sixers’ All-Star guard said. “I should have just taken one more dribble and shot it regular.”

For the second game in a row, it appeared the Sixers were on the unlucky side of crunch-time officiating. That Maxey moment — plus three others — helped create a finish that was both frenetic and interrupted by multiple stoppages in play for review.

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But though the Sixers overcame a missed goaltending call in Thursday’s overtime victory over the Houston Rockets, Saturday’s calls (or no-calls) remained under the microscope in the aftermath of the Sixers’ wild 112-109 loss to the rival Knicks in a nationally televised game at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

“I think he was [fouled],” Nurse said when asked about the Maxey play. “No big deal. … Usually when [the opponent is] up three and you need three, teams are going to foul. But they didn’t [call it].”

Joel Embiid, meanwhile, was not afraid to speak his mind from his locker following the game. He believed he also had been intentionally fouled upon collecting the rebound after Knicks All-Star Jalen Brunson missed two free throws with 5 seconds to play, keeping the Sixers’ deficit at three points. Embiid threw his arms up in disbelief when Brunson knocked the ball free, and New York’s OG Anunoby collected it as the final six-tenths of a second ticked off.

“I got fouled, for sure,” Embiid said. “Thought Tyrese got fouled, too. Two games in a row, but it’s whatever.”

When asked about both potential intentional fouls, crew chief Tony Brothers told pool reporter Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia that, “During the game, we did not observe any illegal contact on the play.”

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Those were not the only instances when the officiating became a storyline. With the Sixers trailing, 110-107, and 33.3 seconds remaining, Brunson was initially called for an off-ball foul for making contact with Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe ahead of an inbounds pass. Edgecombe flexed and screamed in celebration, but a coach’s challenge by the Knicks’ Mike Brown overturned the call to a foul on the Sixers’ rookie — a result Brunson acknowledged was “very satisfying.”

“They [said] you can’t play defense with your hands on nobody,” Edgecombe said of the explanation he received following the video review. “I guess I got to play defense with my ‘eagles’ out and stand like this [with arms spread] the whole time. … I can’t touch nobody.”

Then, with 9.9 seconds to play, Sixers veteran forward Paul George was called for a foul at the rim that was also overturned by a coach’s challenge by Nurse. Had the no-call on George been correct within the flow of the game, however, the Sixers could have immediately initiated their offense against a Knicks’ defense that was not set. There was also apparent contact from Embiid on Shamet away from the play, though Brothers said officials “did not observe any proximate foul during replay review.”

Those officiating moments arrived after a chaotic basketball sequence, when the Sixers scored five points in less than five seconds to make it a one-possession game. Maxey hit a pull-up three-pointer with 37 seconds remaining, before Edgecombe got tied up with Brunson to force a jump ball. Brunson then fouled Edgecombe, who hit both free throws to make the score 110-107 ahead of those players’ collision before the ensuing inbound pass.

And those whistles — or, non-whistles — came less than two days after a different officiating crew missed a goaltending call on a Maxey layup attempt off the backboard against Houston, which would have given the Sixers in the final seconds of regulation.

After the game, crew chief John Goble said, “By rule, a goaltending would have to be called on the floor in order for that play to be reviewed. In real time, the officiating crew felt it was a good blocked shot.”

“It happens, man,” Maxey said after that game. “We’re all human.”

It surely was much easier for Maxey to be forgiving when the Sixers still pulled off the overtime victory. Yet after Saturday’s defeat, Maxey’s team could not solely blame the officiating.

They stumbled through another third quarter, when a stagnant offense allowed the Knicks to build a 17-point lead. And down the stretch, the Sixers allowed Shamet and Anunoby to get free for clutch three-pointers to quell their rally attempt.

Still, the NBA’s Last Two Minute report from Thursday’s game revealed that the officials were incorrect in not calling goaltending on that Maxey driving attempt against the Rockets.

Saturday’s report might be even more of a doozy.

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