The NBA announced Thursday it has fined Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković $25,000 for publicly criticizing the officials following the Raptor’s 132-131 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday.
Quotes in which Rajaković expressed his anger over the disparity in the calls in the fourth quarter read (as transcribed by ESPN): “It’s outrageous. What happened tonight, this is completely B.S. This is shame. Shame for the referees. Shame for the league to allow this. Twenty-three free throws for them, and we get two free throws in the fourth quarter? Like, how to play the game? I understand respect for All-Stars and all that, but we have star players on our team as well …How [is it] possible that Scottie Barnes, who is All-Star-caliber player in this league, he goes every single time to the rim with force and trying to get to the rim without flopping and not trying to get foul calls, he gets two free throws for a whole game? How is that possible? How are you going to explain that to me? …. They had to win tonight? If that’s the case, just let us know, so we don’t show up for the game. Just give them a win. But that was not fair tonight. And this is not happening first time for us. Scottie Barnes is going to be [an] All-Star. He’s going to be the face of this league, and what’s happening over here during whole season … it’s complete crap.”
Los Angeles shot 23 free throws in the fourth quarter alone and ended up with a 36-13 advantage for the game. Anthony Davis alone shot 11 free throws in the fourth and 14 for the game, which was more than the entire Toronto team. The Raptors are currently in 12th place in the Eastern Conference at 15-23 and 1.5 games behind the Brooklyn Nets for the 10th seed and final spot in the play-in tournament. This is Rajaković’s first season at the helm.
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