The Toronto Raptors fell to a narrow 131-132 loss to the Lakers tonight in a very controversial game. The game came down to various referee calls at the end of the fourth quarter, as the Lakers got a foul overturned, a moving screen to overturn a three-pointer, and 21 extra free throws in the fourth quarter.
Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic had an explosive rant about officiating after the loss.
“How is it possible that Scottie Barnes, who is an All-Star caliber player in this league, he goes every single time to the rim with force without flopping, he gets two free throws for the whole game. How is that possible? How will you 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. That was not fair tonight. It’s not happening for the first time with us. Scottie Barnes is an All-Star and will be the face of the league, what’s happening right now this season, it’s complete crap.”
Darko is a real one. pic.twitter.com/qPUykwR2pO
— Kayla Grey (@Kayla_Grey) January 10, 2024
“No. There’s no explanation. They come out there, review it, and see what they want to see. They don’t want to hear us, the players. They just don’t want to protect us. Over the game, they got 36 free throws. In the fourth quarter, they got 23 free throws. What are we talking about? How are we supposed to play?”
Fans all over social media share Darko’s frustrations, as most of all the late-game calls seemed to favor LA. Given the Lakers have had frustrating referee games last season, they should be able to relate to the frustrations everyone else is feeling right now. The Raptors had made a bunch of intentional fouls which inflated the Lakers free throw count, but the issues ran deeper on the night.
The Raptors Have Complained About One Of The Officials Before
One of the officials for this game was Ben Taylor, one of the NBA’s veteran referees. However, Taylor found himself in hot water last season when Fred VanVleet called him ‘f***ing terrible’ after lopsided officiating in a Raptors loss against the Clippers.
“I’ll take a fine. I don’t really care. I thought Ben Taylor was f**king terrible today. On most nights, out of the 3, there’s 1 or 2 that just f**k the game up. it’s been like that a couple of games in a row.”
VanVleet was fined by the NBA, as he had predicted, while Taylor didn’t suffer any public consequences for his action. There was a stretch of games over last season where Taylor was demoted from major games. The Raptors have a decent record with Taylor as the official, going 26-16 in those games.
Referee inconsistency is a massive talking point in the NBA right now. Along with the Taylor incident from last season, former official Eric Lewis was publicly outed as a Celtics superfan which led to an investigation into his actions during Celtics vs. Lakers last season, leading to his sudden retirement.
Hopefully, the L2M report provides some answers as to why the refereeing decision went the way we saw it today.
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