Coach Darko Rajakovic went on a tirade as he felt officials did not give his team a chance
Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic criticised the officiating after the Los Angeles Lakers shot 23 free throws in the fourth quarter of a 132-131 win over the Raptors on Tuesday, CBS News reported.
Rajakovic criticised the game’s free throw disparity after Lakers’ Anthony Davis scored 20 of his 41 points in the fourth quarter and went 11 for 11 at the line in the final period.
Davis shot 14 of the Lakers’ 36 free throws in the game, while the entire Toronto roster shot only 13.
During his table-pounding tirade, Toronto’s first-year Serbian head coach said that the number of free throws allowed to the Lakers was “outrageous” and a “shame for the league”.
He said: “23 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.”
Davis scored 11 rebounds and went 13 for 17 against the Raptors, who were missing injured centre Jakob Poeltl. Davis scored 10 points in the final 1:01, including eight free throws and a key block on Barnes.
Rajakovic felt officials didn’t give his team a chance.
“They came to win tonight? If that’s the case, just let us know, so we don’t show up for the game,” Rajakovic said. “Just give them a win. But that was not fair tonight.”
Rajakovic’s rant likely will earn him a significant fine from the National Basketball Association (NBA), but his players appeared to appreciate his verbal combativeness.
Toronto’s starting centre Thaddeus Young, who scored 10 points, said that the Raptors are “always going to be behind one another as a family, as a team”.
He said: “We’re always going to stick together, and he’s always been behind us since Day One coming in here. We love Darko to death. We think the world of Coach, and we definitely appreciate him going to bat for us.”
Meanwhile, Davis, who had none of his frequent late-game struggles to hit key free throws, said: “It was all of us. It wasn’t just me. Big-time stops. We got rebounds, and they wanted me to get the ball as far as free throws, but the team was just making the right reads and trying to finish.”
