Coach Darko Rajakovic went on a tirade as he felt officials did not give his team a chance
\nToronto
\nToronto 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\u2019s free throw disparity after Lakers\u2019 Anthony Davis scored 20 of his 41 points in the fourth quarter and went 11 for 11 at the line in the final period.
\nDavis shot 14 of the Lakers\u2019 36 free throws in the game, while the entire Toronto roster shot only 13.
\nDuring his table-pounding tirade, Toronto\u2019s first-year Serbian head coach said that the number of free throws allowed to the Lakers was \u201coutrageous\u201d and a \u201cshame for the league\u201d.
\nHe said: \u201c23 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.\u201d
\nDavis 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\u2019t give his team a chance.
\n\u201cThey came to win tonight? If that\u2019s the case, just let us know, so we don\u2019t show up for the game,\u201d Rajakovic said. \u201cJust give them a win. But that was not fair tonight.\u201d
\nRajakovic\u2019s rant likely will earn him a significant fine from the National Basketball Association (NBA), but his players appeared to appreciate his verbal combativeness.
\nToronto\u2019s starting centre Thaddeus Young, who scored 10 points, said that the Raptors are \u201calways going to be behind one another as a family, as a team\u201d.
\nHe said: \u201cWe\u2019re always going to stick together, and he\u2019s always been behind us since Day One coming in here.
\nWe love Darko to death. We think the world of Coach, and we definitely appreciate him going to bat for us.\u201d
\nMeanwhile, Davis, who had none of his frequent late-game struggles to hit key free throws, said: \u201cIt was all of us. It wasn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Coach Darko Rajakovic went on a tirade as he felt officials did not give his team a chance Toronto 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\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-380087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n