Toronto Raptors stars Dwane Casey, DeMar DeRozan, and Serge Ibaka were all ejected in the closing seconds of Sunday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, further igniting questions about officiating this season. The 132-125 loss snapped Toronto’s 11-game win streak.
3 Raptors ejected in closing seconds vs. Thunder, raising more questions about officiating
Dwane Casey, DeMar DeRozan, and Serge Ibaka were all booted late in the game.
It appeared lead official Marc Davis missed a pretty clear foul on DeRozan for a potentially game-tying bucket, and DeRozan didn’t hold back while yelling at Davis. It’s less clear why Ibaka got ejected, although Casey’s appeared to have come from his defense of Ibaka.
At one point, Casey and Kyle Lowry — who fouled out in the fourth quarter, with five of his six fouls being called by Davis — just started laughing. It appeared at one point Davis may have mistaken a fan yelling for Casey, leading to a technical.
The referees — the crew also includes Haywoode Workman and Brent Barnaky — even got a security escort off the floor.
Here’s what that mess looked like on the play-by-play sheet.
After the game, Casey said this.
This all comes one day after New Orleans Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry eviscerated referees for a possible blown call in James Harden’s favor during a loss to the Houston Rockets. Gentry said the referees were “guessing” on calls and lambasted them for that one. If you look at the bigger picture, referee and player relations have been tense all season — bad enough that the league announced a five-prong initiative to help repair the divide between the two sides earlier this year.
One idea: these mass ejections that happen late in games — when referees presumably feel more comfortable sending players and coaches off since the game is likely already decided — aren’t helping. We’ve seen this a number of times over the past few months, and each one highlights this issue even more dramatically.
Toronto isn’t in an important playoff race, so this loss probably won’t hurt them in any meaningful way. However, the referee problems continue to persist, and there’s no clear answer what should or could be done about that.
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