NBA's Much-Anticipated L2M Report Only Adds Frustration Following Raptors Loss
The Toronto Raptors have nothing to gripe about, the NBA’s Last Two Minute report says following the team’s 132-131 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday night.
In the final two minutes of Tuesday’s game, there were only two incorrect calls made/ Both should have gone against the Raptors, the NBA said.
The first incorrect call was a non-call that should have penalized an illegal screen against Scottie Barnes who initiated illegal contact with Austin Reaves, the league said. It would have resulted in an offensive foul.
The only other incorrect call was a non-call that came moments later when RJ Barrett initiated illegal contact with Anthony Davis causing him to lose the ball.
The contact made by Reaves against Barnes on Toronto's would-be game-tying layup was considered legal because Reaves “maintains verticality and absorbs the contact” from Barnes’ layup attempt, the league said.
On Barrett’s illegal screen, the NBA said the Canadian forward did not establish a legal screening position on Davis. Davis’ flop on the play was reviewed and considered not to meet the criteria for a flopping violation “because his movement is in the direction of his initial path given the contact,” the league said.
Toronto’s coach Darko Rajaković was irate post-game, calling the refereeing “outrageous” because of the 23 to 2 free throw discrepancy in favor of the Lakers in the fourth quarter.
“What happened tonight, this is completely BS. This is shame. Shame for the referees. Shame for the league to allow this,” Rajaković said post-game.
Rajaković suggested the Raptors shouldn’t have bothered showing up if the referees were going to skew the game so heavily in Los Angeles’ favor.
“They came to win tonight? If that’s the case, just let us know, so we don’t show up for the game,” he said. “Just give them a win. But that was not fair tonight.”
