The Toronto Raptors are now losers of five of their last eight games, and head coach Dwane Casey is done sugarcoating it.
After the Raptors fell at home to the Oklahoma City Thunder by the final of 123-102 on Thursday, Casey went all the way off on his team.
“That exhibition of basketball was unacceptable,” Casey said, according to Robert MacLeod of the Globe and Mail. “I want to apologize to our fans, to everybody, the way we played tonight.
“And that’s just the effort, the competitive spirit wasn’t there,” the veteran coach continued. “[The Thunder] came out and played like it was a championship game and we played like it was the middle of the season game. And again, it’s not acceptable, bottom line.”
In fairness, the Raptors are dealing with a fairly major injury absence right now. But they are quickly slipping in the Eastern Conference playoff race and are now just two games away from losing homecourt advantage in the first round as well. Given some of the big moves they made at the trade deadline, Toronto appears to be going all-in on this season, so Casey is doing his best to convey that urgency to his troops as they don’t seem to have it right now.
Image via Toronto Raptors on YouTube
