Officiating controversies continue to be a black eye for the NBA this season.
The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Toronto Raptors on Sunday 132-125, but the end of the game was marred by some questionable refereeing decisions. A series of perceived no-calls down the stretch of the contest caused Toronto’s frustration to boil over, and Serge Ibaka, DeMar DeRozan, and coach Dwane Casey were all ejected in quick succession in the last ten seconds. Casey’s tossing (the final one of the three) seemed particularly egregious, as the referees appeared to eject him when it was actually a fan who yelled at them.
Kyle Lowry and Dwane Casey can only laugh as Casey gets T'd & tossed for someone else yelling at the referee pic.twitter.com/CYgIo840bm
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) March 18, 2018
As the game went final, the officiating crew of Marc Davis, Brent Barnaky, and Haywoode Workman had to be escorted off the floor by security amidst the jeers of an angered home crowd at the Air Canada Centre.
Referees got a full security escort off the floor in Toronto pic.twitter.com/vCtuPEoQsB
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) March 18, 2018
DeRozan and Casey had this to say after, per TSN Sports’ Josh Lewenberg.
DeRozan on officiating: "The league needs to do something because it's not just us, it's every game. But tonight… common, man. That can't happen. It can't happen."
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) March 18, 2018
Casey: "We'll complain in the right, proper way."
In other words: the league can expect to hear from the Raptors.
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) March 18, 2018
The loss snapped an 11-game winning streak for the Eastern Conference-leading Raptors. They are also not the first team to express issues with the referees just this past weekend alone.
