Defeated this night in Los Angeles against the Clippers, with a huge dunk from one of their elders, Kawhi Leonard on the truffle of another former return to the fold, Jakob Poeltl, the Raptors have it bad!
After the cruel setback suffered in Denver (118-113) at the very end of the match, with the surprising exclusion of Scottie Barnes, Toronto is struggling to swallow the pill after a match marked by several litigious and controversial whistles. .
In this case, Fred VanVleet did not hold back his shots in the post-match press conference. Having suffered a technical foul in the third quarter, the Raps All-Star point guard told his four truths to one official in particular, even if it meant exposing himself to a big fine that is sure to come…
“I know I’m going to get fined but I don’t care. I found Ben Taylor to be absolutely awful [hier soir]. We know that most matches there will be one or two of the three referees who can screw up the match! It’s been two games in a row now. In Denver, it was already difficult, obviously. And [hier soir], we were competitive, we fought well and in the third quarter, I took a stupid technique that changed the whole dynamic of the match, which changed the whole rhythm of the match. I know that most referees really try to do their job well. There are a lot of them that I like, who work hard, are pretty fair and communicate well. And then there are others who just want to play dumb and screw up games. Nobody comes to see this kind of spectacle! They come to see the players. I think we’re losing a bit of the DNA of our league and that’s disappointing. You can go and check: most of my technical fouls happened when Ben Taylor was refereeing. At some point, as a player, I feel it’s personal and it’s never a good feeling. That’s not why we lost this game, we were dominated, but it clearly makes things more difficult to overcome. »
While the balance of free throws tipped heavily against them (31 for the Clippers against 14), the Raptors also lacked skill, like Fred VanVleet (13 points at 4/12 on shots) and Scottie Barnes (6/21). Right in the middle of a perilous “road trip” on the West Coast, Toronto does not need any additional pitfalls.
However, according to Fred VanVleet, some officials tend to enter into a logic of personal revenge.
“There have been several times this season where I think the team has been a little too concerned with officiating, especially after what just happened to us in Denver. There were several whistles with which we disagreed. But if I say to my teammates: ‘Come on guys, let’s keep playing despite this bullshit’ and it costs me a technical foul, that’s a bit crazy! I know very well that there is a line that should not be crossed, I understand that. But this feeling of power that we can see this year from some referees, it’s starting to degenerate. I’m going to be fined for talking about it but this situation is getting totally ridiculous! »
| Fred VanVleet | Percentage | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Crew | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | party | Int | bp | CT | Points |
| 2016-17 | TOR | 37 | 8 | 35.1 | 37.9 | 81.8 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 2.9 |
| 2017-18 | TOR | 76 | 20 | 42.6 | 41.4 | 83.2 | 0.3 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 1.7 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 8.6 |
| 2018-19 | TOR | 64 | 28 | 41.0 | 37.8 | 84.3 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 2.6 | 4.8 | 1.7 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 11.0 |
| 2019-20 | TOR | 54 | 36 | 41.3 | 39.0 | 84.8 | 0.3 | 3.4 | 3.8 | 6.6 | 2.4 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 0.3 | 17.6 |
| 2020-21 | TOR | 52 | 37 | 38.9 | 36.6 | 88.5 | 0.6 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 6.3 | 2.3 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 0.7 | 19.6 |
| 2021-22 | TOR | 65 | 38 | 40.3 | 37.7 | 87.4 | 0.7 | 3.8 | 4.5 | 6.7 | 2.5 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 0.6 | 20.3 |
| 2022-23 | TOR | 54 | 37 | 39.2 | 34.0 | 89.8 | 0.5 | 3.8 | 4.3 | 6.9 | 2.8 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 0.6 | 19.4 |
| Total | 402 | 30 | 40.2 | 37.4 | 86.8 | 0.4 | 2.9 | 3.3 | 5.2 | 2.1 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 14.4 | |
