Toronto Raptors shooting guard Fred VanVleet had choice words for the officiating staff after the team’s 108-100 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers Wednesday night. VanVleet was called for a technical foul in the third quarter, one of 23 fouls the team committed throughout the contest.
According to VanVleet, his technical was called by referee Ben Taylor after he tried to motivate his teammates to work past the poor officiating. He admitted to using profanities in describing the referees’ calls on the court and was similarly upset speaking to reporters after the game.
“I don’t mind it. I’ll take the fine. I don’t really care. I thought Ben Taylor was terrible tonight,” VanVleet said. “I think that most nights, you know out of the three, there’s one or two that just [expletive] the game up. It’s been like that a couple of games in a row. Denver was tough, obviously.”
Since 2016, VanVleet’s rookie season, he has received eight technical fouls, three of which were assessed by Taylor with another coming with him on the floor, according to the Associated Press.
“Most of the refs are trying hard, I like a lot of the refs, they’re trying hard, they’re pretty fair, and communicate well,” VanVleet said. “And then you got the other ones who just want to be [expletive] and just kind of [expletive] up the game. And no one’s coming to see that. They come to see the players.”
By contrast to Toronto’s 23 fouls Wednesday, the Clippers only committed 18, though the Raptors made 13 of 14 free throw attempts. VanVleet was not the only member in the Toronto locker room to complain after the game, as coach Nick Nurse agreed that the team didn’t adjust well to the referees’ foul standards.
“We weren’t getting our money’s worth on a lot of those,” Nurse said. “Probably a little bit of contact. We didn’t adjust because we were back in the same situation.”
With a 32-35 record, the Raptors are in ninth place in the Eastern Conference and seem firmly on their way to the play-in tournament. The team has gone 4-4 since the All-Star break, however, with a number of teams trailing closely behind in the conference standings.
