A chaotic end to Sunday’s Oklahoma City Thunder-Toronto Raptors game saw the referees escorted out of Toronto’s Air Canada Centre by security after they ejected two Raptors’ players and head coach Dwane Casey (seen above with guard Kyle Lowry, with both laughing incredulously when they learned Casey was tossed). This all started when, down five points late, Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan was hit with a technical foul after a no-call on Corey Brewer at the Thunder basket.
DeMar DeRozan drove to the rim with about 30 seconds left. He was upset with the contact on this play pic.twitter.com/qr5WIcccrh
— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) March 18, 2018
On the ensuing play, DeRozan received another technical for arguing and was ejected.
https://twitter.com/World_Wide_Wob/status/975466185075625986
DeMar DeRozan is hit with ANOTHER technical foul and he's ejected with about 8 seconds left pic.twitter.com/HyLwXzxcOO
— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) March 18, 2018
Raptors power forward Serge Ibaka was shown the door as well.
DeMar DeRozan & Serge Ibaka have been ejected from the game.
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) March 18, 2018
The refs weren’t done there, as Casey was ejected after referee Marc Davis and his officiating crew appeared to mistake a fan (or player) yelling as the Raptors coach.
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 account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) March 18, 2018
Here’s how the final 8.1 seconds appeared on the scorecard.
This play by play to end the game @nballaccess pic.twitter.com/auZ0nrLDJL
— Francisco Rios (@cisco0602) March 18, 2018
Fans in the ACC showered Davis and his crew with “you suck” chants.
As the game closed with a 132-125 Thunder victory that ended the Raptors’ 11-game winning streak, officials were escorted off the court by security.
Referees got a full security escort off the floor in Toronto pic.twitter.com/vCtuPEoQsB
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) March 18, 2018
Post-game, DeRozan questioned the no-call on Brewer.
https://twitter.com/aka_Reynolds/status/975462505857409024
Meanwhile, Casey opted to keep money in his bank account, saying the Raptors would “complain in the right, proper way.”
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
All in all, it was quite the dramatic final 10 seconds in Toronto.
