Devin Booker, Kevin Durant love Raptors coach's rant over free throw disparity vs. Lakers

LOS ANGELES – Kevin Durant couldn’t help but initially laugh about it.

He’s seen that fury before out of Darko Rajaković.

“Darko coached me for a few years in OKC,” a smiling Durant said. “He’s been that intense since then and he was like a rookie coach. He was still that intense.”

Now in his first season as Raptors head coach, Rajaković went completely off during his postgame press conference after seeing the Lakers attempt 23 free throws in the fourth quarter Tuesday against Toronto at Crypto.com Arena.

“That’s outrageous,” Rajaković said after the game. “What happened, this is completely BS. This is a shame.  Shame for the referees, shame for the league to allow this. Twenty-three free throws for them and we get two free throws in the fourth quarter.”

The NBA has since fined Rajaković $25,000 for "publicly criticizing the officiating."

The Suns (19-18) play Thursday against the Lakers (19-19) at Crypto.com Arena on the heels of Toronto winding up on the extremely wrong end of a free throw disparity that enraged Rajaković.

“I appreciate that coming from all coaches,” Durant continued after Wednesday’s practice at UCLA. “I didn’t see the game. So I can’t really assess how the fouls were called and what really happened throughout the game. People have to watch each foul to really see what it was like. It’s tough being a ref, it’s tough being a player on some of those plays.”

Rajaković finished the powerful and engaging rant suggesting NBA favoritism for the Lakers.

“They had to win?” Rajaković continued. “If that’s the case, just let us know so we don’t show up for the game. Just give them the win, but that was not fair.”

From Serbia, Rajaković was an assistant at Oklahoma City from 2014-19 and at Phoenix for one season (2019-20) in Monty Williams’ first season as Suns head coach.

So Rajaković also coached Devin Booker, who applauded his reaction.

“You’ve got to love that out of your head coach,” Booker said. “I know the players for Toronto respected that. You want a coach that cares that much and is definitely emotional about winning and losing and standing up for his team. I didn’t watch the game. I don’t know what calls he’s talking about, but you’ve got to love that out of your coach.”

Losing 132-131, the Raptors (15-22) went just 1-of-2 from the line in the fourth with Scottie Barnes accounting for those numbers while the Lakers shot 19-of-23.

Those were Barnes’ only free throws for the game.

“I understand respect for the All-Stars and all that, but we have star players on our team as well,” Rajaković continued. “How is it possible that Scottie Barnes, who is All-Star caliber player in this league, he goes every single time to the rim with force and trying to get to the rim without flopping and not trying to get foul calls, he gets two free throws for the whole game. How is that possible? How are going to explain that to me?”

Lakers All-Star Anthony Davis alone went 11-of-11 in the fourth, 13-of-14 for the game on his season-high 41-point night.

The Raptors went 8-of-13 for the game while the Lakers more than tripled Toronto’s made free throws and nearly did the same on the attempts in finishing the game 28-of-36.

“Good for him for standing up for his team,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said.

Vogel said he can relate to being in Rajaković’s position.

“Absolutely,” Vogel said. “Always a time and place to speak up when it’s egregious like that. I commend him for speaking up and standing up for his team.”

The Suns have lost the free throw battle against the Lakers in each of their three games, but not by as wide a margin as the Raptors did Tuesday.

Oct. 26 (Lakers, 100-95) – PHX 18-of-23, LAL 23-of-29 (PHX 21 PFs, LAL 23).

Nov. 10 (Lakers 122-119) – PHX 20-of-27, LAL 26-of-34 (PHX 24 PFs, LAL 20 PFs).

Dec. 5 (Lakers 106-103) – PHX 17-of-21, LAL 21-of-25 (PHX 21 PFs, LAL 19 PFs).

Davis has been a huge problem for the Suns largely due to his ability to get to the line and the Suns not matching up well against him.

He’s not only averaging 25.0 points and 12.7 rebounds with 5.7 coming on the offensive glass in three games against Phoenix, Davis is also averaging 8.7 free throw attempts and shooting 92.4% on those.

“Got to play those guys without fouling,” Vogel said. “Very difficult to do.”

Jusuf Nurkic has struggled mightily against Davis as he’s averaging just seven points on 37.5% shooting, 8.7 rebounds and four fouls in the three games.

“We can’t foul,” Nurkic said. “That’s probably No. 1 thing about any star player or a player who has that many shots. We can’t foul, but I’m not even concerned about Anthony or LeBron (James) or none of that. We have our own issue. We’re trying to fix it. Just playing the right way and finally getting healthy. Try to take advantage of these games we're able to be together. Just focus on ourselves.”

The Suns only have one player on their injury report in Damion Lee (knee), who hasn’t played all season after having surgery Oct. 11.

Vogel went small Monday against the Clippers after taking Nurkic out the game with 6:42 left in the third and never put him back in the game.

“We were in the bench unit and wanted to look at what Drew was doing in that stretch,” Vogel said after Monday’s game as Drew Eubanks is the backup big to Nurkic. “We weren’t getting stops. I was looking for a way to try to generate some stops and get our guys out in the open court.”

Playing just 21 minutes and scoring only eight points Monday, Nurkic said he’s not “tripping” off Vogel’s decision.

“You want to be out there regardless, but I respect Frank, I respect the organization,” Nurkic said. “We’re in a position trying to figure out the rotations and still in a phase that he’s not locked in on rotations. You can’t really take that personally. Everybody looking at these numbers. Coaches, they have the analytics. I don’t take that too serious. At the end of the day, I know how I am as a player and what I’m trying to do.”

Nurkic is averaging a double-double of 12.5 points and 10.3 rebounds in his first season in Phoenix.

The Suns acquired Nurkic from Portland in a three-team deal before training camp that sent Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks and Deandre Ayton to the Blazers.

The 7-footer Nurkic is in the second year of a four-year contract worth $70 million.

“For me, I’m all about Phoenix Suns,” Nurkic continued. “I’m here to do whatever it takes to win. Just trying to look at it in a positive way. We’re not going to be perfect. I’m not going to be perfect. As long as the intention is to win, I’m cool with it. I’m trying to be Phoenix Suns for the rest of my life. I’m not tripping about one game. I’m not planning to leave. I want to be here for as long as I can.”

Vogel later went to a zone even though the Clippers stuck with their big, Ivica Zubac, who ended the game with 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting.

“They have three Hall of Famers that are really hard to guard,” Vogel said after Monday’s game. “In trying to mix pitches, show them different coverages is something that actually generated some activity. Got them off balance for a little bit, but it wasn’t enough to get a W.”

The Clippers made the adjustment in pulling out the very comfortable win.

“With us being better defensively and able to adjust, do some different things,” Clippers coach Ty Lue said after Monday’s game.

“When they had five shooters on the floor, we switched, and then fired. Then when they came in with (Josh Okogie), we just went to a normal coverage and blitzed KD and Book. We just thought Zu around the basket was tough. We could throw it up to him, we could post him, get offensive rebounds. I just thought keeping him on the floor, we would be better defensively and offensively as well. If he’s setting pick-and-rolls and they’re switching, we can post Zu and also get on the glass as well. And so it worked out for us.”

Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Booker, Durant love Raptors Rajaković's rant over Lakers free throws