There was some Scott on Scott crime in the closing minute of the Nuggets’ 118-113 win over the Raptors on Monday night.
With 28.3 seconds left in the game and Toronto down by one, infamous referee Scott Foster whistled center Jakob Poeltl for a foul underneath the basket, giving Denver two free throws in a call that clearly left Raptors players stunned.
Second-year star Scottie Barnes appeared to protest the call – and while it didn’t appear he did anything egregious, Foster decided to whistle him for a technical foul and throw him out of the game.
It was a dramatic call not only because it took one of the Raptors’ best players off the floor in a crucial moment in the game, but the technical also gave Denver a third free throw – and Aaron Gordon hit all three, moving the game to a four-point lead that they would not relinquish.
Barnes appeared incredulous during his postgame press conference.
“I don’t know what happened … I was just saying something to myself,” Barnes said. “I guess he took offense to it.”
After the game, Barnes tweeted for the first time since October 2022, saying: “I’m in disbelief.”
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse didn’t hold back on his thoughts toward the officials, either.
“I think it was a great game that looked like it was coming down to a great ending, it’s a little bit unfortunate that we didn’t get to see that ending, at all,” Nurse said. “Especially on the one Scottie got ejected on. There was absolutely nothing there — nothing.”
In the pool report, Foster said that Barnes was “ejected on one technical foul because he used verbiage that which directly questioned the integrity of the crew.”
Foster has garnered a reputation over the years for his incessant foul calls and beefs with NBA stars, with players such as Chris Paul and James Harden notably calling him out in the past. A Suns loss in last year’s playoffs was Paul’s 14th straight playoff loss in a game officiated by Foster.
Denver outscored Toronto 35-25 in the final quarter.
“It was another example of our defense stepping up when the game was on the line,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “We had timely stops, big baskets, big free throws, winning the challenge (that reversed a foul call on Nikola Jokic in the late going) and then winning that jump ball and getting to the free throw line on a technical. A lot of things went our way at the end. We were down the whole game but we stayed with it.”
The Raptors finished with more second-chance points (20) than the Nuggets (14) and maintained a lead for most of the game. Nurse said a similar effort on most any other night would produce a win.
“We play like that, we’re probably going to be able to beat anybody,” he said. “We probably outplayed them and executed really well and all those things. We just didn’t quite get it done at the very, very end.”
The Raptors led by as many as 10 points in the first half but Denver closed the second quarter with a 7-0 run to pull to 61-58 at the break.
The burst included a 3-pointer by Michael Porter Jr. and a dunk by Gordon off Jokic’s alley-oop pass in the final minute of the period.
Murray scored 12 points in the third quarter, including a 3-pointer midway through the period that put the Nuggets up 72-69 for their first lead of the game.
But the Raptors fought back to take an 88-83 lead into the fourth quarter and led 101-93 when Pascal Siakam converted a hook shot with 7:08 left to play.
– With AP
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