Bismack Biyombo won over NBA fans with a tour-de-force Game 3, the Raptors won over the Cavaliers in a must-win, and Toronto head coach Dwane Casey tried to win over officials with some likely fine-inducing lobbying Saturday night.
The Raptors shocked the Cavs, 99-84 in Toronto, alerting LeBron James he may have a series on his hands as they narrowed the gap to 2-1. But Casey’s bunch was tagged for 17 fouls on the game, while Cleveland was only called for 10 — a fact not lost on Casey.
After the game, the Raptors coach was steaming over the officials’ treatment of Biyombo, who finished with four blocks and a franchise-record 26 rebounds — and whose rim protection, especially against James, has been the series’ biggest revelation.
“[Biyombo] is not getting the calls,” Casey said, via ESPN. “We shoot zero free throws in the fourth quarter. Zero. He’s getting hit. There’s one play where they almost have a brawl. He gets killed on that play.”
That play provided the gif that keeps on gif-ing, of LeBron slowly sprawling to the floor, backtracking after getting an elbow to the face — from his own teammate, Tristan Thompson. The flop resulted in technicals for Biyombo and Toronto’s Cory Joseph, along with internet shame for the King.
“I don’t know if he’s getting hit because of how physical and tough he is, but he’s getting cracked,” Casey said about Biyombo. “To his credit, I thought he was going to lose his head when he got the technical foul, but he kept playing.
“He’s one of the top rebounders in the league, and no telling how many times he gets hit and fouled under there without being called. Again, I’m going to say this: I think he gets hit almost on every rebound and putback there is, and he just doesn’t get the calls, whether he’s rolling to the bucket, and we’ve just got to have consistency with that.
“For whatever reason,” Casey continued, “and I understand we have great officials and it’s a hard game to call — but some of these fouls are unbelievable.”
Perhaps the most surprising piece of Casey’s venting was it only involved Biyombo’s rebounding and offensive game — especially after this sensational block on James, which went down in the boxscore as simply a foul on Biyombo.