Suns fed up with fouls: Josh Jackson ejection part of 7-point Raptors play
Jan 18, 2019, 8:38 AM | Updated: 4:22 pm
Phoenix Suns forward Josh Jackson (20) controls the ball as Toronto Raptors guard Delon Wright (55) defends during the second half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019, in Toronto. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
(Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
The Suns have felt the unfairness mounting all season long.
The worst team in the Western Conference hasn’t gotten the whistles all season long due to inexperience, or according to the players, a lack of a respect from NBA officials. It came to a head Thursday in a 111-109 loss to the shorthanded Toronto Raptors, who needed a Pascal Siakam buzzer-beater to pull out a win.
A turning-point — by way of momentum and in the score — came with less than eight minutes remaining in the game. Phoenix trailed 88-87 when Suns guard Devin Booker found Kelly Oubre under the hoop.
Swallowed by two Raptors players, with one hand visibly in his lower back, Oubre lost the ball, leading to a Toronto fastbreak that ended with Suns forward Josh Jackson shoving Raptors center Chris Boucher on a made dunk.
Et c'est le but! pic.twitter.com/VuCtJn2di8
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) January 18, 2019
“I actually fouled (Boucher) hard on purpose to make a statement that we’re out here getting our butts kicked and not saying nothing or doing nothing about it, so I’m gonna kick somebody’s butt, too,” Jackson told reporters, according to The Score. “I’m not just about to lay down.”
Not only was it an and-one, but Jackson picked up his second technical after earning one three minutes prior. On top of it, he was whistled for a flagrant foul thanks to his two-armed shove. Toronto’s Kyle Lowry drilled a three after two made free throws, and suddenly the Suns had given up seven points in one Raptors possession.
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Fight from Phoenix followed, but Jackson didn’t brush his emotions under the rug after the game.
“The last seven or eight minutes of the game, when I looked up (at the video board), I thought there were plenty of plays we should’ve been shooting free-throws on, and for some reason, we were playing defense (instead), and then they’re going down there and shooting free throws,” Jackson said.
“It was just a lot of frustration, a lot of calls that should’ve been called that wasn’t. I felt like it was my job to step up and say something for my teammates. I felt like somebody should’ve got a technical foul, because that was just ridiculous. Somebody should’ve said something.”
Jackson added it was “B.S.” when a reporter suggested the Suns might need to earn the whistles from the officials, according to The Score.
On Thursday, Phoenix actually drew six more personal fouls than Toronto (27-21) and shot 11 more free throws (36-25).
This season, however, the Suns indeed have been losing when it comes to free throw defense, as head coach Igor Kokoskov has put it.
They are second-to-last in the NBA in per-game point differential, losing by an average of 8.5 points. More than half of that comes by way of free throws made, a differential of -4.7 on the year.
Phoenix is taking an average of seven fewer free throws per game than their opponents each game, a number that is 2.1 free throws fewer than the Atlanta Hawks, who have the second-worst free throws attempted differential.
Fair or not, it’s something the Suns must learn to overcome.
“I watch All-Star guys get the benefit of the doubt every night,” Jackson said. “Questionable calls, they still get them. But teams like us, we just don’t for some reason. I don’t know what it is.”
