Darko Rajakovic Gives Puzzling Response to Dejounte Murray-Jamal Shead Confrontation

The Toronto Raptors suffered their sixth loss in eight games Wednesday night in a 122-111 defeat to the New Orleans Pelicans. Two-time All-Star Scottie Barnes supplied just nine points on 4-for-14 shooting and 1-for-6 from three, marking his first time scoring in single digits since Dec. 21st. 

Toronto has been in quite a slump over the last couple of weeks; in all six of their losses since Feb. 24th, the Raptors have failed to score at least their season average of 113 points per game. Offensive consistency has been the death of this team seemingly all season, and now their leading scorer, two-time All-Star Brandon Ingram, has entered a slump of his own. Before last night’s 22-point outing, his previous three-game stretch included averaging 11.3 points per game on 30% shooting from the field and 12.5% from three.

Over the course of this season, the Raptors have significantly struggled against the league’s top teams. Their record against the top-10 teams in the NBA now sits at 1-18, outside of the pre-James Harden Cleveland Cavaliers, including eight straight losses against such teams. The Pelicans are far from one of the best teams in the NBA, but their top four players were too much to handle for the struggling Raptors. They combined for 90 points on 33-for-53 shooting and a box plus/minus of +82. 

Up 15 points late in the fourth quarter, one-time All-Star Dejounte Murray hit a three-pointer over Jamal Shead, who fell to the ground in the play. Murray immediately stood over the second-year guard and yelled in his face, receiving a technical foul. Postgame, reporters asked head coach Darko Rajakovic about the play, and his answer raised eyebrows amongst the Raptors fan base. 

“I don’t give it too much over there, guys are competitive,” said Rajakovic. “It was probably [overboard]. What he did there, I [need] to see it on film. I don’t want to make nothing more than it is.”

Rajakovic has consistently been one of the most supportive coaches for his players this season, so this response comes as a surprise. The play was completely unnecessary, given the situation of the players and the game, so for the Serbian head coach to react this way is appalling. He mentioned that he needs to watch it in film, so it’s reasonable to expect that the negative emotions he was already feeling, being down double-digits at the end of the game, made him miss the reaction after the play. 

He has shown his fire in games, specifically to the referees when they miss calls, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him defend his player on the court had he seen the severity of it in real time. The problem is that nobody outside of Immanuel Quickley came to Shead’s defense, further exemplifying the defeated nature of this Raptors team. 

This loss dropped the Raptors down to the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference, and en route to the Play-In Tournament, unless they begin to win more games. Toronto has 17 games left in the regular season, including five against top-10 teams, and sits just half a game outside of the fifth seed that it gave up. The Raptors narrowly trail the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat, whom they play three more times total before the season ends.