Dwane Casey Fined $25K for Criticism of Officiating: Latest Comments, Reaction

The NBA fined Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey $25,000 for his comments about the officiating in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals, per Bleacher Report's Howard Beck.   

The Raptors picked up their first win of the series over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night, 99-84. Over the course of the game, referees whistled the Raptors for 17 fouls compared to 10 for the Cavs.

Casey criticized what he thought was a lack of foul calls for Cleveland's play inside on Bismack Biyombo, who finished with seven points and 26 rebounds, per Brian Windhorst and Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com:

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[Biyombo] is not getting the calls. 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. I don't know if he's getting hit because of how physical and tough he is, but he's getting cracked. 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.

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Raptors Republic's Blake Murphy dismissed the idea the officiating crew was attempting to call the game in favor of the Cavs:

Casey's stance came days after LeBron James said the conference finals officiating crew wasn't properly assessing flagrant fouls against him, per ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin, so neither team has been entirely happy with the way the series has been called.

Bad officiating has been a storyline throughout the entire 2016 playoffs, not just the Eastern Conference Finals.

The league said officials should've whistled James Harden for an offensive foul before he hit the game-winner in the Houston Rockets' first-round Game 3 victory over the Golden State Warriors. The NBA also listed a litany of missed calls in its Last Two Minute Report of the Oklahoma City Thunder's Game 2 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in the second round.