Raptors' Nick Nurse Says Marcus Smart 'Fouled the S--t' out of Pascal Siakam

Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse was not pleased with the officiating in his team's 102-99 loss to the Boston Celtics in Tuesday's Game 2 of their second-round playoff series.  

He pointed to Pascal Siakam's late drive with the Raptors trailing by three in which Marcus Smart stripped the forward and nearly created a critical turnover before stepping out of bounds. Nurse wanted far more than possession underneath the basket, though, and told reporters, "I think Smart fouled the s--t out of him" (warning: language):

That wasn't the only thing Nurse took exception to in the loss that dropped his team to a 2-0 deficit in the series.

As Jason Owens of Yahoo Sports shared, the head coach was frustrated Jayson Tatum shot 14 free throws:

"The only frustrating part about it is this. He shoots 14 free throws, which is as much as our whole team shoots. That's the frustrating part. I think our guys were working hard on him and we were doing a pretty good job. ... They were obviously getting him the ball a lot, getting him some space.

"We could have helped a little bit better here in there. But they took pretty good care of him tonight."

Boston shot 25 free throws compared to 19 for Toronto.

Nurse may have been unhappy with the officiating, but his team was unable to slow Tatum throughout the game. The Celtics star finished with 34 points, eight rebounds and six assists while shooting 4-of-7 from deep and a perfect 14-of-14 from the charity stripe.

Elsewhere, Smart caught fire down the stretch and drained five three-pointers in the fourth quarter alone. The fifth was an and-1 that gave Boston the lead.

Toronto also struggled in crunch time, failing to make a field goal in the last two minutes. Fred VanVleet, who started well but faded as the game went on, missed a three at the buzzer that could have forced overtime, and the Raptors were outscored by 11 points during the fourth quarter.

They will look to bounce back in Thursday's Game 3.