Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey had his rookie forward's back Friday night.
At the conclusion of the Raptors' 111-98 victory over the visiting Atlanta Hawks at the Air Canada Centre, Casey could be seen on the sidelines shouting obscenities at Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer, who was irate over the actions of OG Anunoby late in the game.
Anunoby stole the ball off a bad pass from Isaiah Taylor and jammed it home on a one-man fast break, which Budenholzer seemingly perceived as running up the score. Toronto was ahead by 11 points with 20 seconds remaining on the clock at the time of the steal.
"I love coaches, but one thing I don't want you to do is say something to my players," Casey said after the game. "I understand the situation, but we weren't trying to run the score up. They were trying to score, and we were trying to play defense.
"He was probably in the heat of the moment. I was in the heat of the moment. Bud's a good man, a good coach, but I'm going to stick up for my players at any time."
Toronto had dropped road games against the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder prior to defeating the Hawks, who were looking to boost their winning streak to three games.
