Turkoglu Did Not Play; Miami 97 Toronto 94
The irony was awfully thick, and not lost on anybody.
As the Toronto Raptors' game wound down last night against the Miami Heat, their offence sputtered. They could have used somebody to deflect the attention from Chris Bosh. They could have used Hedo Turkoglu.
But Turkoglu, the under-achieving forward, did not play in the Raptors' 97-94 loss. He was in uniform, but he was on the bench.
"He was active, it was a coach's decision to not play him," Raptors coach Jay Triano said, adding he made that decision because Turkoglu was not healthy--and to send a message.
The message dates back to earlier last week. Turkoglu left midway through Wednesday night's game against Utah with a stomach virus. He did not play against Denver on Friday--another loss--but was seen out on the town following the game.
Earlier yesterday, Turkoglu insisted he was just grabbing a bite to eat after the game. Apparently, that is not how the club saw it. When pressed, Raptors president and general manager Bryan Colangelo said the matter was handled internally.
Turkoglu, for his part, declined comment after the game. "I'm good, I'm good," he said.
"I don't make them decisions, man," swingman Antoine Wright said. "I think we need everything in this locker room to play basketball, in my personal opinion."
That was obvious. With Dwyane Wade routinely shredding the defence as the Heat came back from a deficit that was as large as 17 points, the Raptors could get nothing going offensively.
Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=2738149#ixzz0jZx9EobD
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