Toronto Raptors Carroll, Joseph visited casino before Game 5

Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun is reporting that DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph went to a Cleveland casino before the Raptors’ Game 5 loss.

In what was the most important game in the history of the Toronto Raptors franchise, they got throttled by the Cleveland Cavaliers by 38 on the road. They’ve been blown out in Cleveland twice before in the series, but this was by far the largest margin of victory.

It seems inexplicable that the Raptors would look so flat after two wins at home breathed new life into the series. But if anyone is making excuses for their performance, it’s Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun, who reported that Cory Joseph and DeMarre Carroll stayed up late to gamble at a casino the night before Game 5.

While Simmons doesn’t say that the casino visit contributed directly to their poor performance, he notes that it could be damaging to their reputation and potential long-term future with the club. To quote the article, he says “Why would DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph put their own reputations in question, possibly put their team in question, by being seen wandering around in the middle of the night?”

After the loss, Dwane Casey was not interested in making any excuses for their performance. When asked about Carroll and Joseph, he claimed he didn’t know that they stayed out late, but he’s not hanging it on them:

"This isn’t why we lost … This is the NBA, they’re grown men. These are grown men. These things happen. They kicked our butts. That’s the bottom line. We didn’t meet that standard tonight for whatever reason."

While a loss by this margin may have been unexpected, especially after coming off two wins, few gave Toronto a chance to win on the road. But with a chance to still win the series, Casey is trying not to break up the team over stuff like this, although Simmons is doing his best to by making a story out of this.

He put Joseph and Carroll’s integrity into question by bringing up their performance:

"Joseph played only 10:14 in a blowout, which was indication enough what the coach thought of his game. He had three points and a technical foul: He didn’t hit blackjack."

While Carroll had a poor showing too, let’s not forget that he has been tasked with guarding LeBron freaking James. Raptors fans and readers, predictably, didn’t take too kindly to seeing this story published, but that didn’t seem to phase Simmons:

Of course, Simmons is well-known for this, and has developed something of a reputation of it in the Toronto sports media. He published a story the day Phil Kessel got traded to Pittsburgh about how he used to visit a hot-dog stand by the Air Canada Centre every day. The media drove Kessel out of town by pointing to his weight as a way of questioning his work ethic. And now they’re paying the price with Kessel on a rejuvenated Penguins squad and 18 playoff points to his name.

Joseph and Carroll shouldn’t be blamed for this loss, and even though Simmons insists that the Raptors didn’t lose because of them, making a story out of this contradicts that notion. Hopefully, the two will treat this story the way Kessel did and use it as motivation to silence their critics by bouncing back in Game 6.

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