The Toronto Raptors' final extended trip of the National Basketball Association season ended last night and they return home desperately hoping to keep the lid from blowing on a divided locker room that is growing more fractious every hour.
Point guard Rafer Alston is the latest to throw his hat into the ring of fire that has enveloped the Raptors over the past 48 hours, saying teammate Jalen Rose overstepped his bounds when he suggested recently that some on the team are just going through the motions.
"I'm bothered by that," Alston calmly told reporters before last night's game against the Charlotte Bobcats. "He's trying to say that we're not playing hard. You look around this team, guys like Chris Bosh, Matt Bonner, myself, Pape Sow -- you can't tell me one of those guys . . . aren't playing hard. All of us leave it on the line, night in and night out."
With Alston and Rose barely acknowledging each other during the game, the Raptors shoved all the turmoil aside and rolled to a relatively easy 119-107 victory over the expansion franchise. The victory sent Toronto home with a 2-3 record on a five-game trip and 30-42 overall.
"When you're losing . . . of course everyone's upset. When we were losing earlier in the year, I showed my displeasure for that. But like a man, I said it was my fault, just like when I left practice. But what he said, it's not right, it's not sitting well with a lot of us."
After Wednesday's game in Orlando against the Magic, when the Raptors played with little desire or effort in an embarrassing 108-96 loss, Rose, who did not play in the fourth quarter, sounded off to reporters in the locker room. The 11-year veteran charged there was a lack of commitment among the players and that some on the team were guilty of being selfish on the court.
"There has been a lot of individual play and it shows by our record," Rose said. "It has to do with knowing how to win and respecting a guy 1 through 15 and going out and sacrificing."
Rose did not name names, but there is little doubt that Alston was the prime target of his criticism, and Alston feels that way, too.
After the Orlando game, Alston said that coach Sam Mitchell -- before the room was opened to reporters -- gave the players the opportunity to step forward with any beefs they might have. Alston said Rose said nothing, choosing instead to talk afterward with members of the media.
"Coach had opened the floor for anybody to say anything," Alston said. "And this man chose not to say anything to the players, but he choose to say stuff behind our back and to the media.
"So now a lot of us are starting to wonder, coach opened the floor for everybody. He didn't say anything, but then he talks to the media and bashes us. . . . It's not right."
Rose said last night that he was prepared to stand behind his comments. "I haven't named anybody personally," he said. "If responsible commentary is taken personally, I guess if the shoe fits, you have to wear it."
The emotionally wounded Alston, whose shoot-first, pass-later mentality has been an issue with the team at times this season, is the first to admit that he has had his share of problems.
He threatened to quit the NBA after a run-in with Mitchell after a loss in Boston on Dec. 3; he was suspended after charging out of a team practice in a fit of anger in late January; and he had to be escorted to the team bus by security guards after another blowup with the coach in Cleveland on Feb. 8.
Through it all, Alston never dragged teammates into his affairs, a line he said Rose crossed yesterday. "He needs to say something to us because none of us view anyone of us as being a problem on our team or being a bad teammate," Alston said.
"One comment was some of us aren't playing to win games. What are we playing for? What kind of a teammate is this? It was mind-boggling. What do you mean? So you're the only one playing hard? We all know that's not the case."
Mitchell said losing as the Raptors have done on a consistent basis will breed disappointment.
"I've spoken to Jalen and he's got to understand we are a team and we are building something and that everybody here is going to be a part of it," he said. "Everybody's not going to play great every night.
"The Orlando game was just bad, man. We made turnovers that we haven't made in the first part of the season. Cross-court passes, that's 10 points, 12 points right there. We just did some things and it was just one of those nights. And people get frustrated."