In a throwaway line at the end of a pre-game chat Saturday night, Raptors coach Nick Nurse was clear about the first rule change he would make as the czar of all things basketball.
“I would immediately change the challenge rule,” he said. “I think that one can go in the bin.”
If only he knew what was to come.
A rather confusing, confounding and ultimately costly use — or non-use, as it turned out — of a coach’s challenge played an integral part of another close Raptors loss that was as weird as any this season, 106-104 to the Boston Celtics at a rollicking Scotiabank Arena.