Cavaliers’ Inability to Review Key Call in Raptors Loss Made Kenny Atkinson Question Challenge Rules

He has a point.

Kenny Atkinson's Cavaliers are tied 2–2 with the Raptors in the first round | Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The Cavaliers dropped Game 4 to the Raptors on Sunday as Toronto evened the first-round series at two games apiece. It was an ugly game offensively where Toronto found a way to win while shooting just 32% from the field and 13% from three-point range.

Cleveland missed its fair share of shots too as James Harden and Donovan Mitchell went a combined 12-of-38 from the floor. Still, the Cavs had a shot to win and take hold of the series before it heads back to Cleveland for Game 5 on Wednesday.

Mitchell had the ball in his hands as the Cavs had their best shot to take back control of the slugfest with just 30 seconds left. He drove toward the hoop and put up a tough floater that rimmed out and fell into the hands of Brandon Ingram. Max Strus rushed up to pressure Ingram in hopes of getting Cleveland the ball back. He nearly succeeded, as he poked the ball free and out of bounds. It looked like the ball could have gone off either player as the Cleveland guard was sure it last touched Ingram. The sideline official didn't agree, however, which gave the ball to Toronto with a one-point lead and just 21.6 seconds left.

You can watch the play in the below video, just after the two-minute mark:

A critical call like that should be an easy review, right? Unfortunately for Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson, he didn't have a challenge left to use. He had already challenged twice in the game, both of which were successful.

According to the NBA's coach's challenge rule, each team is entitled to one challenge per game. If a team's first challenge is successful, the team will be awarded a second challenge. That's it, however. No extra challenge if both are successful.

That wrinkle burned the Cavs because Atkinson had to use his last challenge earlier in the fourth quarter after the officials initially gave possession to his team, but switched the call to Toronto after a huddle. He used a challenge to fix the call and give the ball back to his team. Now, the counter point is that Atkinson could have saved his challenges until later in the game, but the sequence brought him to question the league’s rules when asked.

“Shouldn’t you be rewarded for good challenging behavior?” Atkinson said after the loss. “I think everybody’s talked about that, that’d be a great rule change. I’m sure the competition committee will look at it, it just makes so much sense.”

The coach's challenge is a fairly new rule in the NBA, so the league could be fluid in making tweaks with enough noise for change.

How do other major sports leagues handle challenge rules?

Cavaliers guard Max Strus nearly earned his team an extra possession late in their Game 4 loss to the Raptors, but Cleveland was out of challenges. | David Dermer-Imagn Images

In the NFL, each team is permitted a minimum of two challenges that initiate a replay review. If a challenge is unsuccessful, the team is charged a timeout so a coach must have at least one timeout left to initiate a challenge unless they want to risk taking a penalty. If one challenge is successful, a team is allowed a third challenge, but no fourth challenge is allowed.

The MLB gives managers one challenge per game and two in the postseason. Teams retain its challenge if a call is overturned in the review and loses its manager challenge if no call is overturned. The league implemented its ABS challenge system this year which gives each side two challenges per game to use on ball-strike calls. ABS challenges can only be initiated by a pitcher, catcher or batter and each team can retain a challenge if it's ultimately successful. The NHL allows coaches an unlimited number of challenges, but teams are penalized for unsuccessful challenges.

Allowing an additional challenge after multiple successful challenges seems like a no brainer change for the NBA to make. Maybe the league takes a page out of the NFL's book and gives teams two challenges to start with the ability to obtain a third if one is successful. We don't want to delay the end of games any longer, but it's important that teams maintain the ability to review key calls that could swing a game.

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