Trash-talk Toronto Raptors: The ESPN rankings got it wrong

Nurse: A second coach’s challenge win? It’s a Thanksgiving miracle!

I’d like to start a new section for this column that’ll particularly keep track of Nick Nurse’s record for coach’s challenges. Let’s call it the “Nick Nurse’s Nebulous Non-calls.” It’ll be a working title for now.

Anyway, in this update of “Nick Nurse’s Nebulous Non-calls,” we finally have had a second successful overturn. His first overturn was met with much delight as he hugged coaches while they were busy pointing to things going on during the game and he even took a chance and hugged a courtside Lakers fan. Nurse may be dogmatic and blunt, but he knows when to laugh at himself.

Luckily for me, the league is keeping track of all the challenges taking place over the course of the season, whether they were successful or unsuccessful, and what type of plays were challenged.

Not so lucky for me, they haven’t yet organized these by specific head coaches and instead have just compiled the list daily. So, after parsing through the information, I have made this list to help show where Nurse stands with his challenges:

• 10/22 v. New Orleans, foul, unsuccessful (0/1)
• 10/25 v. Boston, foul, unsuccessful (0/2)
• 10/28 v. Orlando, foul, unsuccessful (0/3)
• 10/30 v. Detroit, out of bounds, unsuccessful (0/4)
• 11/2 v. Milwaukee, foul, unsuccessful (0/5)
• 11/6 v. Sacramento, foul, unsuccessful (0/6)
• 11/10 v. Los Angeles Lakers, foul, successful (1/7)
• 11/18 v. Charlotte, foul, unsuccessful (1/8)
• 11/20 v. Orlando, foul, unsuccessful (1/9)
• 11/25 v. Philadelphia, foul, successful (2/10)

So far Nurse hasn’t been very successful and he’s been a bit under average with a 20 percent success rate compared to a 40 percent overall NBA rate. Yet, the pleasure of Nurse actually getting the overturned calls far outweighs the necessity of him performing well with the coach’s challenge:

Needless to say, we’ll be keeping track of “Nick Nurse’s Nebulous Non-calls” for the remainder of the season (remember it’s a working title, folks), but not because we actually care whether or not he gets it right but because we want to see just how far his and our collective celebration goes: