Stephen A. Smith Blasts Nick Nurse For Late-Game Timeout: Watch

The Toronto Raptors were just three minutes away from winning their first ever NBA Title on Monday night as they had a 103-97 lead against the Golden State Warriors. That’s when Raptors head coach Nick Nurse decided to call a timeout which had many around the NBA scratching their heads. The Raptors had all the momentum at that point in the game and after the timeout, the Warriors were able to come back and go on a 9-0 run. Of course, the Warriors ended up winning the game by a score of 106-105 and Nurse’s timeout immediately became one of the scapegoats of the game.

Stephen A. Smith went on ESPN’s First Take this morning and lambasted the Raptors head coach for disrupting the team’s flow in the late stages of the game. After the match, Nurse said he used the timeout because he didn’t want to lose it, although Smith called BS on that, stating “You were about to win the championship in 3 minutes, okay. And you disrupted it.”

Smith then went on to say that the timeout cost the Raptors the win and a championship on home court. The Raptors will have two more opportunities to win the series including on Thursday night in Game 6 which takes place in Oakland.