Why didn't LA Lakers take a timeout after Jamal Murray's go-ahead jumper? Rules and more explored 

There were 3.6 seconds left in the LA Lakers vs Denver Nuggets game after Jamal Murray hit a game-winning jump shot. However, LA did not take the timeout and was instead forced to heave a prayer from the center of the court which did not even touch the rim, meaning the Nuggets advanced to the next round.

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Had the Lakers possessed a timeout in that situation, they definitely would have taken it. Doing so would have allowed them to advance the ball and inbound it from the sidelines which will then give them a better chance to hit a shot to tie or even win the game.

However, they no longer had a timeout since they used it earlier to challenge a foul called on Anthony Davis during a Nikola Jokic drive with a little over three minutes left. The LA Lakers successfully got the call overturned which meant the foul on Davis was removed and Jokic did not get to take the free throws.

Although, that successful challenge came at the expense of Darvin Ham’s squad no longer having any timeouts with three minutes left to go.

As per the NBA’s rules, anytime a challenge is called, the team calling the challenge will lose their timeout which is exactly what happened at this moment. The NBA also awards teams who successfully challenge a call by giving them another chance to challenge later on but any use of these challenges results in a timeout being used.

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"Inside the NBA" crew reacts to NBA’s challenge rule after LA Lakers lose timeout despite successfully challenging crucial call

Fans, analysts and even the players can look back at this game and point to one particular moment that might have caused the LA Lakers the game which is challenging the call and using up their final timeout with three minutes remaining in a close contest.

The "Inside the NBA" crew reacted to this, sharing their insight on why they feel this rule is unfair.

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“I don’t understand how you win a challenge and lose a timeout,” Charles Barkley said after Ernie Johnson explained the rules. “I mean I understand the rules but that just doesn’t seem fair to me.”

Kenny Smith then chimed in on the conversation, agreeing with "Chuck" that a team should be able to retain their timeout when they successfully get a call overturned through a challenge. He also added that since it was the referees who made the mistake with the incorrect foul call, then the team should not have to suffer by losing a timeout.

Charles Barkley agreed with Smith's point and reiterated once again that it wasn’t fair that a team loses a crucial timeout when the mistake isn’t theirs to begin with.

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This is unlikely the last time that fans will hear this argument but whether the league will look into making changes to the challenge rule or not remains to be seen.

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