TORONTO — The NBA has upgraded Cleveland centre Kevin Love's elbow to Toronto guard DeMar DeRozan with just over a minute left in Game 1 of an NBA Eastern Conference semifinal series to a flagrant 1.
The league announced the upgrade on its NBA Official Twitter feed.
The incident occurred with 1:11 remaining in the fourth quarter, as Love had the ball and was swinging wildly before connecting with DeRozan's chin. DeRozan went down and was slow to get up.
An offensive foul was called on the play, and the Raptors were given possession of the ball but no free throws. Raptors coach Dwane Casey pleaded with officials for a video review of the elbow but did not get one.
Had the flagrant foul been called, the Raptors would have been awarded two free throws and maintained possession of the ball, which could have drastically altered the outcome of the game as the Cavaliers went on to win 113-112 in overtime. However, the NBA said in its officiating report that officials also missed a DeRozan foul on Love just before the Cleveland centre swung his elbows.
The Canadian Press
