DENVER (AP) — The hoop was bent, no one seemed to know how to fix it, and for 35 minutes, Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets players struggled to keep warm in a bizarre scene Sunday night that left Celtics star Jaylen Brown fuming.
Boston’s Robert Williams III appeared to be the culprit, after hanging from the rim after a thunderous dunk with 8:06 left in the fourth quarter. Soon after, that edge leaned slightly to the left.
“I didn’t know I did it until my teammates started blaming me,” Williams said.
After a timeout with 6:43 left and the Nuggets leading 110-97 in an NBA conference leaders meeting, officials called in the arena crew to level the circle. At first, a couple of workers came out with a ladder and some tools, including a spirit level. But there were problems. A crew member used his phone. Another ladder and more crew members appeared.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone called the situation “a buzz”.
“There’s a joke in there. How many guys does it take to fix a hoop in an NBA game?” Malone said.
As the lag dragged on, players found unique ways to pass the time. Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon jogged courtside to sideline. Boston’s Marcus Smart opted to sit alone near the opposing free throw line.
The Nuggets tried to keep the crowd entertained with games on the big screen and a steady diet of 80s and 90s hits on the sound system. Boston’s Grant Williams started dancing to a tune.
At one point, a close-up of a crew member with a spirit level over the edge appeared on the video card. It showed it was still crooked. The crowd booed as if an umpire had just made a bad call against the Nuggets.
“I wish they had just changed the rim right,” Malone said.
Instead, the delay lengthened to 20 minutes. A worker then took the border off the board to look at. Players jumped up and down to try and keep warm.
“They said if it came to a certain amount of time there would be a warm-up period,” Celtics interim head coach Joe Mazzulla said.
The delay was starting to annoy Brown.
“There was no communication,” he said.
Finally, a worker put the rim back on and it looked like it was level. The crowd roared as teams ran through the layup lines midway through the fourth quarter to break free again.
Play soon resumed, but Brown was unsure if the problem had been fixed.
“They spent all that time trying to fix it, but when we came back it still looked like it wasn’t even level, in my opinion,” said Brown. “So we just wasted all that time.”
Jokic had 30 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists as the Nuggets held on for a 123-111 victory in a game that lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes.
“It was about handling business,” said Gordon, who scored 18 points.
Brown finished with 30 points for Boston.
“That’s how injuries happen and stuff like that,” he said. “The whole process was poorly managed, in my opinion, and that also had an effect. But luckily no one was hurt.”
NBA AP: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
The Celtics suspended Udoka for the entire 2022-23 season for “team policy violations.”
Who got fired from the Celtics?
– The Boston Celtics suspended head coach Ime Udoka for the entire 2022-23 season, but the team is reportedly letting him leave to take another head coaching job.
What’s going on with Udoka? It was announced that after leading the Celtics to the NBA Finals in his first year as head coach, Udoka would be suspended for the entire 2022-2023 season. See the article : Crimson Tide Roll Call: Thursday, December 22, 2022.
Who got fired from NBA?
Brooklyn Nets Fire Coach Steve Nash – The New York Times. NBA
Who got suspended from the Celtics?
Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka suspended for 2022-23 season – The New York Times. Read also : Introducing: 16 of our favorite sports portraits of Bates from 2021–22 – News.
When was the NBA on tape delay?
As the national broadcaster of the NBA, CBS carried NBA games from 1973-74 until the 1989-90 season, during which the early 1980s is famously known as the tape-delay playoff era. To see also : Bedrock, USA: A new podcast explores the rise of extremism in local politics.
Has there ever been an NBA team to come back from 3 to 0? How many times has an NBA team come from a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs? The unfortunate answer is zero times. While no team has come back to win after trailing 3-0, there are three teams that rallied to tie a 3-3 series and lost Game 7.
When did NBA on NBC stop?
The NBA on NBC was a weekly presentation of the NBA that began in 1990 and ran until 2002.
Why is NBA delayed today?
The start time of Friday’s Game 3 between the Miami Heat and the Atlanta Hawks was delayed approximately 40 minutes as police and security investigated a suspicious package found outside Gate 2 of State Farm Arena in Atlanta, according to a statement of the Hawks.
When did the NBA start live broadcast?
The league signed DuMont to a contract in his eighth season (1953–54), marking the first year the NBA had a national broadcaster. Similar to the NFL, a lack of television stations led NBC to buy the rights starting the following season through April 7, 1962—NBC’s first tenure with the NBA.
Can a player wear a retired jersey number?
If a jersey is retired and an active player still wears it, the player is generally permitted to wear the number for their entire playing career. If in sport managers and coaches wear kit numbers and the player subsequently becomes coach of the same team, he is also permitted to wear it as coach.
Can NFL players wear retired numbers? As with other leagues, once a team retires a player’s jersey number, they never release the number to any other player, unless the player or team explicitly allows it.
Can a number be retired twice?
And yes, every franchise has retired Jackie Robinson’s “42,” but the Yankees (Mariano Rivera, 2019 Hall of Fame inductee) and the St. Louis Cardinals (Bruce Sutter, 2006 Hall of Fame inductee) have retired it two times, as Rivera and Sutter wore the number before it was retired across MLB in 1997.
What happens if every jersey number is retired?
All traditional numerals could then be recycled essentially forever with a small Roman numeral in front (cc, ccc, cd). Q: What happens when sports teams run out of numbers to retire?
What does retiring a players number mean?
If a sports team retires a number, it stops using the jersey number worn by a particular player when they stop playing, as a way to honor that player.
