Fans who tuned into the big New Year’s Day game between the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets were expecting a lot.
Both teams are the number-one squads in their respective conferences.
Therefore, there is a chance that they could be meeting again in the NBA Finals at the end of the season.
And both Jayson Tatum and Nikola Jokic are having incredible, MVP-caliber years so everyone wanted to see these two titans of the game clash.
Fans expected a lot of fireworks, back-and-forth lead changes, and clutch plays
They did not expect a 40-minute delay in the middle of the game, however.
Minutes leaders from tonight’s Celtics-Nuggets game:
Rim Technician(s) – 39:30
Aaron Gordon – 36:58
Jayson Tatum – 35:31
Jaylen Brown – 34:13 pic.twitter.com/SgvcCUaHnP— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) January 2, 2023
Yet, that is exactly what happened.
Boston’s Robert Williams seemed to bend the rim during a dunk.
This led to a major problem that technicians spent just about 40 minutes trying to fix.
Following Williams’ dunk with 8:06 left in the fourth quarter, technicians were called upon to adjust and level the rim.
This was easier said than done.
For the next 40 minutes, fans and players sat around and watched very nervous court technicians try their hardest to fix things and get the game going again.
Lacking A Level
The rim was eventually adjusted and the game picked up – just in time to see the Celtics lose.
In total, six workers, two ladders, a leveler, and a lot of anxiety got things back on track.
It was quite an episode, something that even the most seasoned NBA fan doesn’t see often.
Some people are wondering if the delay of the game had an impact on the teams – some even wonder if it led to Boston’s defeat.
Jaylen Brown wasn’t too happy with the way things went down, saying, “There was no communication. 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. So we just wasted all that time.”
NEXT: Video Shows Altercation Between Jaylen Brown And Bones Hyland