Celtics' Jaylen Brown says 35-minute rim delay in loss vs. Nuggets was 'handled poorly'

Denver started 2023 with a victory, but it took longer than usual

The Denver Nuggets started off the New Year with a 123-111 win over the Boston Celtics on Sunday night, in which Nikola Jokic finished with a 30-point triple-double. However, the win took longer than usual, and it wasn't due to overtime. With just over six minutes left in the fourth quarter, Celtics players began noticing that the rim they were shooting on was crooked, which happened as a result of Robert Williams III hanging on the basket after a dunk just a few minutes earlier. 

Officials had arena workers come and look at the rim, but instead of getting a quick fix the whole ordeal lasted about 35 minutes. After numerous attempts to try and level the rim that was leaning a bit to the left, the workers inside Ball Arena ended up replacing the rim altogether, but by then any momentum either team built up was lost due to the long delay. After the game, Celtics guard Jaylen Brown took issue with how the delay was handled.

"There was no communication," Brown told reporters. "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, that has an effect on the game. That's how injuries and stuff happen. Luckily, they didn't. But that wasn't good. That whole process was handled poorly, in my opinion, and that had an effect on the game as well. Luckily, nobody got hurt."

At the halt in play, the Celtics were down 110-97, and while both teams were allowed several minutes to warm up after the huge delay, it was like watching a different game from the potentially exciting finish that would've happened had the rim not malfunctioned. 

"It was definitely a weird game, for sure," Brown said. "The delay was longer than I thought it would be. That definitely kicked our momentum a little bit. We was trying to get it going."

The Nuggets managed to pull away and finish off the Celtics for the win, improving to 24-12 on the season. The Celtics, despite a 30-point effort from Brown and another 25 points from Jayson Tatum, snapped a four-game winning streak with the loss to Denver and split the season series after picking up a win against the Nuggets back in November. Though it was an odd loss due to the delay, Boston still sits atop the Eastern Conference standings, but the team's 5-5 record in its last 10 games has allowed for teams like the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks to get closer to that No. 1 spot.