DENVER (AP) — The rim was bent, nobody seemed to know how to fix it and for 35 minutes Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets players struggled to stay warm in a bizarre scene that left Celtics star Jaylen Brown fuming.
Nikola Jokic had 30 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists, and the hot-shooting Nuggets beat the Celtics 123-111 in a matchup of NBA conference leaders.
Boston’s Robert Williams III seemed to be the culprit of the bent rim, after he hung on the rim following a thunderous dunk with 8:06 left in the fourth quarter in Denver.
Soon after, that rim was leaning a bit to the left.
Finally, after a long delay, a worker put the rim back up and it appeared it was level.
The crowd roared as the teams ran through layup lines to get loose again in the middle of the fourth quarter.
Soon play resumed and the Nuggets won 123-111.
Denver won for the 10th time in 12 games, snapped a six-game skid against Boston and opened a one-game lead in the Western Conference.
