LOS ANGELES — Sitting next to his wife, Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck slumped back in his courtside seat with a pained look on his face. Across the court, tennis superstar Novak Djokovic looked around for answers. Gary Payton II and Lester Quinones danced in front of Golden State’s bench, clearly restless.
It took 23 real-life minutes to complete the final two minutes of the Warriors’ win over the Lakers. A pair of drawn-out replay reviews disrupted the flow of a tight game, and the Crypto.com Arena’s shot clock malfunction brought it to a screeching halt.
The officiating crew tried restarting play twice, only for the shot clock to remain frozen. Without working shot clocks, or apparently operational backup machines, the Lakers’ public address announcer finished the last 1:35 by informing the arena of the shot clock time every five seconds.
“That was crazy,” Draymond Green said postgame. “Just finish the game already. That was nuts. But we got through it.”
A Crypto.com Arena spokesperson and shot clock engineer declined to comment when approached after the game.
The stoppages weren’t without drama. Los Angeles stopped the clock initially by challenging an out of bounds call, ultimately winning the challenge because both Andrew Wiggins and Jaxson Hayes simultaneously tapped the ball out of play.
The officiating crew also retroactively negated a LeBron James 3-pointer that he hit moments before play paused, ruling that he stepped out of bounds.
And two seconds after that lull, the Lakers won another challenge, successfully earning possession by virtue of Green’s heel touching the baseline.
Those replays took several minutes each to sort out.
“I’m not a fan of replay,” Steve Kerr said. “I think we should have replay just for buzzer-beaters and that’s it. The whole goal with replay is to try to get everything right, but there’s 100 plays at each end every night that are subjective. It’s not tennis, it’s not hawkeye where the ball’s either in or out. There’s all kinds of subjective stuff that happens. We’re never going to get everything right, I think the flow of the game is way more important.”
16 minutes to play 15 seconds. The celebrities have had enough. pic.twitter.com/ZlsFaCFNDc
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) March 17, 2024
Then, the shot clocks got fried. Steph Curry, in his first game back after missing the previous three contests with an ankle sprain, had to stay fresh while no basketball was played for about 15 minutes. James, the 39-year-old legend was suddenly stationary after playing 37 intense minutes.
“It’s hard,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “Guys stiffen up real quick after playing such high intensity, and it’s out of anyone’s control when the computer malfunctions.”
Curry and Green jogged up and down the court and did a couple sets of high-knees to stay loose. James said postgame that during the stoppage, the Lakers had a set play called in advance, but they didn’t get to run it for about the length of a Seinfeld episode.
A couple times, everyone geared up to resume play, only for the shot clock to remain frozen after the inbounds pass. After one false start, James launched the ball high up into the air, nearly touching the suspended center-court scoreboard in frustration.
For a league whose television product is of the utmost importance as a substantial revenue stream, it was a horrible look on the national broadcast. Scattered boos filled Crypto.com Arena.
“Definitely weird,” Curry said of the ending. “I watch a lot of golf, I want to know if they did like that ‘playing through’ thing where you see the commercials running and you’re just waiting for the game to come back. Probably not the greatest for TV.”
The Warriors closed out Los Angeles once play resumed. Curry stayed in front of James and swiped a steal, clinching the tight win. The victory could have major ramifications for each team, as they’re projected to face off in the 9-10 play-in round. The win vaulted the Warriors over the Lakers in the standings and serves a step toward earning a tiebreaker.
But the lasting image will be the players standing aimlessly on the court, waiting idly to do their jobs as fans looked on in frustration.
“It was bizarre,” Kerr said. “It seems like a few times a year, you get clock issues. That’s about as extreme as I’ve ever been a part of, where the backup unit doesn’t work either. It’s unfortunate. I felt bad for the fans. It was a great game, and all of the sudden, the last two minutes, everyone’s kind of just looking at each other wondering what to do.”