It wouldn’t be the NBA Finals without some good, old fashioned gamesmanship, and that might have been what went down ahead of Wednesday’s Game 3 at TD Garden in Boston.
Pregame warmups had to be paused because the rim on the Warriors’ side was slightly higher than the mandated 10 feet. Arena crews broke out the tape measure and then had to reconfigure the basket to adjust the height back to 10 feet.
The Warriors have their share of shooting talent, and when someone like Stephen Curry notices something is up with the rim, it’s probably worth investigating. It turned out that they were correct to be concerned.
Dubs’ warmups had to be paused because the hoop was too high 😳 pic.twitter.com/UgMkAB4EwE
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) June 8, 2022
Obviously, the slightest adjustment to a rim can throw off a shot — especially given the muscle memory involved with shooting a basketball. It could have been an honest mistake, sure, since teams do switch sides after halftime. But arena staffs typically confirm the height of the rims well before the teams ever have a chance to shoot on them.
NBA fans understandably thought it was strange that this happened to the Warriors … IN BOSTON.
