It is certainly still the NBA preseason! Players and coaches are adjusting to the grind of an NBA season once again -- and apparently NBA clocks are doing the same. The Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers preseason clash endured literal technical difficulties to begin the game on Sunday night in LA.
Early in the first quarter, the game -- which was nationally televised on ESPN -- was delayed following three clock malfunctions. The Intuit Dome in Southern California is one of the most up-to-date arenas in all of sports, but sometimes unfortunate circumstances still occur. After it became clear that the situation was going to require extra time to solve, the Clippers and Nuggets game resumed without a working shot clock.
From just under 12 minutes until just over eight minutes remaining in the first quarter, the PA announcer had to announce when there was certain amounts of time remaining on the shot clock. Fortunately, they were able to fix the clock with over eight minutes remaining. Still, it was a bizarre situation to say the least. In fact, Richard Jefferson -- a former player who was one of the ESPN broadcasters during the game -- admitted he had never seen something occur like what happened on Sunday night in Los Angeles.
The good news is that the technical difficulties occurred during a preseason game. One can only imagine the frustration that would emerge if something like this occurred in a regular season contest -- or even a postseason game.
Clippers, Nuggets set for competitive preseason game after clock issue
The Clippers and Nuggets are both expected to contend this year. Los Angeles and Denver have been competitive in recent seasons, and it would not be surprising to see them go head-to-head in a postseason series once again. With expectations high for the 2025-26 campaign, Sunday night's preseason affair is receiving plenty of attention.
At the moment, the game is still in the first quarter. Both teams are looking to move past the shot clock dilemma and play a quality brand of basketball on Sunday evening.
Denver leads as of this story's writing, but it is a one-point game. Anything could happen, but it seems as if the Nuggets-Clippers contest could be a back-and-forth matchup. Hopefully the teams will not have to deal with any other shot clock issues.