With players on both sides hitting the deck like they were on the world's shiniest Slip N' Slide, play was halted in the first quarter so that the floor could be wiped. It was a bizarre scene in an NBA arena, and it is believed to have been caused by the Bruins' ice underneath the floor. With a driving rainstorm and unseasonably warm temperatures in Boston all day, something funky was going on — that much we all knew.
But what we didn't know was how close the game was to being called.
"I was nervous," said Celtics coach Doc Rivers, according to NESN.com's Tony Lee. "[Clippers head coach] Mike [Dunleavy] and I came together [with referee Joey Crawford]. We, at that point, were very close. If anybody slipped in the next two minutes, the game was over, and Joey was going to make that call. We said almost simultaneously [that] we can't afford a guy to get injured on this floor. We're not used to 55-degree days in January."
It was an issue that was affecting both teams, but former UMass star and current Clipper Marcus Camby felt the situation was handled unfairly.
"Oh my goodness," Camby said, according to WEEI.com. "We were all slipping. It seemed like every Clipper was slipping, then when Ray Allen slips, they want to bring it in and address the issue. So that’s what we were chirping about. It was kind of dangerous out there for both teams."
Celtics forward Rasheed Wallace took a bit of a more lighthearted mentality while at the same time showing off his figure skating knowledge.
"Had to play cautiously the whole game," he told WEEI. "You can’t put them brakes on when you want to because you don’t know if you’re going to slide. Saw a couple of guys slipping out there like Peggy Fleming. It’s part of it when you play in arenas that have ice under the floor.”
