Long distance! Wrongly measured 3-point line on Nuggets’ court fixed ahead of tipoff with Mavericks

DENVER (AP) — Dallas forward Grant Williams struggled with his 3-point shot during morning practice on the vibrant new Denver Nuggets court. However, it turns out that it wasn’t his shooting that was off, but rather a wrongly measured 3-point line.

The curvature of the line had been painted too far back on the blue-and-yellow floor, which was specially prepared for the NBA’s In-season Tournament that made its debut on Friday night. Fortunately, the line was repainted to the correct distance between the shootaround and the game between the Mavericks and Nuggets.

“I’m like, ‘There’s no way this is supposed to be this far,’” Williams said of his morning shootaround. “Everything was short. Plus, I could just tell from the perception, either it was the blue court and it’s messing with my eyes in the empty arena, or this line is long.”

Indeed, the line was too far back.

In the pregame warmups, Williams found his rhythm again after the line was fixed. Although he still noticed a faint remnant of the original 3-point mark on the court.

“You could tell the line is still kind of marked on the court, so it’s going to be kind of weird,” Williams said. “But we’ll make it work. Sometimes, imperfections happen so you’ve got to adjust.”

The NBA 3-point line is officially 23 feet, 9 inches, except for the corners where it is slightly shorter. Williams felt restricted between the out-of-bounds line and his sneakers during the morning session.

“I knew right away this wasn’t right,” Williams said.

The NBA orchestrated a leaguewide court design scheme specifically for the inaugural In-Season Tournament. In a press release, the league stated that it was the first time they implemented alternate courts for all 30 teams and the first time any NBA team played on a fully painted court without wood-grain details.

Denver’s court featured the logo “5280” at midcourt, representing the elevation of the Mile High City.

“Hopefully it’s dry,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone quipped about the last-minute floor corrections, “and we won’t have blue footprints all over the court.”

The Nuggets and Mavericks are part of a group that includes the Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans, Dallas, and Houston. The six group winners will advance to the quarterfinals, along with two wild-card teams (the two best second-place finishers from the groups).

The quarterfinal games will take place on December 4th and 5th at the higher-seeded teams’ home courts. The semifinals are scheduled for December 7th in Las Vegas, and the title game is set for December 9th in Las Vegas as teams compete for the NBA Cup.

“Anything that leads to a trip to Las Vegas, bunker mentality,” said Mavericks assistant coach Sean Sweeney, who filled in on Friday as head coach Jason Kidd was unable to make the trip due to a non-COVID illness.

Regarding the 3-point line situation, Sweeney added: “Hopefully it’s the correct one now. And if it isn’t, hopefully we make more and it doesn’t matter.”

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA