Tuesday’s NBA slate features six games, but the clear headliner of the evening took place at TD Garden in Boston. The Phoenix Suns visited the Boston Celtics for the second matchup between the two teams in the last five days, and it was televised nationally on TNT. In addition, most of the stars were on the floor in Boston, with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Jrue Holiday in action for the Celtics against Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and company for the Suns. However, the excitement briefly derailed just as the game was set to tip off around 7:30 pm ET because, well, the lights went out.
The lights temporarily went out at TD Garden just as Celtics-Suns was about to tipoff pic.twitter.com/ZShWXUiWrU
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 14, 2024
Unlike some other lighting issues, this was a full-on blackout, but full lighting resumed almost instantly. It happened so quickly, in fact, that the two teams simply continued to play, and the officiating crew did not stop play or legislate matters in any way. The tip had already happened and all that anyone missed was Bradley Beal collecting the ball, so rather than restart things they just let it go.
Just a few seconds later, Durant was burying a jump shot at the 11:40 mark of the first quarter, and all was right with the world.