The NBA hadn’t played a game outdoors since 1972, and there’s probably a good reason why league officials waited 36 years to stage another.
The Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, CA, usually a setting that displays riveting rallies, backhands and overhead smashes, played host to the first outdoor basketball game in the NBA’s modern era Saturday night.
However, instead of the contest being about the beauty of a hardwood game being played underneath the desert stars, the affair came down to an element not often seen in the box score… the weather. The event, which was known as the AutoTrader.com Open, saw the Denver Nuggets outlast the Phoenix Suns, 77-72, in a game that saw Mother Nature become the sixth man.
“I don’t think anyone expected it to be this cold here,” point guard Steve Nash said. “It felt like Edmonton, Alberta, not Palm Springs.”
The temperature during the fourth quarter registered at around 65 degrees. While that is a little brisk for basketball players, the main dilemma lied in the players shuttling in and out of the game.
While the cold may have been the theme of the game, it was also the most apt description of the two teams' shooting abilities. The Suns shot 32 percent from the floor, including 13 percent from behind the arc. But Denver wasn't setting the nets ablaze either. The Nuggets shot 36 percent from the floor and only nine percent from downtown. It appeared that the wind was a much tougher obstacle than anticipated.
“It was windy,” Nash said. “It was hard when you shoot a ball and it starts slicing right.”
Even when the wind wasn’t blowing much, it became a psychological factor.
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