Heading into Wednesday night, the Miami Heat likely thought the only deterrent to a 24-game win streak was LeBron James' old team—the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Scoreboard malfunction should be added to that list.
That's the latest from the South Florida Sun Sentinel's Ira Winderman, who reported on Twitter that the start of Wednesday's showdown in Cleveland has been delayed due to a leaky substance from the Quicken Loans Arena's scoreboard:
Cavaliers say issue is from scoreboard, with a 15-minute delay now in place, plus additional player warm-ups to follow.
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) March 20, 2013
Could be looking at as much as an hour delay.
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) March 20, 2013
Cavaliers team owner Dan Gilbert also posted on Twitter that the team was working overtime to fix the problem and get the game started:
Scoreboard is leaking fluid on to floor.We need to lower scoreboard to fix. Never seen this one before. Going to be several minutes to fix.
— Dan Gilbert (@cavsdan) March 20, 2013
Sam Amico posted this tweet to help clarify what caused the malfunction:
Scoreboard issue at The Q blamed on "condensation from CO2 tank." Cavs have had scoreboard since 2007, say they have never experienced this.
— Sam Amico (@SamAmicoFSO) March 20, 2013
Beyond the Buzzer also posted a tweet with various pictures from the arena during what should have been NBA action:
Cavaliers-Heat delayed because of an oily substance leaking from scoreboard twitter.com/BeyondTheBuzze…
— Beyond The Buzzer(@BeyondTheBuzzer) March 20, 2013
If there wasn't enough intrigue from Miami's current winning streak and the always-interesting return of King James to his former team, this incident made sure that fans got their money's worth.
James, who scored 30 and 28 points in two wins over the Cavaliers so far this season (both in Miami), side-stepped any questions about a potential return to Cleveland from reporters on Wednesday in his first return trip to Ohio during the 2012-13 season (via Jodie Valade of the Cleveland Plain Dealer).
With the Heat winning every game in the past 23 contests, who would blame him?
The Heat are going to have a chance to get to win No. 24 in a row, but fans at the Q are going to have to wait for the action to start until the floor can be cleaned and the problem with the scoreboard rectified.
