Nuggets' 3-Point Line Repainted After Being Too Far on Court for Mavs Game in NBA Cup

The NBA's decision to have teams use new court designs for the in-season tournament caused a problem before tipoff of Friday's game between the Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets.

Nuggets head coach Michael Malone told reporters the three-point lines had to be repainted because the dimensions were off.

Mavericks forward Grant Williams noticed the issue during a Friday morning shootaround.

"I'm like, 'There's no way this is supposed to be this far,'" Williams told reporters. "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."

It's not clear how far off the regular dimensions the lines were, but Williams said he "knew right away this wasn't right" because the gap between the corner and out-of-bounds line was noticeable tighter than it normally is.

The regulation three-point line is 23 feet, nine inches from the basket, with the exception of the corners where it is around 22 feet and there is three feet of distance between the line and the sideline.

Mavericks assistant coach Sean Sweeney, who served as acting head coach with Jason Kidd away from the team due to a non-COVID illness, said he could tell the difference in the lines when they returned to arena in the afternoon.

Neither team had any issue making threes on the repainted court. They combined to go 30-of-72 from behind the arc, but the Nuggets got the last laugh with a 125-114 victory to hand Dallas its first loss of the season.