With 10 minutes left in regulation of the LA Clippers’ first regular-season game at the Intuit Dome, Kevin Durant found himself at the free throw line facing something he hasn’t experienced in his 17 seasons as a pro.
The Phoenix Suns star went up against The Wall. And The Wall won, at least on this particular moment, as the 88.4% career free throw shooter missed two, sending the sellout crowd at Intuit Dome into a frenzy.
Durant scored 12 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter but could have had two more if not for the distraction of The Wall, a steep section of fans behind the basket closest to the visitor’s bench.
Durant, though, would get the Clippers and their fans back, drilling a 15-foot fadeaway late in regulation to force overtime before the Suns spoiled the Clippers’ historic night with a 116-113 win before 18,300 fans.
“Yeah, it was crazy,” Durant said of The Wall. “I was just staring at it the whole time. You’re not used to that.”
It has 51 uninterrupted rows of seats, but the first 13 rows are filled with Clippers diehard fans whose fandom is vetted by the franchise beforehand. The fans in those first 13 rows are expected to stand and chant for the entire game and create an atmosphere similar to a college student section.
This was Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s vision when he went over designs for the $2 billion arena. He wanted a homecourt advantage unlike any other in the NBA and it nearly helped the Clippers pull out its first-ever win in the state-of-the-art building.
The Wall and the high-tech 4K Halo board — the largest-ever double-sided halo display in an arena setting that is almost a full acre long — are perhaps the two biggest features that make Intuit Dome unlike any other arena in the NBA.
