Something was off tonight in the Charlotte Hornets vs the Toronto Raptors game in Scotiabank Arena. And it caught attention immediately. What was supposed to be a clash between LaMelo Ball and Scottie Barnes’ squads ended up being heavily delayed. So, what happened?

With 11:20 on the clock in the first quarter, the referees called a delay in the game, and everyone could see the issue. Strobe lights, used as part of the pre-game presentation, didn’t shut off, flashing relentlessly at both teams’ players. The players slowly walked back to the benches as the arena crew and officials scrambled to figure out what had happened.

The league has delayed games for various reasons in the past, including power failures, wet floors, fire alarms, even bats flying around inside the arena, but tonight’s incident might be a first.

“Feel like you’re back in Studio 55!” Raptors commentator Matt Devlin joked, with co-commentator Alvin Williams quipping, “You came to a basketball game and a disco broke out.”

After a lengthy delay, the game was finally resumed, and so far, the game has been close. At the time of writing, the Hornets lead 42-36 with 4:02 left in the second quarter behind a strong showing from Ball, Miles Bridges, and rookie Ryan Kalkbrenner.

On the Raptors’ side, Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley have led the way, with decent contributions from Brandon Ingram.

There have also been various other strange incidents that have caused game delays in the past. With the Sacramento Kings in the city to play against the San Antonio Spurs in Texas in 2009, a bat flew into the building, causing a lengthy delay.

The conclusion was even more dramatic: Spurs guard Manu Ginobili swatted the bat out of the air, and had to get rabies shots afterwards.

Context of the Charlotte Hornets vs Toronto Raptors Matchup

The Charlotte Hornets entered tonight’s matchup looking to keep life miserable for their conference rivals, and the matchup between the two teams is far more competitive than their records might suggest.

The teams split their two meetings this season, including a stunning 118-111 overtime comeback win for the Hornets last weekend.

Availability was a key point of focus coming into tonight. Collin Sexton was ruled out today, and Brandon Miller, Ryan Kalkbrenner, and Tre Mann were all ‘questionable’ going into warmups.

Sexton and Kalkbrenner were both injured during the team’s game against the New York Knicks, as Charlotte fell to 0-2 on their current road trip.

The Toronto Raptors faced their own roster questions on the second night of a back-to-back after a heartbreaking loss to the Los Angeles Lakers the previous night. Jakob Poeltl is set to return, but RJ Barrett and Ochai Agbaji will continue to miss games.

LaMelo Ball remains the main source of Charlotte’s offense, and logged a huge bounce-back performance against the Knicks: 34 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds, along with 16 points in the team’s fourth-quarter surge.

Scottie Barnes is coming off a near-triple-double against the Lakers, holding LeBron James to eight points on 4-17 shooting, helping end the legend’s 10-point streak that began in 2007.