New York Knicks 99, Atlanta Hawks 98
The Game Notes of Doom take some time off from basketball to... watch basketball. David Lee impresses, Danilo Gallinari shoots, and referees almost don’t make our day.
I'm not a big NBA person. The acrobatic stunts don't get my pulse pounding the way I gather they're supposed to. I don't think the NBA is where amazing happens, I think it's where ballhogging happens. That all being said, if someone offers me free tickets to a basketball game, I'm going unless it conflicts with another game.
I'm not used to being up in the 400s. I've been up there before for various events- my first Rangers game, a couple of Knick games, even a couple of Liberty games back in the day when those sections were sold. But I'm spoiled by life in Liberty-land. Being up there gave me the germ of a theory; maybe NBA fans appreciate the acrobatic, explosive plays more because they're the only thing you can see from the upper deck. It's harder to see the smaller details when you're closer to the ceiling than the floor. And thanks to ridiculous ticket prices, most people can only afford to see games from the upper deck when they do go. But this is all hypothetical, and I'm not even sure my brain is working right now, so maybe I'm not making sense.
I think every tourist in New York was in our section. There were maybe five people who didn't have cameras or illegal camcorders out during the game. I would have done something highly inappropriate to the guy in front of me if he had used that illegal camera to block my view of the game.
The anthem singer and her HOLY CRAP THAT'S BRIGHT pink dress were doing very well until near the end, when she started thinking she was Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin all rolled into one. No. Just no.
Whoever does the video clips for the Knicks should be applauded. Those were some nice videos, especially the one that linked the past and the present. But I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. Tradition is to be celebrated, not ignored.
It was good for the soul when we heard "Gotta Get Up" and they showed Sista Christon on the Jumbotron. She looks good. Is it May yet?
Atlanta's uniforms are really ugly and they brought an awful lot of fans with them.
Jamal Crawford got a warm welcome back from the fans- I guess he was popular when he was a Knick? Played well enough, in any case. Jeff Teague does not seem to be the brightest bulb in the basketball box. Zaza Pachulia had at least one set of devoted fans who brought a Georgian flag with them, but he didn't play all that well- some exceptionally dumb fouls on his part.
Marvin Williams is a bigger man than I thought, and bigger than I noticed the first couple of times he went into the game. Joe Johnson started off hot, but didn't remain as important a factor as the boxscore would suggest. Mike Bibby was underwhelming, which might have been the real difference in the Hawks not quite getting over the hump. Al Horford did a lot of tough work inside- he had a lot of offensive rebounds because the Knicks weren’t crashing the boards. I remember one especially nice dunk by Josh Smith, but that’s about it. Of course, I’m now writing these notes at 12:30 the following day.
I cringed every time they did the Tony the Tiger thing for Toney Douglas- I like the kid. He’s got game. House was part of the third quarter surge that gave the Knicks the lead. Al Harrington isn’t exactly what I would call the world’s greatest defender, but he had some nice shots in the fourth. That’s one hell of a sixth man they have there.
Sergio Rodriguez looked so lost out there. I don’t know when he joined the Knicks, but my guess would have been at about 4:30 Sunday. Lost defensively, didn’t know where his teammates were. When he got the ball and was able to do things himself, he was okay. I have no idea why he was starting. For that matter, I don’t know how Bill Walker ended up in the starting lineup, but he acquitted himself well (someone’s been shooting around with Laurie Koehn, hasn’t he?). David Lee- I love his hustle, but he’s got to learn to play with fouls. Once he got the fifth, he was a lot more tentative than I think he could have been. Other than that, I really, really like him. He’s the kind of guy WNBA fans would enjoy watching. He does the right things on the floor. Gallinari- wow, what a shooting night. The PA announcer at the Garden loves putting the accent on his name, so it’s good that he went off. I’ve never seen anyone play ninja defense the way he does, though- his hands were always chopping and lashing out, but just the hands, not the arms. I do love Italian body language; it’s the only way people in the 400s can tell what’s going on.
And then there was almost a riot. The Knicks, being the Knicks, managed to choke away nine-points of a ten-point lead, and turned the ball over on the last possession. The Hawks came speeding up the court, but I swear they had a flashback to being the bad Hawks and managed to fuck up two easy shots. The third tip-in went in, but by then the buzzer had long since sounded and the Knicks had escaped. Well. Until the referees signaled that the shot was good. The arena staff were stunned. And as Mike W announced that, “As it stands now, the final score is Atlanta 100, the Knicks 99,” the arena erupted in booing, a low, ugly noise. But there’s nothing as happy as a New York crowd that gets its way.
I’m not going to make a regular practice out of going to NBA games, and I wouldn’t even if I had the money. But I’ll give the Garden credit- the last two games I’ve been to there have been exciting and come down to a shot right near the end of the game. (I went to a Rangers game a couple of months ago; I didn’t write it up because I don’t know enough about hockey to do that.)
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
March 8th, 2010: Atlanta at New York
Sunday, November 2, 2008
November 1st, 2008: Golden State at New Jersey
Golden State Warriors 105, New Jersey Nets 97
Poor Nets. But there are beacons of hope and awesomeness out there.
There's always something good to be said for home openers. The crowd is enthusiastic, especially when the team's already won on the road. There's anticipation I the air- is something special going to happen this year? Do we have the magic? Who the hell are some of these guys? That kind of thing.
A lot of people, but a lot of empty seats in the lower bowl. Bad combination, in my eyes. A gold star to the two Warriors who made a point of signing for all the kids waiting before the game. I have no idea who they were, but they signed while a couple of their teammates ran past or only signed for one or two people. It's nice to see NBA guys do that; it defeats the stereotype, and I like to see stereotypes be defeated.
Wasn't a great anthem. She had the potential to sing it well, but then she started throwing some ridiculous styling into it, and things went downhill from there. I'm thinking about starting the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to National Anthems. I think its time has come.
The most impressive play of the night, in my eyes, was when Corey Maggette, who was about to go flying into the stands, instead hurdled the two rows of courtside seats to land safely in the aisle behind them. Who knew cross-training would have such uses? He had a quietly solid game. Their center, Andris Biedrins (whose name the PA guy constantly pronounced as if he were drunk, and I know Latvian has some strange pronunciations, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't it), played surprisingly well in the paint for a Euro, but I've never seen someone cherry-pick so badly as he did- there were two or three plays that I can remember where he never even bothered to cross halfcourt, including plays where he would have been really needed since his team missed the initial shot. Stephen Jackson is an asshole. A good shooter, but an asshole. Al Harrington was a better shooter and less of an asshole. Didn't see much of Nelson. Wasn't terribly impressed with the Warriors' bench, but I do like Azubuike- I remember him from college.
I like Josh Boone. He didn't play in the preseason game, and it's been a while since I saw him play in college, but seeing him now, I like what he brings to the table. Something good always seemed to happen when he was around the ball, whether it was a follow, a rebound, or some other kind of key play. Does anyone know what happened to Yi? He didn't play the second half, and the Nets really could have used him- or, y'know, anything when they started to fold in the third quarter. Carter got his shots, and had a couple of great plays- I think what actually amazes me most about him is his range from long distance, not the acrobatics he's better known for. During shootaround, he was launching from near halfcourt and hitting half the time. What can I say? Chicks dig the long ball. Harris, in my eyes, played too far away from his strengths, trying to be a scoring point instead of a distributing point- too much Becky Hammon, not enough Ticha Penicheiro. Bobby Simmons was unremarkable, which is all I expect of him. Brook Lopez got screwed by the refs- well, okay, the Nets got screwed, especially in the third quarter, because I refuse to believe that Golden State's defense is so vanilla that a 39-21 foul differential that leads to a 52-28 FTA discrepancy is legit- but his fifth foul was not a foul. I like Ryan Anderson on offense, not so much on defense. I think I will eventually prefer Douglas-Roberts over Dooling at the point, but for now, Dooling is the marginally more effective player.
Battle of the Bands winner performed at halftime. Nice instrumentals, not impressed with the lead singer.
Small featurette on Lopez and Anderson trick-or-treating. Better sound quality might have made it funnier, but it was pretty amusing as is.
Before I end these notes, there is a moment of awesome I need to share. As we left, it occurred to me that Sean Williams hadn't been inactive, but also hadn't played, and I commented on it to the boy. An older gentleman walking near us mentioned that there was a preseason game that Williams was supposed to start, but that Williams went to Coach Frank and said that Lopez needed the time more. Yes, the guy gave up a start for the benefit of his teammate and his team. That's unusual in any sport, but it's even more effective in a league that's so often considered to be a haven for the most selfish assholes out there. I knew there was something I liked about him!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
October 22nd, 2008: Philadelphia at New Jersey (preseason)
Philadelphia 76ers 118, New Jersey Nets 100
The Game Notes of Doom head to the Meadowlands. Hey, any port in an offseason.
This wasn't my first NBA game. I thought I'd get that on the record. I've been to two Knicks games. They weren't very impressive, and I found myself longing for the Liberty. My first Net game was much the same. Granted, it's preseason, and I should give them another chance. I'm sure there'll be more energy in the building for the home opener.
The road to the Izod Center is one of the more depressing I've ever traveled to get to a basketball game. I'm used to arenas being within walking distance of your choice of public transit, or maybe a short shuttle ride away. But the shuttle from Secaucus Junction winds through corporate parks and the lonely desolation of the Swamp, with only a few signposts of commercialism to show that there is indeed human habitation in this neck of the woods, into a dreary spiral of highways through construction and parking lots that eventually comes to a stop at the arena. Not my idea of fun.
I was at the game through one of those six-degrees-of-separation stories that never take place in real life- my boyfriend's co-worker's daughter was scheduled to play the halftime game, and her proud father had extra tickets he was more than willing to share with a couple of basketball fans. So we were pretty high up, and the steep pitch of the arena seating didn't help matters much at all. Those stairs were pretty intense, and I hope never to have to climb that many stairs on a regular basis.
The Nets give out rosters. MSG, I'm looking at you. All kinds of useful information there. I found a surprising number of familiar names on both rostesr. Apparently I've taken in more NBA information than I realized. Of course, this didn't stop me from having to ask what happened to Richard Jefferson. Not my league, what can I say?
Awful anthem. If this guy was a finalist on anything, I don't think I wanted to see the competition.
I don't think I've ever seen a team take as many threes as the Sixers did. And I'm a Liberty fan. They were taking them from all over the place- and hitting them, to boot. There was a point where the Sixers were hitting 70% of their threes. We didn't see a lot of what I imagine their usual suspects would be- no Dalembert, not a lot of Iguodala, not too much of Green, not too much Brand, no Andre Miller. Lou Williams had some very impressive shooting, as did Kareem Rush. I like him, but I think I like him from college, so that's not exactly helpful. Despite the great shooting, the Sixers weren't really all that great- it looked like a lot of guys were trying to do too much to make the team. Which, I suppose, says something about the Nets that a mediocre team beat them and their starters like a red-headed stepchild.
Because the Nets were playing with all their stars, albeit with them playing reduced minutes. Does Vince Carter always take that many threes? I always thought he was much more of an inside guy. He had one beautiful pass inside to… I want to say Harris? Reminded me of Janel's nifty little passes. And I always did like Devin Harris, and I gotta say, he ran the offense well. Tried to do a little too much sometimes- a lot of the guards on both teams did, to the point where I wanted to pick them up and shake them and remind them that cute is for the team picture. I like the chemistry with him and Sean Williams. Someone needs to get Brook Lopez to a free throw shooting coach, because otherwise Jennifer Azzi will hunt him down and kick his ass. He's still a little rough around the edges. Maybe he should have continued taking advantage of that Stanford education. I really like Ryan Anderson, too. He complements the team well. (And I'd love to see a road trip Jeopardy! competition. Stanford, Cal, and BC grads would make for an excellent game.) Yi doesn't look like he knows his teammates yet- he only started turning it on late in the game, when it was very obviously a lost cause. Once they develop some chemistry, they might look better. Brian Hamilton and Eddie Gill were trying to do way too much- Hamilton I can understand, since he's a rookie looking to break in, but Gill's a veteran. He should know better. Do your job and don't screw up. Stupid fouls are fail.
Right now, the Nets really look like the NBA's spare parts depot. Harsh, I know, especially during preseason, but until they learn to follow their shots, they'll be going nowhere.