My turn - Thoughts/pics from the Wizards/Rockets game

Well here's another account from the game. I was in attendance in my Novak jersey I'll try to bold things to make it easier to read..

I convinced 11 others to go, including 1 Wizards fan, 3 Rockets fans, and 7 who just wanted to come for the experience. But because of that, I ended up buying the cheapest seats possible...so we sat way up top behind the goal. The view from the top wasn't as good as it was in the Summit, but it really wasn't bad at all. Oddly enough, about 30-40% of my section seemed to be Rockets fans. There were a good # of YOF's around the stadium, too (seriously...cheering when Yao scored, but not when the other Rockets or Wizards scored). The questions I was answering the most all night--"When is Novak gonna play?" and "Why are the Wizards wearing those ugly uniforms?"

I lucked into 2 "Acela Club" passes the day before the game from a friend. So in the 3rd quarter, my friend and I headed down to check it out. The concourse for that level has much nicer food than the rest of the arena and almost no lines. Inside the actual Acela Club, it was a restaurant/bar with a lot of seating on the "deck", which was behind the goal and just above the lower level. Those seats would've actually been great, but I didn't want to desert my friends. We hung around there during the lighting fiasco and for a few minutes of game action before heading back up (pics below). It was your typical high-priced atmosphere, though. No one was really cheering there, and most of them were just there to have dinner (even 90% of the ones wasting the tables with the good views of the game). At least half of them were congregated at the bar with their backs to the game that they were sorta watching on the TV's above that bar. The restaurant food and service looked pretty nice, though.

Actual game action: noticed the 3 shot clock violation in the 1st half and the Mutombo blocks. As our stat-happy friend was just pointing out before this game, the half-court D was solid...but the Wizards were getting so many transition and secondary-break points, it seemed. The stats don't seem to indicate it, but turnovers seemed to be absolutely *killer* in the 1st half. T-Mac hunched over and going straight to the locker room scared the hell out of me, cause it was obviously his back. Sometimes you wish you had those sideline reporters to tell you it isn't as bad as you might think.

I was going insane with Luther's clutch shooting (end of game as well as big shots earlier in the 2nd half). Rafer forced 2 or 3 bad shots down the stretch...I was screaming for him not to shoot the entire possession when he ended up shooting that floater. His stats look fine, but I'm not sure why he forced there. Juwan also had a stretch of bad play in the 4th Q I thought. But he definitely hit the big shot.

I knew Arenas would heat up because he always does it at home. But I definitely didn't expect that insanity! The crowd went nuts...but, they're worse than Houston fans. They were louder for T-shirts. They went home when the Wiz were down 9 with 4 mins to play. They went home down 4 with 30ish seconds to play. Seriously..that team has almost no home-court advantage. It didn't get loud at all until sometime under 5 mins to play in the game! Red Rowdies, keep up our home advantage, because it means a lot in comparison.

JVG stuck with Spanoulis through a turnover or 2...I guess for his D. But when he was on Arenas, he didn't seem to be all that effective. He fouled him a couple of times (including on a 3), and got blown by a few times. Is he just better playing off the ball but not that great man-to-man?



Overall, I tried to be relatively courteous and not be the completely obnoxious fan. I was cheering the good plays instead of random and constant (I've done it a lot in the past in other teams' arenas...tried not to ruin the experience for everyone around me--esp. with little kids there). But man, put me in a close game in the 4th quarter, and all that effort goes out the window. I was going insane. I went nuts for Rafer's fake-behind-the-back move earlier, but so did the rest of the crowd.

Funny stories

There were actually 3 kids nearby who were the only ones trying to antagonize me. I thought it was hilarious...they were probably between 8 and 14. When T-Mac posted up Stevenson and got a layup, I screamed "Too easy!!"...suddenly I hear a little kid's voice scream "Too hard!" After I was going nuts when Rafer put the move on, I hear him screaming "Scoreboard!" hahahaha, my friends and I were laughing so much at these kids. It was great. A couple of Luther's 3's got me to scream "Biiiiiiiig shot!"...followed by, of course, "Small shot!" Kids are hilarious. (see pic below)

Finally...when I was in the Acela Club, Yao was beginning his 4th Q dominance...and the guy pictured below looked at the girl he was with and said.."He just..too damn good!"


The high-up view


Zoomed


Acela Club view


Zoomed


Kids from the story (oh and that Asian dude whose face is in the pic was a random Rockets fan there with his friend...my friends are in the row below)


Guy from the story


Happy ending

 

I didn't see a whole lot of double-teaming. Even after Arenas caught fire, he was coming open a little too often off picks or penetration...you'd think they'd try not to leave him.

I did see T-Mac, then Battier, and then Spanoulis all take their shots. It looked like he wanted one player to try to shut him down...but it wasn't working. Arenas did get some shots on secondary breaks, and when he was doubled or well-covered, it usually left Jamison open for a J.

 

hahah, not especially

 

One thing I forgot to include. The game was PACKED. Especially compared to the Rox/Wiz game here last year which was probably at 60% of capacity.. and the year before at maybe 75% b/c that year it was on "college night" (where you could get some cheap tickets).

So maybe we're a bigger road draw this year than we have been in the past couple?