Pics + Recap from my visit to the Rockets-Nets game

Some notes from the game-

-Everytime the Rockets play in NJ it seems like half the crowd is Asian. At times it felt like we were in the middle of Hong Kong.

-I have seen LeBron 3x in person, I have seen Dwyane Wade 3x in person, I have seen AI 2x in person, and I saw Kobe 1x in person...T-Mac is still the most impressive player in the league to watch in person. It is just amazing to see such a big guy (when standing next to VC he looked about 3 inches and 15lbs bigger) with such great ballhandling, court vision, athleticism, and an endless array of offensive firepower. And in this game he showed it all. In the first half he was knocking down fadeaways with a hand in his face, stepback jumpers over his cousin, pullup 3's with a great shotblocker in Sean Williams in his face, and easily driving past a great athlete in RJ at will. Then in the 2nd half he was making all the right decisions, with amazing passes to Yao, Rafer and Bonzi. The guy is just simply incredible to watch.

-The offense, especially in the first half when they shot 54%, was terrific. They were running the Adelman offense, with terrific backdoor cuts and nice open shots to go around. In the 2nd half, with NJ starting to double T-Mac, the offense stagnated a bit, but still mananged to get easy looks.

-Yao was a beast on both ends, and for once they weren't calling ridiculous fouls on him when he just stands there with his hands up as players simply run into his body. Offensively he showed a lot of different moves, and whenever he was fronted they quickly reposted him and he got an easy look.

-Rafer had a good game, but still sucks.

-Defense was great the whole game. They did a great job of forcing TO's and making sure every shot was contested.

-Watching the interactions of different players was fun. VC and T-Mac had lengthy conversations every chance they got, Yao and Mark Jakson were talking for a long time before the game, Deke was standing iup more than sitting down the entire game, Francis/James/Scola had a conference during free throws for the Nets in which Francis and James were giving Scola some encouragment after he missed a wide open layup. T-Mac has a special chair on the bench that is twice as big as the others, and only him and Deke occupy it. Adelman complains to his coaches after almost every play, but rarely complains to the refs. Just interesting stuff...

-During the 2nd quarter some guy in our aisle fel down the concrete stairs, completing about 2 front flips...it was a NASTY fall.

-I was sitting right near where the Rockets came in and out of the locker room, and after the game I hustled down to near court level, and if it wasn't for a kid who sneaked in front of me I would have been right at the railing. This is significant as when T-Mac went back to the locker room, he ignored everyone and went straight to our side, and high fived the kid that sneaked in front of me...I wanted to kill him. But I got a nice picture of T-Mac 3-5ft away from me, so it's all good.



Pics- http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y143/tripreports/Nets games/