[15-0]Rockets-Clipper game experiences

Sorry I wanted to post some stuff last night but I couldnt get the pictures uploaded till I was at work and then got busy and couldnt do anything at work.

anyways here I go:

RAID and I got to staples a shade before 6pm and got stuck waiting outside to be let in. They usually let in people at 6 but for some reason they delayed entry till about 615 last night. tm1ym11 came with his friend who was a clipper fan and met up with us outside. RAID and I kept waiting for SunsRocketsFan and scyman to show up...they came up from San Diego but were buying tickets at the Box Office



once we were let in we walked inside there were a few players warming up, chuck, scola, battier,bonzi, landry and brooks. but Battier left the court a minute after we got inside. scola shot for another minute or so I was down there right behind the bench taking pictures but unfortunately like I mentioned in the other thread I was borrowing a friend's camera and he told me to use the "s" setting for sports and movement so I was and none of the pictures came out...I was pretty bummed.

but scola was leaving the court and I yelled out his name he looked over at me and waved and then he saw I was wearing his jersey and started to smile ear to ear and give me a thumbs up sign and pointed at his jersey. I guess he was really surprised to see someone outside of houston wearing it. (another rockets fan in the section next to us wearing a francis jersey and whose gf has a posterior that RAID kept commenting on was asking wear I bought the jersey cuz he wanted one too)

After a while it was just landry and brooks on the court they were running various drills with the three assistant coaches. I didnt see who was warming up for the clippers but it turned out it was Cat by himself practicing out there. When it was landry and brooks Air Bullard grabbed a ball and started launching a few threes...he made 3 out of 9 or 10.





when matt sat down with bill tm1ym11 and I called out their names and asked if we could take a picture...bill at first didnt really seem up for it but matt was and so bill went along as well. damn matt is really tall. an usher took a picture and I told him man its just going to be our heads and matts chest and body because he is so tall...bill got a kick out of that.



Then the team came out for warmups. everyone came out did the layup drills and all. I called luis out (whats really cool and this was true at the laker game I went to earlier this year is that while other players tune out the fans calling their names luis will look over and acknowledge them) Luis saw me again and pumped his fist at me. I started taking some pictures of the warmups and we kept trying our best to get other players to look over. The only other guy to show us some love was Francis. He looked at us and waved and then saw the guy in the section over (same guy who asked about my jersey) and pointed at him wearing the francis jersey. Steve was very friendly with all the guys on the team I dont know where all this "being a bad apple" is coming from he was joking with yao, scola, rafer, bonzi, james, tmac actually everyone.

The one thing I missed taking a picture of was when Yao, Steve and Cat met at half court during warmups to greet each other I was just looking at it and was caught in the moment. Yao and Steve talked a lot to each other during warmups though

 

yao and tmac sat down a bit early to focus themselves for the game



Once the game started the first half was a total drag the scoring by Kaman the people around us were yelling that he was totally taking care of Yao (which he was early) but there really wasnt much of anything going on for either team.

when sam hurt himself a lot of the rocket players were laughing, esp landry because it looked like sam flop and was faking an injury to get a foul on shane but when they found out he was really hurt that tried to help him out and up.

all during the game i got some text messages from Xerobull, Dave2000 and some at the end from Miguel that we were being shown on tv in houston which was awesome

 

at halftime some guy from germany wanted to take a picture with RAID and I...last time at the laker game a lot of people were taking pictures of tm1ym11 and myself

the second half was a bit better when tracy came out hot and scored RAID and I started to get a bit more excited then, but it was a bit premature as the clippers made a late run to tie up the quarter. everytime rafer took a shot and made it we went nuts cuz it was just amazing how well he was playing that night, but of course he did take some bad shots.

the fourth quarter though we were up out of our seats a lot. we kept cheering like crazy as Tmac just went Tmac on the clippers. the people around us started to leave partially cuz of us starting to really lay it on and of course the game being out of hand. When chuck went to the free throw line RAID covered his vision with the rockets towel cuz he didnt want to see how bad it was. and once it went i told him we went nuts.

after the game we went down to where tm1ym11 was sitting and scyman and sunsrocketsfan met up with us down there we kept calling out rafers name during the postgame interview. he waved at us as he was heading back into the locker room.

after the game:

scyman,sunsrocketsfan,tm1ym11,RAID and myself

as we were leaving there was another guy wearing a scola jersey holding the door open for us...I saw this guy at the laker game as well..he saw me wearing the scola jersey and he smiled and i went to shake his hand and he ended up giving me a hug instead. It turned out he was Scola's uncle from the area. We all told him how happy we were to have him on the team and it sounds like he was really happy Luis is in the NBA. I told him how its cool how Luis acknowledges the fans and he said that the night before they went to dinner out in Hollywood and whenever there was anyone, even some drunks wanted to take pictures with Luis he would always oblige and be nice.
his uncle said that he is starting to get more comfortable with the game. Now his uncle said also that "expects luis to be the starter by jan" i dont know if that is what luis told him and he told us or just his uncle's expectation




at the end of the day i was a bit sad since i wont be able to see the rockets play again until april when they play the clippers in LA again i dont have plans at the moment to go back to houston until the playoffs or i cant make road trips to the other games up north cuz they are during the week...this weekends sacto game i cant go to plans down here.

but hey 15-0 so far I am knocking on wood that it stays undefeated as long as I am a rockets fan!

 

he didnt shoot free throws for too long and its hard to see from the side angle if his feet were moving. I do remember at the laker opener though where we sat behind the basket he didnt move his feet when shooting free throws, but that was the first game i am sure he has gotten coaching since then. also in general his jump shot during warmups also looks a lot smoother than it was last year, of course probably never see that in a real game.