Last night I was sitting 5th row facing the rockets bench. I have plenty of cool pictures but I had a problem uploading them to my comp. By the time I get them up, no one will care about game 1 anymore so I figure I'll just tell you about my experience. New Offense - Right from tip off the rockets looked confused. I was able to catch a lot of chatter between them while on offense about where to go and what to do once they had the ball. I'm sure you could see by there play that the offense wasn't that fluid. cuts were slow and hesitant, and a lot of times guys had a look of "should i be doing this?" on thier face. New Players / Bench - Luis Scola is much bigger than I thought. He is not an undersized PF at all. He seemed a bit timid in his first NBA game and once he shakes that off he should be a beast. Bonzi Wells made an impact. He didn't have a great game, but if the lakers weren't so carefull he would've. Too big for guards, too quick for fowards. not one player on the lakers guarded him with a confident look on thier face. most of the time when he got the ball they looked behind them to see if help was coming. Mike James brings the attitude we need. He gets in guys faces when they mess up, but then i also saw him sit down on the scorers desk with Scola after a timeout and talk to him about faking some passes so he doesn't get another careless turnover. it looks like he knows how to talk to each player. IMO he will emerge on this team as a leader. Steve - seemed upbeat and excited during the first half, even from the bench. by the second half that started to fade. during time outs he wasn't part of the huddle. possibly the only player not paying attention to the huddle. this doesn't seem like someone who is planning on trying hard to impress the new coach into giving him some minutes. Things You Know - Shane is a hell of a defender. It's actually amazing in person, close up. The guys was draped over kobe the whole game. Every shot Kobe took, Shane had his hand close enough to touch Kobe's nose. Rafer is the only guy I'd trust to bring up the ball under pressure. It looks difficult for other players to dribble with a defender all over them. Rafer makes it look easy, in the same way Kobe made 45 on shane battier look easy. Thats all folks. I hope I get my pictures up before the thread dies!
Thanks for the post! It's great to hear first hand accounts of the game after away matches. Makes it feel like one big "happy" international family!
Thanks for the part about Rafer especially. I'm not a big Rafer supporter at all, and I'd rather him take a hook shot from the 3point line than that damn tear drop- but hes the best POINT GUARD we have. He made some crucial errors in the end, but that also falls on the team for getting him in the corner where he gets trapped. Even TMAC was getting pushed around by the 'tenacious' defense in the last minute. Now that the game is over and we snuck out with the win, did anyone feel like the refs wanted that comeback to happen? I know they swallowed the whistle on the Rafer swipe to end the game, but I'm talking about the excitement of a comeback. The Lakers were physically pushing us around in these traps and no foul was being called. When it came back on the other end, they had already called so many ticky tack fouls for Kobe that we couldn't touch them, and they had wide open shots. Just an observation, not an accusation. Anways, onto my tabata for the day.
first off, the refs didn't think it was a foul, 2nd, the replays showed it wasn't a foul, Kobe looked like a mac truck hit him on that play, he was trying to buy a foul. rafer got the top of the ball and swatted it away. end of story.
Sorry I didnt clarify. I completely agree with you there that there was no foul. But that was an EASY one to call and get away with- especially with the crap they were calling earlier in the game for Kobe. My point was that it seemed like the refs were trying to fuel a comeback attempt for opening night, at least thats what it seemed like.
glad to hear someoe's observation of steve francis from up close. I'm sure theres a way to bring him in with the way rafer's playing.
i like how right after rafer got all ball, he pointed to the ref to make sure it was clean. like he was pointing with wide eyes as he was still landing. he knew it. the ref that shouldve and did make the call had a perfect up close view, front row seat to kobe's theatrics. and man does that make me mad about francis. how are you going to learn the offense and get minutes if youre not in the huddle?! not good. and if he wants to be all like that....not needed. but i'm still taking the wait & see approach.
first of all, thanks for the update, but really I must ask, does standing in the huddle help you lose those love handles?
hi. i was in row 6. i also noticed stevie zoning out during the huddles, but i did notice him talking to yao during one of the timeouts, giving him some pointers. (or so it seemed.) he had his arm around yao and yao had his arm around him. i actually got a picture of it. if anything, if he can motivate yao to be beastly, he's worth having on the team. i also noticed shane's defense. the thing with him, is that he wont go for the block as much as he'll try to stick his hand right in your face, which is smart. kobe will shoot over him, but he'll have shane's hand blocking his vision. and also to comment on that other thread, yao's fadeaway is SILKY. looks effortless. t-mac was shooting pretty flat the first half, they were like bullets going at the rim. OP, did you notice charlie sheen sitting courtside facing rockets bench? you were probably right behind him.
Were you the guy in the Rockets jersey sitting by the goal that Battier drained the game winning 3 into?
i dont think that was him cause battier shot that right in front of phil jackson. this guy said he was sitting behind the rockets' bench
