Game #78- Portland Trailblazers

Portland Trailblazers vs. Dallas Mavericks Moda Center (formally and more famously the Rose Garden) December 8, 2013 Portland in December is cold. I mean, no joke cold. I had a free hotel night at the Marriott as well as a free flight, so I took a “me” weekend to the Northwest for a Trailblazers game. My initial idea was to come up with my golf clubs and get in a round of 18 at a local course, but I was tracking the weather the entire week and thought better of it. It snowed about three days prior to my arrival, and when I flew over the golf course it was still covered in the white stuff. When I exited the plane and was walking toward the trolley station people were looking at me funny…little did I know that shorts and flip flops were not appropriate attire when it is 25 degrees outside and in the teens with wind chill. Well the day of the game I decided to explore the city a bit. The last time I was up here was for a dudes trip in the summer, very different atmosphere. We did a lot of drinking and partying, this time I was looking forward to some sightseeing, food and possibly take advantage of the states non-sales tax law. First on my list was food. I got some amazing donuts from VooDoo Donuts (one topped with bacon, the other with Oreos) and for lunch I hit up the food trucks and scarfed down an amazing gyro before exploring the town. When I couldn’t feel my hands and nose anymore I ended up in Kel’s, a great Irish pub that I happened to go to years ago with Keli and her mom. Posted up at the bar I got a hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps and watched the rest of the MLS cup between Kansas City and Salt Lake City. Then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the game. I didn’t buy anything today, even with no sales tax nothing was worth the price at Columbia or Hardware. The best thing I did when booking the trip was picking my hotel. It was three blocks from the trolley stop and less than a half mile to the arena allowing me to walk to the game. This year the Blazers are one of the best teams in the league and have their most impressive start to the season since 1990 with a 17-4 record. With a high powered offense and a strong post up D they are the second ranked team in the NBA. When I got the ticket for the game about a month ago I was expecting a blowout by the home team, Dallas had not been playing well as there all-star roster is getting up there in age, but tonight the stars aligned. There was a lot of back an forth all night, Portland with LaMarcus Aldridge, Robin Lopez, and Damian Lillard were teamed up against Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion, and Vince Carter for a down to the wire buzzer beater game. With less than two minutes in the game Dallas was holding on to a 104 to 100 lead, then Monta Ellis knocked down a 20 footer for a 6 point advantage. With 43 seconds left, the Blazer got two consecutive three’s from Batum and Lillard to tie it up. Finally with two seconds left in the game the Mav’s once again set up Monta Ellis for the game ending, buzzer beater to lift Dallas to the 108-106 win. It was really exciting and for a person who doesn’t support either team, I came away extremely satisfied. The one significant take away from the game was the good nature of the Portland fans. There were no fights, no screaming, no one bothering the Dallas fans. In fact, I saw a dude buy an entire pizza and on the way back to his car gave out slices to the local homeless people on the street. I don’t usually feel this, but seeing this extreme act of kindness really made my night.

Game #77- Atlanta Hawks

Atlanta Hawks vs. New York Knicks November 3, 2013 Philips Arena Atlanta is one of those cities I have technically been in close to 20 times, but never outside of the airport. After a week in Hawaii I immediately had to fly out to North Carolina for work, and then took a quick trip to Hot-Lanta for a Hawks game. Besides the fact my allergies were trying to kill me, I made the best out of the 16 hours in the city. I ran to the 1996 Olympic Cauldron which is now set just outside of the Atlanta Braves stadium, ran through the Olympic village, and then headed over to the game. I don’t have a lot of good things to say about the city, in fact it was a bit sketchy. Maybe if I have a bit more time to explore I will be more impressed. Philips Arena is pretty much in the heart of downtown Atlanta, and like Philadelphia the football stadium is just down the street (Georgia Dome). The arena is nice, but after a lap around the place, once again I couldn’t find any cool memorabilia or showcases. I am not sure what is going on with these sports cities. It takes so little to build a cubby hole in a few corners of a building to put up some old jerseys, shoes, basketballs, pictures, etc. Especially since two of the most recognizable players in the 90’s were on their team…Dominique Wilkins and Spud Webb. They did have a fairly cool plaza area with large pictures of current players and the CNN headquarters is part of an indoor food court that is connected to a large hotel, I guess you need to take the good with the bad. As for the game, after some serious back and forth runs by both teams it turned out to be a really exciting game. It didn’t look that way in the first quarter as Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks were putting on a clinic. At one point they were ahead by 17 points, then were down by as much as 7, but in the final period the Knickerbockers went on a 30-23 run to take the win 95-91. ‘Melo put in 25 points, Andrea Bargnani had 20 with 11 rebounds, and Tim Hardaway Jr. included 12 for NY who overpowered Jeff Teague and Al Horford on the Hawks. Perhaps the crowd had something to do with it as at least half of the arena were heavily clad in blue and orange and were eating up Anthony’s constant crossovers. The oohs and aahs almost sounded like an “And 1” mix-tape. Unlike the majority of the games I have been to, I didn’t notice anything unusual or funny at the game. For the most part the crowd was really quite (unless the Knicks were scoring). Maybe because I felt so crappy and my allergies were so bad I was practically crying in the stands I didn’t have all my faculties with me, and therefore I missed all the good stuff. Don’t worry, I have to come back for a Falcons and Braves game.

Game #76- Houston Texans

September 29, 2013 Houston Texans vs. Seattle Seahawks Reliant Stadium Holy crap, what a stadium. As I walked into Reliant Field, a strange thing hit me. I have never heard tailgate parties all rocking out to country music. I know, I know, I am in Texas. But country doesn’t seem like the type of music to get you pumped up for a football game. Anyway, as I headed toward the stadium it was once again miserably hot and humid. It had been raining all morning and I couldn’t be happier to be in a retractable roof stadium that was blasting AC. Inside, the two largest LCD screens in the country were hung up on both ends of the field (yes they are larger than the Dallas Cowboys) and inside it was just massive. As I headed to my seat I knew I had to make friends with the people around me because I needed a hard ticket stub. I ended up chatting to a bunch of Seattle fans who came from all over to watch the game. One from Seattle, one from Vancouver (yes we talked hockey), one who lives in Mission Viejo…how weird, and a father from Hawaii who I later found out was Seattle Seahawks center Max Unger’s dad. They were cool dudes and I bet they were stoked with the final score of the game. The Texans had complete control of the game until the second half. QB Matt Schaub was uncharacteristically reliable, Ariane Foster and Ben Tate were rumbling through defensive lines, Andre Johnson was catching everything around him, and JJ Watts was a beast for the Houston defense. On the other had, sophomore QB and legitimate star in the NFL Russell Wilson was lackluster for the Hawks while Marshawn Lynch was mediocre at best. Houston went into the half with a comfortable 20-3 lead and the home town fans were stoked. That was the first half… Quickly in the 4th quarter the tides changed and the Seahawks were a different team. Wilson is not a very accurate passer and is rarely a deep threat, but if you don’t pressure him he is way to fast to catch. Any play action call and he can be off for 20 yards in less than a few seconds. That ability really screwed with the Texans. You could feel the energy in the building slowly starting to die off and when it was 20-13 with only two and a half minutes left you almost knew something was going to happen. Schaub was doing the right thing by handing off the ball every time to Foster, but for some stupid reason the Texans decided to throw on a 3rd down and Richard Sherman stepped up to intercept the ball and actually took it all the way back for a 58 yard pick six. It took a while in OT, but Steven Hauschka kicked a 45 yard field goal to give the Hawks a 23-20 come back win sending home the 80,000 fans in shock (well maybe closer to 60,000, there were a lot of Seahawk fans in the stands). It was a good game, exciting as hell in the end, and maybe a little karma for their comeback win against the Chargers in week 1. I walked around the stadium but did not see any cool fan exhibits. Maybe because I couldn’t get to the lower bowls, but up top there really wasn’t much to look at. I haven’t seen a football stadium outside of Green Bay that has anything worth looking for. An interesting side note. Recently there has been a big push for e-cigarettes. They only produce vapor and often smells really good. The dude next to me was smoking the entire game, and for the first time ever I didn’t really care. I know smoking and nicotine is bad for you, but if it doesn’t affect me then go for it. In fact ban all real cigarettes and only sell the vapor versions