I had to go to DC this week for a workshop, so I decided that I would try and catch a few games while I was there. The first night I saw the Washington Capitals take on the New Jersey Devils and the second night I saw the Washington Wizards go up against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

First, the Verizon Center reminds me a lot of the United Center in Chicago. I haven’t checked, but I imagine they were both built by the same Architectural firm. Anyway, the stadium itself is pretty nice; nothing really stood out as being unique about it like the big Dr. Pepper bottle in Dallas’ AA Arena. The seats that I had- upper deck for both nights, had good sightlines except that the speakers block viewing access to the monitors with the stats, which sucked for me as I could see one team’s stats, but not the other. Concessions were absurdly expensive, so I ate at the restaurants outisde the stadium. The Verizon Center is right in the heart of Chinatown, but also has several other types of places to eat and shop as well.

Caps v. Devils: The crowd for this game was really weak. The announced crowd was 10.7K, but I doubt that there were over 7K in actual attendance. On top of that, there were lots of Devils fans, some of whom probably drove down for the game.

The game itself was entertaining- the Devils started strong, but the Caps would end up dominating the middle and latter stages of the game. The final was 3-2, but this score is not really a good indicator of how much the Caps dominated. The funny thing is that Alex Ovetchkin didn’t even score and they still won- I guess he saves all of his goals for Atlanta.

Wizards v. Wolves: As was the case last night, the crowd was weak. An announced crowd of 12K was probably more like 9K. A few Corey Brewer/UF fans were in attendance, but nothing like the Away Support that the Devils received the previous night.

The Wizards controlled this game from start to finish. To me, Caron Butler is one of the most under-appreciated players in the League. He does everything well- shoot, drive, defend, rebound, pass. He’s the basketball equivalent of a Five-Tool Player. He ended up with a 20 or so points, 10 rebs, and 4-5 assists. In fact, he, Antawn Jamison and Brendan Heyward all had Double-Doubles, probably the first time I’ve ever seen three players from one team all get Double-Doubles in the same game.

As far as the Wolves go, Craig Smith was unbelievable; he had 36 points in the game on 74% shooting, including scoring 15 points in the 1^st Quarter. Besides him, no one looked too impressive. There’s been a lot of buzz about Al Jefferson this year and I see that he’s averaging 20 and 10, but he didn’t stand out at all, scoring only 12, mostly in mop-up time.

The funniest moment of the night was when the scoreboard operator wanted everyone to boo during Wolves free throws-they showed a montage of Cowboys photos (Jerry Jones, Jimmy Johnson, Aikman, Emmitt). People were booing with unmatched gusto; it would’ve made Dave proud.  

Bizarre Moment of both nights: There were guys outside selling bootleg T-Shirts and Skull Caps with #21 Sean Taylor. Always good to capitalize off of untimely deaths!

OK, the draft is Thursday and the question remains: Who will Billy Knight waste his picks on?”

I have a two-fold question for you:

1. Who do you think the Hawks should draft at 3 and 11?

2. Who do you think Billy Knightmare will draft? (This question can obviously be abused and taken in so many directions, based on his track record)

My thoughts:

1. Conley and Noah. Conley because we need a PG, Noah because we have no defense in the post and even though he sucks offensively, his intensity is good in the paint on D.

To be honest, i’d like to see them make some trades and get an established 4 or 5 in here instead of waiting 2-3 years for the draft picks to develop. However, I don’t trust Billy- he might pull a package deal trading #3 and #11 for the rights to Ivano Newbill. Although we did get our #11 pick for Al Harrington, that rip-off ( I don’t want to use the word “trade” because a trade implies something swapped for another on equal terms) will go down as one of the most uneven trades in Hawks history. Way to go Billy, you really showed some shrewd business acumen on that one. Who knows how much more damage he could do with two lottery picks to trade away?

2. It’s such a crapshoot trying to figure out what is going on in Billy’s Shell. He’ll probably do something like waste the #3 on Noah when he can have him at #11, just like he wasted the #5 on Shelden last year. With the #11, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him not address the PG issue at all and go for the best athlete- probably a 6′7 Swingman would fit the bill. Thaddeus Young anyone?  

Watch Shawn Bradley get used.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdPstztPkLA

Kim and I went to the Mavs game Saturday here in Dallas. This was my first Mavs game of the year and I was anxious to see the best team in the NBA after watching countless games on TV. We were a bit late as parking was a huge hassle. Finally arriving at our seats with 6 minutes left in the first quarter, the Nuggets were leading by a few points until Dallas went on a bit of a run to lead at the half. Iverson went to the locker in the second quarter due to an injury but he was back pretty soon and went right back in the game. This was Kim’s first game so I decided not to spoil her with good seats (much like I did at UGA/Tennessee). We were very high up but the views at the AAC are pretty good everywhere.

The big intrigue became whether or not Dirk would get a triple-double as he had 9 rebounds and 8 assists with 4 minutes left in the third. Naturally, when he came back in the 4th, the Mavs seemed to miss every shot he would have received an assist on. He finished with over 30 points, 11 rebounds and 8 assists. M.V.P. indeed. The Mavs look to extend their home streak to twenty Monday against the Hawks. Not sure they have much of a chance of winning this game as it is the second of a back to back. Looks like Dallas will probably extend their current win streak to 12.

for me to become a bigger fanboy of Christian Laettner:

http://web.mlsnet.com/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20070108&content_id=81370&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp

While in Chicago for the Christmas Holidays, Janet, Ismail and I made it to three games.

1. UIC vs. Illinois State at the UIC Pavilion

2. Blackhawks vs. Dallas Stars

3. Bulls vs. Heat

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Game 1 - UIC vs. Illinois State: A friend of mine from college named Luis still works at UIC and has a connection with the ticket guy, so we ended up getting free tickets for the game. The Pavilion is essentially the same as when I attended, except for some exterior changes and some restructuring of the entrance. The game itself sucked; the team looks very unorganized and undisciplined. They were losing by 13 points late in the 2nd half, but were able to actually pull ahead by a point with 4 minutes to go, but they had nothing left down the stretch and ended up losing by 9 points. The strangest thing about this game is that Jimmy Collins, UIC’s coach, was absent from the sidelines. We found out later that he has taken a leave of absence, but no reason has been given as to why except for “personal reasons”.

Game #2- Blackhawks vs. Dallas Stars: Tickets for this game only cost 10 bucks and were easy to get; attendance these days at the United Center (UC) for ‘Hawks games is low. Another friend from college, Edgar, met the three of us at the game. While I had been to the UC to see the ‘Hawks before, this was Janet and Ismail’s first time. Ismail was really excited about the game and was asking every day when we’d be going. He was also happy  to see the Stars as he remembered them from our trip to Dallas last Spring. The game was really close throughout and the Blackhawks ended up winning 2-1 on two goals from Akhripov. The biggest thing I noticed about the game is that the atmosphere sucked. At the old Stadium, it was incredibly loud and the fans were rowdy. However, the 14 K in attendance were not very loud even though the ‘Hawks have been playing really well since Denis Savard took over as coach. I think the UC is partially to blame for not being a good venue atmosphere-wise, but also I think that years of mediocrity and bad ownership have driven a lot of support away.

Game #3- Bulls vs. Heat: My friend Luis has a friend with Bulls Season tickets, so he contacted him about selling the tickets to us for the game. He sold them to us at face value- $50 a pop for upper level seats! Pricey as hell but none of us had ever been to a Bulls game at the UC, so I went ahead and bought them. Plus, I had just received an X-Mas bonus of $100 cash from school, so it covered it. For Ismail, we had to buy a $25 standing room seat as this was all that was left. The tickets go from $10 (very limited amount) to $50 and above. No tickets in the 20-30 dollar range, except for standing room. And I thought that the Hawks’ prices were a ripoff! This guy that I got the tickets from pays over $2000 a seat for a location that’s farther away from the floor than our $200 seats. However, the seats turned out to be pretty good in relationship with the action; first row of the upper deck on the baseline.

The game itself was really good; the Bulls had a huge lead, but blew it and the 4th quarter was action-packed. The Heat played without Shaq and lost Dwayne Wade for the second half to a wrist injury. The Bulls ended up winning 109-103 with Ben Gordon dropping 40 points. Jason Williams led the Heat with 28 points. This guy must be working on his shot in the off-season as this is the second time i’ve seen him light it up this year. I remember when he first started he couldn’t shoot for shit.

One of the scariest moments of the game was when James Posey took out Luol Deng on a breakaway, apparently a Riley-ordered stunt in retaliation for Wade getting injured by Hinrich in the first half. The next day, there were all sorts of allegations from both teams about rough play and cheap shots.

The atmosphere for this game was much better than the ‘Hawks game. The place was completely sold out and the crowd was really into it. The famous introduction featuring the Allan Parsons Project song got everyone pumped up  and pretty much everyone was vocal throughout the duration of the game. I still think that the UC is sort of a noise killer and not as raucous as the old Chicago Stadium, but the place can still get loud when it’s full.

Hawks vs. Nuggets-The game sucked. A good first half from the JJ-less Hawks saw us leading 54-43 at the half. What would ensue was the worst 2nd half of a basketball game that I have ever seen. The Hawks blew their 11 pt lead in the 3rd Quarter and were down 1 at the end of it. Four minutes into the 4th Quarter, they were down 17 points. What a collapse. At that point, we left in disgust.

Steve, Dave, Ismail, Janet and I went to the game. I received four free tickets from my dad’s work. Janet and I spun the wheel and both won the “Mystery Prize”-25 dollar gift certificates to one of those Brazilian Steakhouses.

Nothing else very newsworthy from this night. Get well soon Joe!

Last time I posted something positive about the Hawks, they suffered a skid — just like Steve’s tighty whities, or is it whitey tighties…I always forget. So, I’m not going to get too excited about them taking 2 out of 3 games so far in their West Coast trip; in fact, they got pretty lucky to escape with a victory against the Nuggets. When Earl Boykins takes you to the hole, it’s time to step up the team defense. I mean, look at this guy. Should he be making shots inside?

That’s one thing I’ve noticed in some of the Hawks recent losses — a complete lack of help defense. Once a Hawk gets beat to the basket, it’s rare that someone else steps up. Josh Smith is a good shotblocker, but his blocks usually come from chasing down fastbreaks. He’s not a jump-straight-up-under-the-basket kind of shotblocker. Was Shelden brought on to block shots? If so, I haven’t seen it.

I’ve also noticed (and this goes hand-in-hand with a lack of shotblocking because it speaks to a lack of inside toughness) is that opposing teams rebound all over the Hawks. Seattle outrebounded them 44-28.

That said, I was really impressed that they were able to come back from 17 points down in the fourth quarter to beat Denver. And despite the rebounding and defensive issues, the fact is that they are still 2-1 on this West Coast trip. And that’s without Marvin Williams, Childress, Speedy Claxton, and Zaza (for Denver), and I’m sure I’m missing someone else. If they can take the Lakers tonight, that’ll put them back at .500 on the season.

I finally made it to a Hawks game this year, and they didn’t disappoint. I planned to meet Mike and Ashley at our seats, so bvefore the game I went to the CNN Center for some food. I was eating my 2nd to last Taco and watching Lou Dobbs, when the guy at the table next to me got up, leaving some stuff on his table. He said, “I’ve got to find a place to plug in my phone, you gonna be here a minute?” I opened my mouth to say I would be getting up soon, but before I could speak he gets in a huff and says, “Alright, I’ll be done in a flash!” Whatever…

I’ve heard much about the Wheel, but I never did spin it last season. I decided to check it out this time. When I got there, I saw Mike and Ashley just ahead of me in line. Ashley got a t-shirt and mike got a coupon for something. I got a T-shirt as well, a red Highlight Factory shirt. That wheel’s the best kept secret in Atlanta.

We got there a little after tip-off and the Hawks were already up 8-0. The Bobcats cut it to 1 by the end of the 1st quarter, but the Hawks dominated the 2nd. Joe Johnson was scoring 3s all over Morrison. He got a steal off of him too. At one point Josh Smith dunked on him. It was pretty fun to watch. He didn’t cry though. The Hawks continued to dominate in the 3rd, and I was thinking about writing how last year the Hawks would go down to the wire against cellar dwellers, but now the were at least taking care of business. Well, thing turned ugly in the 4th. The Bobcats cut a 20 point deficit down to 3 with about 3 min. left. To their credit, THe Hawks slammed the door on the comeback and took control. They ended up winning by around 10.

Mike and I collaborated on a call…Matt Freije is the Albino Monk from The Da Vinci Code.

Lang’s going to have a better experience to write up about this one, but I thought i’d start the thread and throw in my 2 cents:

Ismail and I had the season tickets for the evening. On the spin, I won a free Coke. No real sightings of Stars, lookalikes or people of the past to report.

The Hawks won 97-93. Josh Smith finally cames to terms with his limitations and played the way we needed him to; if we’re going to be any good, we need him on the defensive end of the floor doing his thing. He had 11 pts, 11 rebs, 5 assists and 4 blks. The best play of the game is when he pinned Bosh’s layup to the glass, then he ran up court on the break, got the pass, dunked, got fouled and made his free throw-all in a five second period. This typified his game and what we need out of him to win.

JJ had 27 but continues to be woeful from the line; the Hawks were 13-21 from the stripe and this is the main reason the score remained close.

T. Lue had 16 pts hit a lot of big shots and continues to have a career year going. Zaza had a quiet 18 and 7 to help the Hawks down low.

Raptors: The Spanish PF Garbajosa went off in the first quarter and had maybe 11 pts in that time. He finished with 15 pts and 12 rebs. This guy has a great touch.

Andrea Bargnani, the #1 pick, got a lot of PT and also had a great shooting touch. However, he’s weak and easy to push around. He’ll need to toughen up if he’s going to be a legit NBAer.

TJ Ford was the best player on the floor for the Raptors. He finished with 25pts, 12 assists and 8 rebs (two rebs short of a triple-double). This guy is the quickest player i’ve seen in years. He was blowing by the Hawks every time he took it up the floor in transition. That was a good move to pick him up in exchange for “Powder”, despite the risk of him coming off an injury year.

Finally, i’ve seen Chris Bosh play live twice now in the NBA and i’m just not impressed. I wasn’t that impressed with him at Tech; I saw glimmers of greatness, but not much consistency. Remember, the year that he played we didn’t make the NCAAs and I think we had a losing record. I realize that he’s got a decent touch and soft hands, but the way people are fawning over him doesn’t make sense to me. He finished with 11pts, 7 rebs and 3 blks against a weak interior defensive team like the Hawks. To me, he’s kind of a Shareef player- he’ll get you numbers, but not the win.