I went to the game - my thoughts

Posted on LG.net on 12/13/05.

I went to the game last night. I had planned to get there early, but the freeway to downtown was bumper-to-bumper and it took me forever to get there. Before the game, it stopped in the restrooms and the Mavericks pre-game show was piped into there. The Mavericks announcers weren't giving the Lakers any love, saying something like, "It used to be that the Lakers-Mavericks was a marque game, but no more. The Lakers are just this side of mediocre."

I went to me seat. I had a front row seat up in a nosebleed section. The crowd was late arriving and very quiet during the first half. When the Lakers took an 11 point lead in the second quarter, the fans were shocked. Some booed. Some yelled, "What's the matter!" The crowd got into the game when the Mavs made the game close at the end of the second quarter and went nuts when Mbenga stuffed Kobe at the end of the first half. When Kobe made that incredible reverse lay up, the whole crowd went, "Wow!"

When Dampier went out with his fifth foul, I was surprised that the Lakers didn't try to feed Chris Mihm. Chris shortly thereafter picked up a "I breathed in the general direction of a guy shooting the ball" foul and had to sit. Kwame came in and the Lakers did feed him. Kwame had a great game, but one thing he was doing that was driving me nuts was that instead of cutting to a spot on the floor, he strolled over to it like it was Sunday in the park. I don't know if he was just conserving energy because he was playing a lot of minutes after not having played for a while, but he caused the Lakers to burn up shot clock time as they waited for him to get into position.

When Kobe made the long, long three to put the Lakers up by 2, the crowd was stunned. I had been chatting through out the game with the Mavericks fan next to me and after that shot, he turned to me and said, "That's Kobe." The Lakers played clutch the rest of the game and won it.

Walking out, I noticed a lot more Laker jerseys than Maverick jerseys. #8 was by far the most popular jersey, but I saw a Fisher jersey and a Shaq jersey. All talk about the game was about Kobe's last three.

I listened to the Maverick post game show on the way home. The play they talked the most about was Kobe's dagger. They had one of the Mavericks announcers on and he talked about two things (1) how Kobe is one of the most exciting players in the NBA to watch and that he gave the fans their money's worth last night and (2) how the Lakers shut down the Mavericks inside toughness in the fourth quarter.

This is the third Lakers game I have attended in Dallas since I moved there in '96. The first two games weren't very enjoyable as the Lakers were a much better team and they played down to the Mavericks level and lost both. This time, I expected the Lakers to lose. The Lakers fought, battled, hustled and generally played well, so I would have been happy if they lost. Then Kobe showed yet again why is one of the best in the NBA, Walton and Smush were clutch, and I was in cloud nine after the game was over.