The Men of the Red and the Black opened their 40th season this evening at the Rose Garden, before a typically involved crowd whose emotions and outbursts paralleled the play: expectant and unsettled at first, excited and boisterous as the Blazers made their game changing run in the 2nd, desultory as both teams floundered in the 3rd, beer-line confident to open the 4th with a 20-point lead, murmuring and a little antsy as that lead got down as low as six--and then almost audibly relieved as Brandon Roy and Greg Oden took charge to close out the game with a 9-point win over the Houston Rockets. Watch out, Blazers--your town is once again "basketball-involved."
The suspense on the floor was a nice adrenaline-capper to what had been, for many of the "involved," a greatly anticipated evening with new faces and old ones that had apparently gotten better since their exit to the same Rockets in the first round of the 2008-09 playoffs. I especially liked the montage of great Blazer moments since 1970, mashed together without respect to era. Clyde became TP became Petrie became LaMarcus, high def went to grainy TV lines and back. And there are apparently new bands for the opening theme; so far so good.
The introduction seemed like a good idea--players descending to the court from the first-floor section portals, spotlight and framed by adoramus--but it came off rather awkward. First of all, the timing between spotlighting, announcement and descent was off, so in a number of cases the players were mostly in the dark, trying not to trip down the stairs.
But they had been given a pair of team mini-basketballs...not to immediately toss happily into the crowd or to bless small children in the aisles with, but to carry while coming down as Variously Uncomfortable Gods From the Mezzanine. I can't remember who it was, but someone held them for safety to their chest as if modeling prospective plastic surgery (and a gender operation I guess), and I think Andre was concerned someone was going to try to knock one out of his hands.
As for the game, here's a little something, the NBA highlight reel for the first half for the game--just to give you a little flava. I'll give you my take below the fold:
The 2009-10 NBA season for the Portland Trailblazers starts this evening at the Rose Garden, with the Houston Rockets providing the opposition. A special (if somewhat bittersweet) welcome back to Martell Webster, who will start at the 3-hole for the injured Nic Batum, who looks to be out until January at least.
I haven't decided what level of coverage to give the team this year--last year seemed like a special time, and even though it ended a little abruptly I think it was. This year seems to hold even more promise, and that makes news. But it's a grueling 82 game season, especially trying to cover events in the evening when the Joe family is doing things like eating, homework and whanot. I think the best service may be to liveblog away games, as a way to enhance the experience a little bit for anyone who can't see the game on TV (which for away games is a lot of people in Oregon, thanks to Comcast unfortunately).
Maybe you saw the writeup in this morning's O about the Blazers' home victory over a tough Houston Rockets team. Or maybe you heard about it elsewhere, or perhaps--Barkley forbid--it's too early in the season for you to care about individual games yet.
Whatever the reason, if you haven't seen the final 1.9 seconds, you gotta see it. Courtesy YouTube and the TNT broadcast, I give you those final 1.9 ticks--in which an amazing EIGHT points were scored. Of course the rule that allows a team to inbound from half-court after a time out helps that happen, but still...count out two seconds in your head and imagine three baskets being attempted in that time.
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