Lots of bullets for the recap:
- Fans know nothing about what players go through in any game, let alone games like that. I was almost puking and I was just watching.
- Best game I've been to period. I've also restarted my attendance winning streak.
- Took my best friend, a Laker fan to the game. Good times.
- Seeing the ninja in person hit a shot like that is an almost once in a lifetime experience.
- John Stockton stood almost the entire second half.
- Saw a lot of chunks of open seats. I think they said there were 7-800 seats still left. We had 6 open right to the left of us.
- I was ready to throw myself over the railing if Kobe made the last three - or at least push the Laker fans in front of me.
- I wish I would have used my video recorder more. Laker fans are a treat.
- Kobe didn't score until 5:10 left in the second quarter. WTH?
- Lakers had 39 points at the half, less than they had the entire first quarter of game 2.
- Gasol is uglier in person.
- Lamar Odom single-handily kept the Lakers in the game in the first half.
- Koof and Memo were dressed to the nines.
- Sager's suit was pretty tame.
- Bear is crazy.
- Couldn't believe the number of missed free throws. Deron still looked tired. He played another 45 tonight. Hope he gets a lot of rest.
- Boozer was phe-nom-e-nal. I looked up and he had twelve boards. Couldn't believe it.
- His dunk on Gasol - just wow. Where has that been? All of us have been calling for him to dunk it instead of laying it up. Didn't look like he had enough to get there for the dunk, he just kept on going.
- I tweeted this, but Booze was successful because Ronnie B was on the other side of the court.
- Harp got hosed on a lot of his foul calls. His drive past Walton more than made up for it. Walton should never live that down.
- 22 & 23, wow.
- Didn't even notice that Millsap had 14 boards. That floors me.
- There was so much that I wanted to tweet like the Kobe FAIL, the quarter scores, the excellent D that the Jazz played, and on and on. Couldn't risk the jinx though.
- 5-24 for Kobe. More appropriately, 5>24 tonight.
- Lakers only had 9 TOs. Shot very poorly.
- Bynum was a non-factor
- Collins with just 7 minutes, maybe as a result of Bynum not being on the court.
- The last 10 possessions total for the game was some of the most tense I've ever seen - definitely in person. Just great, great basketball by both teams.
- I thought the Lakers were going to pull away with their 13 point lead. Huge shots by KK and CJ.
- Best crown I've ever been in. Better than game 3 against SA two years ago in WCF.
- Nothing better than seeing Laker fans walk out of the ESA dejected.
- If I had a better camera, I could have kept Straight Cash Homey supplied with pics for a year.
- Might have to see if the wife will let me go to Saturday's game.
Last story... We had a guy behind us that said he couldn't see when we stood up. I was polite and just nodded. We went to get some beverages during a break and an usher told us that we could stand if we wanted to and to not let the guy intimidate us. She had only seen the guy talk to us an hadn't heard the conversation (too loud).
I was on the second row on the upper deck. The guy had a whole row, a cement step, and his own chair above us.
The man explained to me that he had been going to Jazz games for 23 years and that this was the first time anyone has stood up in front on him. What? That was the first time, ever? Right.
Well, as you can imagine, we stood almost the entire third and fourth quarters. About 8 minutes to go in the game, he came down to talk to us again. I said sorry, I've paid good money and I should be able to stand. This was also likely going to be my only playoff game for the year. The guy sitting right behind me, whom I was blocking more than the other guy, said you can stand if you want. The main guy left in a huff and complained to the usher for a good 10 minutes, standing the whole time. He was was more concerned about someone standing in front of him than he was about watching the game.
He must be like this the entire time. The guy right behind me and the usher had their explanation down pat.
Never mind that the row in front of us was standing and the rest of the entire arena was standing for almost the entire time.
What a night.
UPDATE:
Just read through the game thread and it was pretty much exactly the feel at the game. I got chills as I read through the comments on the comeback, the back and forth in the last 2 minutes, and Deron's jumper.