Game Notes: Suns @ Blazers.

Feb. 6, '07
Suns 109, Blazers 102.
Amare Stoudemire. 36pts, 9reb.
Zach Randolph. 33pts, 10 reb.

Wayyy up in Row P tonight. W/in seconds of sitting down we realize we're sitting behind like 8 deaf jr.-high schoolers. At least Fat won't get as many dirty looks as usual.

One of these kids REALLY LIKES defensive rebounds.

The next thing we notice is guy in our section to the right & down a few rows. Chubby. Balding but still rocking several inches of hair. Wearing a denim jacket that sez "RIP CITY" on the back, applied apparenly by himself w/ either duct tape or some sort of fabric gluestuff, maybe even it had glitter at somepoint but it all fell off. At halftime we watched in awe as this dude absolutely DEMOLISHED a hotdog. He ate it like it was going to run away if he didn't eat it fast enough.

"Watching Jamall Magloire shoot makes me want to slit my wrists."

Blazers fortunes basically hinged all night on whether they settled for jumpshots or decided to take it inside.

At somepoint in the 3rd, I think, the Blazers go down 14. During the timeout there's this name-that-song contest on the floor. Its 5 beach boys songs. Of the guy & the lady playing, the lady names 1 song, & the guy can't name any. When neither of them has an answer for the 5th song, they are robustly & throughly BOOED by the crowd. The team's down 14 but the crowd's booing two people who don't know thier beach boys! Yikes!

the Blazers come out of that timeout & cut the lead quickly back to single digits. We deduce Nate pointed out to the players "see, the crowd's letting those two beach boys no-nothings have it, but they haven't given up on you, have they!"

During the break before the 4th, lame mascot Blaze does his trampoline dunks. The PA guys sez: "fans he makes it look easy!" I add: "like going to the pharmacy!" Fat gives me a strange look. The PA guy sez: "the louder you cheer the higher he goes!" I don't have to say anything on that one. Fat gets up & goes to try & get another beer. On his way out he walks past Denim Jacket, shoots me a look & fake rubs the guys' bald spot. I'm almost reduced to tears. I look to my right & the 3 guys sitting behind us are looking at me w/ these huge grins on thier faces. We all get a little hysterical.

Jack is more aggressive going to the hoop than we remember.

During the t-shirt giveaway I darkly remember the last days of the Maurice Cheeks era, when the t-shirt giveaway was routinely as loud as the Rose Garden would get.

I forgot the nice thing about sitting wayyy in the back is you can basically just stand the entire last 4 minutes of a game & not be worried about blocking someone. There's also not anyone sitting next to you so you can sort of pace a bit.

My favorite part of the night is in the final stretch of regulation where Randolph basically scores the 6 points in a row, keying the final stretch where the Blazers finally tie it up. Please note the Blazers never lead the entire game. Zach gets a big ovation.

Down said stretch of the 4th, Nate uses a 6-man rotation. Zach at center, Trav @ the four, the other 3 spots filled by Jack, Roy, Webster, & Udoka. This. I. Like.

Udoka ends up defending a posting Amare. Amare fall down. Amare look at ref. Ref makes "get up, Amare, I ain't calling anything" gesture w/ his hands.

Travis Outlaw, whom Fat calls "Troutlaw," which is news to me, misses a layup game winner. The incredibly-chippy-all-night-crowd loses a lot of energy. I think the team does, too.

Overtime. This bizarre video plays to the tune of Welcome to the Jungle w/ a montage of downtown Portland. Sorry, but images of light rail & fire engines & gourmet restaurant kitchens doesn't strike me as a "jungle." Maybe if a shot or two or three of the Magic Gardens or Mary's Spot, then we can talk.

Overtime. Blazers go back to jumpshots out of the gate. They almost fight back into it but then Barbosa hits a 3. Ugh.

Filtering out, Fat claims to have seen a roughly 13-year-old blazer fan lurch aggressively at a like 9-year-old PHX fan in a full Nash uni. What was I saying about an unsually chippy home crowd?

Post-game. Beams w/ beer backs. Fat shows someone the neatest factoid in the Blazers game program/mini-magazine thingy - that Raef LaFrentz's "is listening to... Def Leppard" & his "favorite food... shrimp cocktail." Now knowing this its nigh impossible to see LaFrentz & not think of him pre-game, eating take-out shrimp cocktail & singing along to "Photograph" on his iPod.

-d.d.