A Night at the Game
(A report on the Bulls vs. the Wizards at the MCI Center: January 8, 2003).
Alright, here's my account of the game, including some aspects that don't usually get covered but that can have a big effect on the overall live game experience. I obviously didn't take copious notes or anything, but I'm looking at the play-by-play to help jog my memory. If I get a few things mixed up, please let me off the hook
The "Will Call" box. Note to self: next time, pay the extra couple bucks to have them delivered. It's like everyone in front of me has no clue of what they're doing. Three lines to three ticket boxes A-J, K-R, etc. No barriers between them... An old guy and his teenage kid are to the immediate right. We let them go in front. I notice a guy that's well behind me and to my left edging up to me. Eventually, he's standing directly to my left (I'm in front of the left-most ticket box). I take a step forward, and he presses closer, and puts his elbow in front of me. *******. I step forward several times and move ahead of him, each time he moves again and tries to edge a little further in, still carefully avoiding eye contact. He calls someone on his cell phone, and asks how he's supposed to pick up the will call tickets since he doesn't have the person's photo id or credit card (it's posted every six inches on the wall that these are required to pick up tickets). I finally just look at him and say, "Hey buddy, you know I was here first, right". He mumbles something about how I didn't have to be so confrontational. I tell him that if he didn't want a confrontation, he should quit sticking his elbow into my ribs. My wife looks uncomfortable, he looks uncomfortable and takes a couple steps backwards. I kind of chuckle...
My wife and I arrive to catch the end of the shoot-around, and both teams are looking sharp. Section 119 is in the corner behind the Bulls bench. Could be better, but I feel pretty close and there's enough elevation to see everything clearly. Much better than an upper deck seat (in fact, this is the first time I was ever in the lower deck for a pro game). Christian Laettner goes out of his way to give everyone on the Bulls a "Hi" or a handshake or a pat. The Bulls are defending the far basket, the Wiz the near basket. The tip and we're off...
TO from Chandler to get things going. He looks taller and stronger than he did last year, and he's got obvious talent, but tonight he was forcing things on offense. He repeatedly would get the ball a bit out of his range and try to "Marcus Fizer" his way in for a shot. But he doesn't have Marcus Fizer post moves and he got stripped and blocked and generally made to look silly.
Haywood off to an ugly start... blocked by Marshall, misses a shot... a bit later, in the game, the Wiz on a break, Chandler trips and falls, Haywood sees Chandler fall and just stops and goes back under the Bulls basket. A couple misses later, the Wiz put it in and the ball's coming back the other way. I think... what the hell is wrong with that guy.
Match ups:
(Wiz' ball)
JWill guards Hughes
Trent on Stack
Rose on MJ
Chandler on Laettner
Marshall on Haywood
(Bulls ball)
Hughes on Jay (sagging on Rose)
Stack on Hassell
MJ on Rose (MJ's constantly talking **** and getting in Rose's space)
L8ner on Marshall
Haywood on Chandler (and generally filling the lane)
Nice work between Yell and Rose
Trent makes a couple nice shots. Way to get him involved.
JWill has a wide-open look and clanks one off the front of the rim.
Hughes driving and scoring. Hughes shooting jumpers and scoring. Hughes generally abusing JWill.
Marshall passing, rebounding, moving without the ball, stealing the ball. Catching, shooting and abusing L8ner.
Chandler dunks it then goes flying to the ground.
Kwame in, Fizer in. Kwame drives on Fizer from the baseline and shoots right over him. Fizer's too short and too slow methinks. Didn't even get his arms up.
JWill takes an ill-advised jumper
Next trip down, the Wiz attack him again. This time, Kwame makes a sick shot, but Fizer stuck right with him and had his hand in right Kwame's face. Very good D, but just a very good shot by Kwame.
Timeout Bulls. The Cartwright is out on the court to "greet" JWill with "words of encouragement". Crawford and Curry in the game.
Rose is basically running the show and goes right to Curry. Curry and Chandler must take turns looking impressive, because Chandler didn't but Curry looks smooth as silk. He's making quick moves with the ball, catching the ball, and using his body. He's a world better than he was last year. He gets fouled on his second shot, makes it, and hits his free throw too.
Kwame sticks a jumper right in Marcus' face. Again, a good shot by Kwame, not bad D. Next, something unexpected... Marcus comes down takes a pass from Rose and sticks one right back in Kwame's face. Kwame makes a couple more in the last minute... he's damn near unstoppable.
End of the first. Bulls 27, Wiz 26.
It's now closing in on 8 and I'm starving. I've also decided that since I was willing to drop $190 on tickets, I might as well go nuts and buy a jersey. There's a Modell's (the local sporting apparel racket) in the MCI center practically right across the aisle from me (section 119). I head in, see lots of replica, cheap looking white #23s in my size and lots of authentic "NBA" blue #23s in my size. A pimply faced 17 year old asks if I need help. I ask if he's got any authentic white MJ jerseys in 2XXL. He points me towards the cheap replica ones. I point out that they're different. He looks confused, and then points me to the size 4XXL +4inch length white #23s hanging about 7 feet up on the wall (but the bottom of which is just off the ground). They look like a nightgown for Shaq. I tell him never mind. I decide I wouldn't mind the Blue one at all and buy it. Still a couple minutes left before the second quarter, I swing by the Papa Johns stand. There's like three people in front of me, none of whom seem to get the concept that they have only 5 menu items. Pizza (cheese or pepperoni), Beer, Soda, and Water. The two people working there don't seem to grasp it either. Seconds seem to be minutes; minutes seem to stretch into hours. Hours to days. It's the Bataan Death March of lines... I finally get back and gasp in horror when I see I've missed over 5 minutes of the 2nd quarter. Good grief. I'm too hungry to be really pissed though.
It's at this point I notice the seat rows in the MCI Center's lower level are at least three or four inches narrower than any I've ever been in (including Chicago Stadium, Wrigley, and the Comiskey Park - both old and new are pretty sucky in that regard). I'm only 5'10" and my knees touch the seat in front of me, making the drink holder built in to the seat a complete waste.
Finally, back to the game. A quick check of the scoreboard shows Curry is still lighting it up. ERob's been in a while and isn't.
Etan is in, and is his usual energetic self. Lots of energy, not always very effectively used. Amazingly, he hits two straight free throws.
MJ's racking up boards. Jamal a steal and a dish to Marshall. Yell again. Yell hits free throws. Jamal lays it in. Looks like he wanted to jam it, but thought better of it.
JWill in for the last couple of minutes, bulls up 51 to 45. JWill's upping the tempo to finish strong, and they do. He didn't look too good in his first stint, but with everyone running he looks a lot better. Hassell with 3 blocks in a row, and a JWill assisted bucket. JWill assists Rose too. Halftime. As the Bulls walk back to the locker room, Jay is limping noticeably, a grimace of pain on his face. I haven't been impressed
Trent has really made Stack invisible. I just realized I haven't even mentioned Stack... that's because there's nothing to mention. Quiet, dead quiet.
Jalen's doing a lot of the distributing, and doing it fairly well, but his shot's not falling particularly well.
Halftime! Bulls up 59 to 48. A cute game of full-court between a bunch of tiny little kids.
2nd half warm ups. The Wiz arrive at least a couple minutes before the Bulls and start shooting.
I look at the Bulls when they show up it's painfully obvious they're in for a butt kicking. I start pointing out little body language things to Marianne (my wife) and she agrees. Their shoot around is the most pitiful, disorganized thing I've ever seen. Players loitering, shooting the ****, walking slowly, shooting from anywhere. Dragging their feet through the lay up line. As they break and huddle up, Jamal goes back to towards the bench, but then stops and shoots a few at the near basket, which is now the Wizards'. The Wiz are still shooting.
In contrast, the Wizards are warming up with the military precision one expects from MJ. All business. Eyes on the ball and the basket. Crisp, efficient. No one's at game speed, of course, but there's a snap in every step. This is gonna be ugly for the Baby Bulls.
The third quarter gets underway and MJ sticks a jumper right over Rose. MJ goes at Rose again and misses. MJ at Rose and makes it. MJ forces a Rose TO. Laettner to MJ who puts it in MJ is amused, Rose is clearly annoyed to the point of distraction. In fact, as the Bulls call a TO after MJ's score, Rose is still at the far end of the court where he turned it over arguing with the ref. He keeps arguing while Cartwright's trying to regroup the team. The Bulls half look at Cartwright, half look at Rose bending the ref's ear. Now, Cartwright's looking at Rose, and he looks pissed. Rose finally comes back to the huddle, and when the game starts again, L8ner promptly steals the ball from him. JWill, who I'm shocked to see after the way he limped off at the end of the first half, picks off an errant MJ pass.
MJ his another shot on Rose. The Wiz (like MJ) like to pick someone and attack the hell out of him, going after him several sets in a row on offense and trying hard in defensive sets to make him work. Truly a tough, smart, well-coached team. In the first half it was Hughes attacking JWill and then Brown attacking Fizer. The only way to stop it, somewhat, is to do what Marcus did and try sticking to it on defense and bringing things right back on O. In the end it didn't work, but I admired the effort.
In the third, it was MJ abusing Rose all around to open things, then Hughes laying into JWill for several more. Larry draws the foul and hits two. Larry offensive board. Larry lays it up. Larry steals it, Larry dunks it home. Damn. As much as one gets an idea of the streakiness of basketball on the tube, it's nothing like in person. The Bulls were on the ropes. The Bulls tried to counter by going to Yell, but he wasn't hitting consistently. Out of nowhere, the Wiz switch up and go to the body. Haywood with the board, MJ with a slick pass to Haywood, who dunks it. Haywood with a put back dunk off an MJ miss. Haywood with a block, a couple more boards, and a pair of free throws that cap the Wiz comeback and put them ahead 71-69.
The rather large guy to my right is cheering and making really girly-sounding "Wooooo-hooo!!!" His late teenage kid looks embarrassed
. The Bulls fans to my left are stony silent. I'm alternately cheering for both teams and wearing my new jersey. The chubby girly sounding guy is perturbed at me alternately cursing and cheering for each team.
The Bulls FINALLY call a timeout. JWill's visibly angry and yells something as he takes a seat. I think he won't be back, and it turns out I was right. They take court again and the Wiz roll off another 9 straight from Hughes and Laettner who's mostly taking it to Marcus. Marcus begins firing back though, but the quarter is over. The for the quarter, the seemingly put up Wiz 947, the Bulls 16.
The Bulls look crisp if not very effective opening up the 4th. Jamal, Fizer, Eddy and Freddie are moving the ball and moving themselves at full speed. Jamal and Marcus appear to be cheering the others up and on. The Bulls roll off 9 straight behind their efforts. Fizer's pulling back farther from the basket against Kwame and it’s working.
Oakley in to many cheers. Freddie dives for a ball and goes flying over a sign. He stays down, but gets back up and toughs it out. At every stopping point, his hands go straight to his lower back. The Wiz see a wounded animal and go right at him with Stack, who makes a jumper with little resistance from Freddie. Bulls timeout, about 6 minutes left. Curry out, Marshall in. Freddie out, Rose in. I'm expecting to see Trent too, and surprised I don't. Instead we go with ERob. Huh?
Jamal's attacking the basket and playing with confidence. His isn't hitting on his penetration, but it's creating looks. We're keeping it close. Jamal sticks a nice jumper.
Where the hell is Trent?
2 minutes. Trent in. Jamal to Rose, Rose to a wide open Trent for 3. Air ball!!! Damn. Would he have been on the mark if he'd been in the game longer? I don't know, but this was a Doug Christie looking shot. Wide open, but nowhere close. Yuck. And I was so impressed up to this point.
1 minute. Chicago 20 second timeout. As they come in, the camera shows Rose getting position. MJ walks right up and into him, looking right at him. Hard to describe how it looked, but Rose basically gave up his position and slinked back a couple steps. Every step backwards he took, MJ followed and kept himself right in Jalen's face. Jalen's intimidated. Play starts and Rose misses.
30 seconds, Jamal drives and hits. Impressive. 95-94 Wiz. We're close.
20 seconds, MJ fires to Hughes coming off the baseline and past Jamal. Hughes puts it home. Cool. Damn. I don't know who I'm for.
16 seconds, Laetter with a foul on Jalen. As Rose is shooting, I notice MJ moves next to Jamal and leans into him. Jamal takes a step away and further into the backcourt. MJ takes another step in. Jamal retreats again. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Rose misses the first free throw, making it a desperation game. The inbounds and Hassell immediately fouls Stack, who despite his bad game is about as automatic free throw shooter as there is. Game over. While they stand on the line, one can see MJ next to Fizer, telling him something. Fizer, with an irritated look, yells something at MJ. MJ, laughing, replies. Fizer stares, and is a split second off as Stack's free throw goes in and the inbounds is ready to go... another meaningless foul and a desperation heave by Jamal at the end and it's all over.
We have a nice ride back on the Metro, and damn, I have to work in the morning.
All in all, a very enjoyable night.
Some overall impressions on particular players:
MJ's the smartest player in the league. Just the little crap he does, like crowding and screwing with the Bulls at the end of the game gives his team an advantage and makes his opponents lose focus.
Larry Hughes is very good on both sides of the ball. He's playing smart and doesn't resemble the guy who was labeled a shot-jacker in Golden State and Philly.
Kwame, Tyson, and Curry will all be stars. Chandler tried and failed to do too much, but his talent showed. Kwame and Curry were seamlessly good.
Ztect (see my post to him and his reply on the Bulls board) might be right about JWill. I saw him as a guy who could be very effective off the ball in the triangle, but he was most effective running and gunning with the ball in his hands. In contrast, he's not moving well in the offense and one key attribute of his ability to work in the triangle, his shot, is simply not falling. He was absolutely unable to stop Hughes. On the other hand, however, he was in obvious pain, and he went out on a bum wheel and gave it his best shot. And he was quite impressive running the show at the end of the first half and pressing a jugular pumping, all-out attack on the basket.
Crawford was fairly impressive, especially at the end. He was working hard on both sides of the ball, and was playing much more aggressively than I've ever seen from him. He was also unable to contain Hughes (his lapse at the end basically ended it), but he did a better job of slowing him down.
Hardly anywhere did I mention Christian Laettner, but after being pushed around in the first quarter, he did everything well. He was damn good.
Haywood played much like I've seen him play on TV... invisible for long stretched, then spectacular at short, key stretches.
ERob is a bust. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Looking over the box score afterwards, I see that he pulled down some boards, but trust me, he was invisible.
Fizer is a good player, but just doesn't have the size, smarts, or ability to be a truly elite player. I think the Corliss Williamson comparison is apt. I liked the energy he showed, the anticipation for rebounding that I haven't seen from him in the past, his greater ability to work within the offense, and his surprising desire on defense. He's worked hard, and it shows.
Editorial: A Night at the Game (Bulls at Wizards, 1-8-03)
Editorial: A Night at the Game (Bulls at Wizards, 1-8-03)
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