Necessary Roughness

I and two co-workers went to last night’s basketball game at the Toyota Center, where the Rockets lost to the Pacers, 87-74. The game was decided with about three minutes left in the fourth quarter, when the Pacers built a 15-point lead from a tie at the previous break.

The Rockets were celebrating their 25^th anniversary with a “Disco Night”, where fans could dress up, and there was a dance-off at the end of the 3^rd quarter by the top 10 with the best costumes. I didn’t think any of them danced well, but someone picked a winner somehow. The large amount of non-basketball activity at each break and during every time out irked me. During the shooting of streamers and T-shirts, the singing of three members from Midnight Star (No Parking on the Dance Floor), and the dance-off, I wondered, “Are our attention spans that short now?”

We were seated in the top row on the end; I suppose Ticketmaster gives you the worst seats at a price level when you pick the lowest price level ($10). My friends weren’t willing to pay $40 to get in the lower section, and I certainly was not willing to pay $300 to sit courtside. We had hoped to buy cheap and then move down, but there were guards staying at their posts near the lower level seats during the whole game. The lower level certainly wasn’t full; there were several sections with less than 10% seated. The crowd did not cheer loudly; every time the organ would play the “Defense” chant, the announcer had to say “Defense” or “Louder” over the PA system.

We still could see Tracy McGrady perform some cool moves, and often we saw successive picks in order to free up a player. There were two Alley-Oops from Bob Sura to T-Mac. It was fun to see the Pacers try to triple team Tracy McGrady and leave 7 foot 6 inch Yao Ming open for the bounce pass and easy dunk. Scot Pollard, whom I remembered getting a lot of press when he was at Kansas, had a difficult time guarding Yao, fouling him three times by my count. I’d yell, “Rock Chalk Jayhawk” in jest after each foul. I was impressed by Bob Sura, who rebounded well both on offense and on defense. Dikembe Mutombo was not impressive, letting Jermaine O’Neal shoot over him twice and not blocking a single shot.

The recap says that Indiana committed more fouls than Houston, but I didn’t get that feeling during the game. There were several times where Yao Ming would get mugged under the basket; when His Tallness brought the ball up from a crouching position, people were getting hung up in his arms without getting called for the foul. I didn’t he deserved a blocking foul when someone charged into him; it is pretty easy to see when Yao moves. On the other hand, I was impressed when a Pacer scrambled for a loose ball and grabbed it, but his foot landed out of bounds and the referee caught it; not the first thing a new referee will catch. Juwan Howard received a Technical Foul, but I couldn’t tell what he had done.

I had fun even as we were leaving the game. We passed a vendor selling brisket sandwiches, and taking a cue from Peyton Manning, I yelled, “Cut that meat! Cut that meat!” I only had one beer; I was just having a good time. I saw that Duran Duran is playing at the Toyota Center on the 20^th one of my weekends at home; I don’t think my rodeo-loving co-workers would have gone with me to that one anyway.