Chicago Sports Weekend - Day 2

On Saturday, a group of us drove down to Portland to do some shopping and catch the Bulls play in Portland. Well, if I thought Friday night's game was nerve racking, it was nothing compared to what would happen on Saturday night. Our seats were the exact opposite of what we had the night before. We were literally the 4th to last row in the stadium. It was so high that if we looked straight ahead rather than down, we would look at the BACKS of some of the scoreboards. Wow...but to be fair, our tickets were only $10, so what do you expect?

The game was ugly all around. Both teams shot terribly to start the game. The Bulls only scored 12 points in the first quarter and seemed lucky to get that. They went on a tear during the 2nd quarter and it looked like this was going to be a blowout. But, they went cold in the 3rd quarter and back came the Blazers. The 4th quarter was extremely tight. The Bulls ended up getting some key stops on defense and Ben Gordon (33 points) nailed some key free throws to put the game away. In the end, the Bulls walked away with an 88-86 win. Whew!

Chicago Sports Weekend - Day 1

What a way to set off the weekend! We arrived at Key Arena about 25 minutes before game time. We had awesome seats thanks to Harold's girlfriend. She got him tickets to the game for Christmas and he, in turn, let me tag along. Lucky me! :o) Anyway, I showed up wearing a Bulls ballboy shirt. So, when the local staff were handing out game day programs to everyone in the lower seats, they tried their best to pretend they didn't see us. So much that they put the programs on empty seats rather than give them to us:

IMG_2815.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Well we ended up getting their attention and took some programs. But they didn't look happy about it. Whatever! Now, as awesome as our seats were, check out the phat tickets Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer scored:

IMG_2839.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Yep, that's right...those seats are literally on the Bulls team bench. His son was wearing a Ben Wallace jersey from when he was with the Detroit Pistons. Come on Steve, you telling me you couldn't afford to buy him an updated jersey?? Perhaps even a nice shiny jersey like Kirk Hinrich was wearing?

IMG_2862.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Hinrich ended up having a great game. You could just see he was feeling it that night. Final stat line for kirk: 20 points, 9 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals. More importantly, he did all that while trying to guard Ray Allen. His backcourt co-starter, Ben Gordon, had a quieter night:

IMG_2872.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Ben would end up saving one of his great performances for another day. But still, it wasn't too bad of a night for him: 12 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 steal. Well, since we're at the halfway point of this post, it's only appropriate to introduce the Sonics' cheerleaders who posed very well for us:

IMG_2886.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Yeah, sadly I have to say that their cheerleaders blow the Bulls' cheeleaders away. Ok, back to the game...the star of the night for the Bulls was Luol Deng (#9):

IMG_2863.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

Perhaps getting snubbed about going to the All Star game upset him? Check out this "non-All Star" stat line: 27 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal. Yeah, clearly average stuff. As far as the rookies went, we did get to see some of Tyrus Thomas:

IMG_2877.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

He didn't play a whole lot, but there was definitely one play that just had Harold and me shaking our heads. He jumped up from what looked like behind the backboard...contorted his body back around it and tried to lay the ball in. Way too hard to describe but believe me...it was an amazing show of athleticism. And now, on to the best part...the final score:

IMG_2895.JPG, originally uploaded by IlliniJester.

The game was a nail biter but our boys pulled it out. So I go back to what I stated at the start of the post: What a way to start the weekend!