WOW!!!
I've been waiting all year for a game like that!! I would never say this without Monta's buzzer beater of course but that was the game of the year. No Warriors fan should have missed out on that feeling when Monta drained that last second jumper.
Me? I threw my sandwich into the air and danced around in a rainfall of lettuce, tomato, turkey, cheese, and drizzles of balsamic Italian dressing. And I saw that it was good. How did you respond to the shot heard around the Bay?
Damn... I'm speechless. Speechless.
That being said, let me throw some words down.
"Yea hand that over real quick. Let me show you something..."
I almost don't want to tarnish that feeling that we all have inside right now but tonight's game was pretty worrisome. After losing 6 of our past 7, it was initially refreshing to step into the Arena tonight against a team that we all thought we were going to easily put away.
It didn't quite go down like that, however. The first quarter was abysmal. Letting the Nets go back to their bench with a 16 point lead wasn't exactly my idea of "putting them away". Again, we faced one of the two classic Warrior examples in this game.
Classic Warrior Example #1: Falling viciously behind in the first quarter, then playing the basketball that we should have been playing all along to play catch-up.
Classic Warrior Example #2: Playing nasty basketball in the first half that gets Warrior Nation on their feet, then giving up the game with a mediocre 3rd and a dismal 4th.
It seemed as though we were doomed.
In the second quarter, however, the Dubs started to wake up. Now even though we outscored the Nets in every quarter after that, I was honestly nervous throughout the entire game. Nets take the lead, we catch up and tie. Nets take the lead; we catch up and take the lead by 3. Nets take the lead, we catch up and tie. The entire game we were forced to play at their pace!
But then it happened. Like so many times before, we hung our heads. Like so many times before we asked ourselves how we blew it, AGAIN. Were we doomed? Were we cursed?! Were we... hey... Monta has an open look! HOW MUCH TIME IS LEFT ON THE CLOCK?!!!! IT'S UP!! IT'S...
Gentleman... meet the turning point of the season.
Eat that Probability Tracker.
Warrior Wonder I don't even have to say his name. If you don't know who it is, you just missed a hell of a game.
Update 12:11am 1/25/07 (Atma Brother #1):
In case you missed it...
The Shot...
And The Celebration!
But most importantly- Raphael, Michaelangelo, Leonardo, or Donatello?
Nope- Al Harrington is the kids' favorite TMNT!
Photos: Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images and AP Jeff Chiu