See my Picasaweb album for more pictures from this event.
Khalil and I reached our seats in the IZOD Center a few seconds before the game began. Both the Nets and the 76ers began scoring points immediately, and throughout the game they stayed almost neck-and-neck. Although it seemed to me that the Nets were outclassed, the 76ers never pulled ahead by more than a few points. By the fourth quarter I'd developed a theory for this disagreement between the score and my perception of the teams' skills: the 76ers have much flashier close-quarters moves when approaching the net, but the Nets have excellent teamwork and seem to do better from farther out. I think that the Nets didn't score quite as often, but they got more three-point shots.
The game was entertaining enough, considering that I never cared for group sports. I still don't understand what causes all the time-outs; they sure do draw the game out, though. By the time the third quarter was considering leaving early: I was worried about getting Khalil home so late on a school night, and anyway it seemed unlikely that the Nets would close the gap. As it turned out, we were glad we stayed; there were some big surprises in the fourth quarter.
There was a lot of exciting back-and-forth between the two teams, but generally the 76ers stayed just far enough ahead to give me little hope for a Nets win. But, literally at the last second, Devin Harris made the most amazing play I've ever seen. The story and the video interview with Devin Harris will tell you about it better than I could; suffice it to say that it was one of those sports moments that seemed to come straight out of a movie.
