Monday 22 February  
The fourth game with Kurt Rambis in charge. Going in to the game he has 2 losses to 1 win (and the win came away from home). This was always going to be a tough game as the Raptors are doing well at the moment.

The Raptors took an early lead in q1 but the Knicks managed to keep the pressure on and ended up finishing the period up by 2 points. In the second quarter they again lacked energy and focus and managed to end the half down by 13 points. 

Some of the players were having good individual games (Lopez and Melo) but others were not having good games and were making silly fouls. 

The Knicks today signed Jimmer Fredette to a 10 day contract. This guy is known for his scoring (he scored 35 points during the D-league All Star game) and there was a lot of expectation that he would get bug minutes to help the team. Chants of ‘we want Jimmer’ kept breaking out throughout the crowd. The fans were not rewarded in q3, and the quarter finished with the Knicks down by 18. Looking at the stats at that point it was clear that the Knicks were simply being outplayed. 

Free throws were a problem for the team tonight, especially Melo who did not seem to have the touch from the line.

The final score was Raptors 122 Knicks 95.

Credit has to be given to the crowd at MSG who stayed behind the crowd and kept defence chants going even in the 4th when even the most optimistic fans must surely have given up hope. 

The post game interviews were telling as Melo and Lopez were visibly upset by the result and whatever had happened in the locker room post game. 
 

Friday 19 February 

On the way to the venue and inside the venue it definitely seemed that the Knicks fans were outnumbering the Nets fans. Even during the game the Knicks fans mainly seemed louder. 

Knicks were playing well and had the lead at the end of q1. The second quarter started in the same way but by about half way through q2 the Knicks seemed to be losing energy. They ended the quarter up by 2 but the Nets had taken the lead during the quarter.

Nets came out of the half time break with a lot of energy and took an early lead. They maintained this lead for the rest of the game. 

It’s difficult to pinpoint one thing that is going wrong for the Knicks. Individual player stats show good games for many players but they don’t seem to be able to maintain high energy and good plays for four quarters. Kurt Rambis has said that he wants to get the Knicks to the playoffs but based on the performance against the Nets I just don’t see how that can happen. Rambis has only been in charge for 2 games at this point but he has a big challenge ahead of him. 

The NBA really goes to town for the All Star game. They do their best to up the level of entertainment provided so that you are not really able to feel bored. Unless you don’t like the entertainment.

The five starters for each team are voted for by the fans. The remaining players are selected by the coaches. The players are announced to the crowd one at at time, they appear on a stage and then make their way down to the court. This provide just a little more entertainment than the normal player introductions. 

 
As it was Kobe Bryan’s last All Star game there was a moment to pay tribute to Kobe before the start of the game. I think the NBA handled it pretty well, it could have been over the top but it was a fitting tribute without detracting too much from the main event. 

  
All Star games don’t feature a huge amount of defence – though there are usually some pretty good blocks and the occasional sneaky steal. 

The main element of these game is the flashy offence; the players are more relaxed than in regular season games so they can go for a dunk or focus on lay ups (looking at you Steph Curry). I think Russell Westbrook summed it up post game when he commented that he likes to smile at All Star as he knows people comment on the fact that he doesn’t smile much during games.

The players do all look like they are having a lot of fun during the game and it’s great to see them mix it up and try things a bit out of their comfort zone during the game.

Russell Westbrook having fun is clearly good for his game as he won MVP for the second consecutive year. I was a little surprised that they didn’t find a way to give the trophy to Kobe but then he did play limited minutes. I think Paul George had a better game and was more deserving but as he was on the losing team I guess they felt they couldn’t award it to him. 

All Star Saturday night is an opportunity for NBA players to showcase skills that you may see on the court but with a bit more flash.

First up was the skills challenge where players have to weave through some objects while dribbling, make an accurate pass, run down the court for a layup and then back down the court for a three point shot. This year they had 4 bigs and 4 guards take on the challenge which works as a head to head, with instant elimination.

  
The final was between KAT and Isaiah Thomas. It was close and the crowd really got behind the players. Both players were struggling to get a 3 to fall. In the end KAT made a three point just ahead of Thomas to win the trophy.

Possibly the funniest moment of the night was Kevin Hart challenging DeMarcus Cousins to a shooting contest. Cousins went first to set the pace. Kevin Hart is actually a good shot and he came pretty close to beating the NBA star. 

The three point challenge featured the splash brothers so we knew we were in for a show. Eight NBA players took place, and the three with the highest score progressed to the next round. WAe actually had to a have a tie-break round as three players had joint third highest points (the splash brothers filling spots 1 and 2).

  
Devin Booker was the youngest of the competitors and he kept his cool to advance to the final round. I think we all knew he wasn’t going to win but it was still exciting to watch him try. 

Booker had the first go in the final round, followed by Steph Curry so we didn’t have to wait long to realise that was true. Steph, as always, put on a show. The excitement when Klay Thomson took his place to start was amazing. People were standing up to make sure they didn’t miss any of the action.

When he made the shot that took him past Steph’s score the whole place went crazy.  It was as if we were watching history being made. 

  
The dunk contest, the last event of the evening, was just outstanding. Four players each make 2 dunks, the two with the highest combined score progress to the next round where they again make 2 dunks. Aaron Gordon and Zach LaVine quickly set themselves out as the ones to beat. 

The dunk made a comback last night; at one point I thought we were going to be there until the two guys were exhausted as they both kept getting full marks. My opinion is that Aaron Gordon should have won but there is no denying that Zach LaVine was amazing. 

Friday 12 February 2016

The Air Canada Centre was quieter than I had expected when we arrived. We were sitting 9 rows from the front so we had a great view of the players warming up.    
The Rising Stars game is USA v The World. As we are in Canada, The World was effectively the home team. 

These games are exhibitions, a chance for the best rookies and sophomores to show off their skills. Defence is usually only an afterthought. For that reason a lot of people dislike All Star. I love it though, it’s a chance to see the players making the flashy moves and having a bit of fun with the game. 

The venue had a lot of empty seats. I am pretty sure the game had sold out in advance so  I’m not sure why there were so many empty seats but there were visible all around the arena. 

 The fans that were in attendance did not really seem to be enjoying the game. The people around me talked the whole time and didn’t seem to know who any of the players were. This was a shame as the game was very entertaining. There was a lot of dunks, 3 point shots, sneaky steals and passes. Sporadically a chant would start but strangely the chant was frequently for the Raptors rather than for any one of the players on the court. 

  
It was shame that the atmosphere was lacking as it was a really entertaining game.  I can only hope that the remainder of the All Star weekend has more atmosphere.

The first quarter of the game seemed really quick. This was probably due to the low number of time outs and fouls. The Celtics seemed a little slow to start but they managed to keep the game close. In the last two and a half minutes of the game the teams went a little foul crazy – up to that point there had only been two fouls committed. By the end of the quarter both teams were in the bonus.
 This seemed to set a scene of sorts for the rest of the game as a lot of fouls were called. A lot of the referee decisions were questionable and at times it did seem that the three refs were not agreeing with each other.  
In the second quarter the Celtics could have had a stronger lead but for ref calls and some poor shots towards the end of the quarter.

Quarter 2 came to a dramatic end as Paul Pierce hit a half court three but it was judged to have left his hands after the buzzer.

The Celtics kept the lead during the third quarter but slowed at times allowing the Clippers to pull closer.

The forth quarter was the worst for the ref calls and the crowd let them know. The crowd got really rowdy during the quarter and some of the language used during heckles was definitely offensive. Now obviously I am only able to speak about the area I was seated in so I don’t know if that behaviour is typical.

 The NBA usually have an announcement at the start of game reminding people to behave appropriately, consume alcohol moderately and report abusive or disruptive behaviour. I didn’t see such an announcement at this game.

The final couple of minutes of regular play were slow as a a result of ref calls, ref reviews, officials time outs and time outs. Some fans were heading for the door but I think this was probably to try to catch trains.

Regular play came to an end with the teams even sending the game to overtime. (This weirdly resulted in a chant of ‘overtime’ from some of the people near me.)

Overtime really was an extension of the fourth in terms of delay to play in the first few minutes – there were so many foul calls for a five minute period of play. Thankfully in the last two minutes this eased slightly to allow for some uninterrupted basketball.

Interestingly DeAndre Jordan was on 50% free throw shooting going into the half and was on 53% free throw shooting at the end of the game.