Apr
23
Did that really happen last night?? No, I mean really? Really really? (Shrek reference, lol)
I was watching the game, while chatting with many of you fans in the chat room. Things weren't looking too good. The team just couldn't make a basket and Dallas meanwhile, was hitting 3's left and right, and just making the plays. Our Blazers, had cold spells both in the first half and early in the second. At around the mid-point of the 3rd quarter, we were down 57-41 and while I usually (when I'm at home in Portland) watch the game all the way through (regular season and especially playoffs), I was pretty pooped. I am preparing for the biggest exam we have in medical school (two months from now), so I really need all the rest I can get, so my brain can take all this information and make sense of it.
Yet, I couldn't' resist the opportunity to watch Game 3, as it started at a relatively decent time of 11 pm Central European time. My fellow Blazer fan here in Prague, a fellow medical student, often stays up late to watch big games (especially if class starts late the next day), so in that regard, he is better than me.
Anyways, I headed to bed, thinking, negatively, that I would wake up to us being down 3-1. I know that sounds horrible, especially as I've been a Blazer fan for so long. Additionally, I remember, when I was still attending Reed College, and we had that series against the Mavs in 2003 - I remember checking the news (I think I had a lot of work then, so couldn't catch the game despite being home) and seeing that we had won (I think we were down 3-1 or 3-2 at that stage and as we know, that series went 7 games) Yet, just before leaving the chat-room, my fellow fan BlockParty, wished me a goodnight and mentioned that hopefully I would awake to a big comeback and a tie series. I said, "Thanks and I hope so!"
I woke up, turned on my computer and when I saw in my e-mail in-box, that Kassandra and Casey had blogs up, I knew something was up and then ESPN.com, once again, gave me the good news - BLAZERS WIN! I signed on to MSN and immediately, my fellow Blazer fan - messaged: BLAZERS!!!!! My friend went on to say that he got home around midnight here (roughly halftime) and after watching a bit, he felt too tired, so went to bed and like me, woke up to check the score later on in the night.
YOU CALLED IT BlockParty!!!
I'm sure many of you also kept up the hope that we would get going and make a run. In fact, that is all I wanted, for us to show some more fight, more desire than we had been showing. Anything is possible in sports, and that is why you have to play the whole game (48 min in our case) and until the final buzzer sounds, there is still hope. It's not that I didn't have hope, but I was only basing my feelings on what I had seen until that point. I hope you can all forgive me for feeling that way. Even if we had lost, I was still going to be proud of what we have done this season . . . but as you can imagine, that feeling is only stronger now (not to mention B Roy's heroics) and regardless of what happens the rest of this series, I am going to be proud of this team and happy that I could witness their accomplishments . .. but enough of that reflective stuff, for now - let's get ready for what is sure to be a crazy and exciting GAME 5 - let's steal one in Dallas!!!!
-Anees, from Prague
PS I hope to be with you all in the chat for the WHOLE game on Monday night - hello caffeine binge! :-D