When yesterday began, I was looking forward to hanging out with my firends that night, watching the game on some woefully antiquated boob tube, stuck in Eugene.  Then, out of nowhere, I saw SergioFTW's offer for two 300 level tix at face value (how can you turn that down?!?!) in the sidebar and my adventure was set in motion.  I had to hurt some friends' feelings (one isn't talking to me anymore...) but eventually decided on a lucky partner and we set off with little time to spare.  I met up with Sergio in Salem and got the tickets (cool dude and very nice) and battled the 205 traffic to make it to the Gateway Max station.  In the end, the timing worked out perfectly and we sat down in our seats (center court looking at the benches; kind of like TV perspective but up higher) right as the lights dimmed for introductions.  This was the first time I'd been to a Blazer game in six years, the first time I'd seen ANY of this group in real life, and my first time drinking at a sporting event (legally).  Needless to say, I was pumped.  What follows are my observations of events from the game that viewers at home might not have seen.

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So I watched the Cavs/Blazers game at my parents house and invited them to share it with me.  Neither are familiar with the current team in the slightest (neither could tell me who Brandon Roy was... I felt like walking out at that point) as they became disillusioned with the team and the NBA during the Jail Blazer era, but both are big fans of the game of basketball.  They agreed to watch the game as long as we listened to music (Rolling Stones and Phoebe Snow) instead of the commentary and I happily obliged as I hate TNT anyway.  I was interested in getting their input on the team (both teams, actually) from an educated and unbiased perspective.  Here were some of the highlights:

• My mom LOVES Brandon Roy.  Even in this game where he was being defended rather well, she recognized that he's a master of penetration.  She claims his pull up jumper looks better than Lebron's.  She says the best thing about him is the way he controls the pace and calms down the game.  My dad referred to him as a "very cool customer."  High praise there.
  
• Speaking of Lebron... my parents actually had heard of him but still didn't know a whole lot about him and had never seen him play.  My dad thinks he has too many tatoos (and likes the Blazers relatively clean look: "very professional")  but an intimidating presence.  Neither approved of his ball handling as they said it looked sloppy and he travelled way too much.  On the whole, they "called" traveling A LOT and on pretty much everyone.  They thought he was limited because he couldn't go left with that double team we were running (the one where he shaded him on his right and kept the help to his left).  They were impressed with the way he passed the ball, saying he understands who to give the ball to.
  
• They liked Channing and approved of his shot selection (it was weird hearing my mom chirp "good shot" while my mind was saying "wait, don't!").  They said he has great shooting form.  Imagine what they would have made of LaMarcus.
• Neither could tell the difference between Steve and Sergio which I thought was hilarious... although to be fair when you can't hear the announcers, they do look rather similar from the pulled back camera view.  They thought the guards played great D individually but were disgusted by our defence on screens.  A fan of the college game, my dad didn't understand why there isn't much effort put into popping out in front of the ball handler on screens up top to inhibit a drive.  I didn't have a good answer...
• They had few kind words for the Trout.  I tried to tell them that he works better off the dribble like that but they weren't impressed either way.
• They said it didn't look like the Blazers had played the night before which says a lot about how they presented themselves, I think.  
• On our offense, my dad wasn't impressed.  He thaught the guards did a poor job of involving others.  My mom thought brandon should be playing point.  My dad said that was stupid because he's not fast enough.  Even though they seemed to like Channing taking his jumpers, they thought we "cut corners" in manufacturing good shots.  I asked him what they should be doing instead and he suggested running cutters through the key.
  
• They weren't overly impressed with Przy which shocked me.  I thought they'd love him, but they said he was just what a standard center should be and wasn't anything special.  Whatever.
• They thought Greg got screwed by the refs which brings me to their biggest gripe of the night:
• Officiating.  All night long they were wondering where the fouls were.  It looked like just another NBA game to me, were the announcers saying anything?

Overall they thought the game was entertaining and impressive, considering the shots weren't falling.  When I asked them if they would watch any Blazers games without me they said probably not, but they might go to one at the RG.  They said the team looks like they really get along and all appear really pleasant but "it's still the NBA."  Thanks for ruining them 'Sheed.

A post by Kevin Arnovitz over at TrueHoop takes a look at the benches of playoff contenders and has some rather nice things to say about the Blazers:

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