On Wednesday, April 2, I headed south to Atlanta with Jason to see my Toronto Raptors take on the Atlanta Hawks. We got to Philips Arena by 5:20 for a 7 p.m. tip only to find that the arena doesn't open until 1 hour before opening tip. The view from the side of the arena.
During the wait to get in, we discovered the inside of the CNN Center. They have a hotel it appears and a huge inner shopping area with restaurants and memorabilia shops.
Even a Humvee was spotted!
A veiw of the world and the windows, which had been reported to have blown out during the tornado a few weeks ago.
The jersey Grant bought me at Christmas! Bargnani, #7, scored 14 points in the first half and had a rare good game!
Bosh signing autographs before the game. I got his autograph as well as their injured centre, Jorge Garbajosa. Notice the girl to Chris's right wearing his jersey and the guy just above his head with the Jose Calderon jersey. They were both from Southern and the girl had gone to Kingsway. There were tons of Toronto fans in attendance and Canadian flags waving through the audience. I felt right at home.
Carlos took this picture of Jason and I. If you look close enough on my program, you can see Bosh and Garbajosa's signatures.
Raptors on the court from right to left; Jamario Moon, Bosh, Rasho Nesterovic, and T.J. Ford.
Raptors in the huddle with no zoom from our 4th or 5th row seats. We could almost hear what they were saying!
Nestervic, the centre who used to play for the Spurs, hit his first 3-pointer of the season at the first quarter buzzer!
Mike Bibby gets ready for the play. He had an amazing game and hit the game-tying 3 point shot with 0.5 seconds left in the 4th quarter that tied the game at 107. The Raptors blew a 17-point 3rd quarter lead as they only scored 2 points over the last 5 1/2 minutes. With 0.5 seconds left, Toronto threw an alley-oop from half-court that T.J. Ford scored as he caught the ball in the air and Toronto won 109-107!! But wait, the officials reviewed the play for over 5 minutes and then waived off the basket and took away the win. Replays and ESPN analysts later came to proven evidence that the score keeper started the clock 0.1 seconds early, which meant the shot did beat the clock and Toronto did win. But as the game went into OT, the Hawks came out on top 127-120 in a game that the Raptors won but still got a loss in the standings for.
The Sky Hawk sitting next to us in the 4th quarter. He performed a front flip off a trampoline and snatched the basketball off a stand in mid-air as he threw down the dunk!
The 4th quarter winding down.
The buzzer sounds on the Raptors win. Even though Toronto was mathematically proven to have won the game, they should have never blown a 17 point 3rd quarter lead to the Hawks. But it was certainly an exciting finish. The Atlanta Braves also were playing in ATL on Wednesday as they lost again to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Also on Wednesday night on ESPN 2 the Blue Jays beat the Yankees in New York 5-2 behind a 2-run homer from Vernon Wells and a solid game from starter A.J. Burnett. On Thursday night the Nashville Predators clinched a play-off spot in the NHL! With the NBA Play-Offs just about 2 1/2 weeks away, the Western Conference is still wide open. If the Raptors don't improve their play, they will be headed for another early exit from the Play-Offs. With their next win they will clinch a spot, but they already lost again, this time in Toronto, to the Charlotte Bobcats 105-100.
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