As I sat there watching this "masterpiece" of a game last night, I kept hoping that at any time, the referees would stop the game at halftime and announce that they were going to restart the game, and that the first half would not count.Sadly, that did not happen.
Although, I have to say, the officials did make their presence known. The Rose Garden crowd did their part in voicing their displeasure with the officials and the refs may have needed extra security when they left for the night. Listen, I'm not blaming the loss on the officials. Atlanta's defense shut Portland down. But it was pretty obvious that a majority of the calls in the 2nd quarter were going in the Hawks' favor. It got pretty ticky-tack there for a few minutes.
The Hawks ended up winning by only 7 points, but led at one point by 23. The game was not even close to being competitive, as the final score may suggest. The Blazers were within 6 point with about a minute and a half, but a timely 3-pointer from Jamal Crawford ended any hope of the miraculous comeback.
Gerald Wallace made his Blazer debut and it was definitely less than spectacular. But it's nothing to worry about. Marcus Camby's Portland debut was about the same.
Every Blazer shot the ball terribly, and the only real highlight from what I saw was a Wesley Matthews dunk that didn't even count. It was just one of those games for the Blazers.
Sports Illustrated's NBA writer Chris Mannix was in attendance and tweeted, "I think I picked a bad night to see the Blazers." So there ya go. That pretty much says it all.
