Boston Celtics Vs New York Knicks

Knicks Free Throw

As basketball season approaches, there are numerous pre-season friendlies being played around America to promote the sport. Luckily the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks were playing in Hartford, roughly a 15 minute drive from CCSU and Hongi, Stefanie, Jon, Erik, and myself managed to get some tickets for roughly £30 a piece. We all piled into Hongi's new car and drove to Hartford before the game for a few drinks and some food before entering the stadium. I may not be the most educated in Basketball, but I would say we had some cracking seats, despite being in the second tear in the corner. It's not exactly as if we were in the top of the Nou Camp.

Lucky Gets The Crowd Going

It appeared that Boston Celtics were classed as the home team as the number of green jerseys far outnumbered the blue and orange of Knicks. They were also selling Celtics jerseys outside. Just to further confirm my suspicions, there appeared to be an idiot dressed in stereotypical Irish clothing called 'Lucky' running around the arena during time outs, and between quarters. Apart from looking like a bit of an idiot, his job seemed to be to get the crowd going by doing acrobats, throwing free t-shirts into the crowd and giving away free tickets.

The thing that I seemed to notice was that the crowd seemed to get most animated during time outs when the camera for the big screen in the centre of the court, spanned the crowd looking for close ups of the fans. Because of this, the majority of the support jump up and start dancing to the music in an attempt to be on the big screen. A little bit idiotic if you ask me, but then again, I'm a uptight Englishman.

Not The Worst Seats In The World

The game seemed decent enough, although Hongi (who actually follows the NBA) said that it is obvious that it was a pre-season game because the tempo wasn't as high as usual. The atmosphere seemed a little low up until the final quarter when things livened up a bit. With seconds to go Knicks missed a chance to win the game taking it into Overtime. In overtime, Knicks took the lead and defended well to clinch the game which made me happy as I picked them to support, especially as they had been behind for the majority of the game.

 

Highlights Of The Game