Royalty w/o 3/12 in review

This week turned out to be a very royal week of stadium travel. Some history was made along the way as well.

Here's how it played out:

Monday night after work I went out to Newark, NJ to see the Nets play the Milwaukee Bucks at the Prudential Center. It was a nice relaxing way to spend the evening since there was a small crowd on hand which included my pal Vincent Ascanio. That's understandable for a few reasons. First of all, it was only Monday night which is notorious for being the slowest night of the week. Secondly, the Nets haven't played well and to add insult to injury they were playing without their superstar point guard Deron Williams aka D-Will who got hurt in Charlotte during their road trip over the weekend. With that being said, I still expected to see a competitive game.

As for the game I wound up seeing, I was right on. The Bucks have played better lately especially because of forward Ersan Ilyasova who has been pouring it points and ripping down rebounds at a torrid pace. In February, when the Bucks were at the "Rock" he led the way with 29 points and he grabbed 25 rebounds before he fouled out with a few minutes to play.

This time he wasn't a factor in the game since he got two quick fouls early so he sat on the bench most of the first half. He wound up scoring only four points in the game. His teammates rallied together to pick up the slack. Brandon Jennings was the hero for the Bucks as he scored 34 points, pulled down 7 rebounds and he dished out 7 assists as the Bucks overcame the Nets, 105-99. The Nets lead most of the game but the Bucks kept it close. Late in the game, the Bucks turned it up a notch as they emerged victorious. On the bright side for the Nets, their forward Kris Humphries scored a career high 31 points and he grabbed 18 rebounds.

Tuesday night after work I went home and did my laundry. I passed up a chance to go to the Garden to see the Rangers because I needed to get my clothes washed, pack up my bags and get some rest so I would be ready for my big extended weekend getaway.

Wednesday night after work I did go to Madison Square Garden to see the ushering in of a new era of Knicks basketball. Earlier in the day, I heard that Knick coach Mike D'Antoni decided to resign. He mostly likely got fired but they reported it as a mutual decision by him and owner Jim Dolan. Mind you Dolan is one of the worst owners in professional sports who always likes to have positive feedback no matter what the circumstances are.

Mike Woodson who was an assistant under D'Antoni was named the interim head coach for the rest of the season. Woodson played for the Knicks back in the day in 1981. He was also been a head coach for the Atlanta Hawks in recent memory.

With Woodson aboard a new philosophy was instilled at the Garden. Unlike D'Antoni, Woodson is a defensive minded coach. It showed instantly as the Knicks shut down the Portland Trailblazers, 121-79.
It was a total team effort as Linsanity had a bad night. He finished with only 6 points and 6 assists. His teammates picked up the slack as they all contributed. Amar'e Stoudemire had 15 of his 17 points in the first half. Carmelo Anthony had 16 points all in the first half as well. In the second half, Steve Novak had 15 of his 20 points all three pointers. J.R. Smith scored 23 off the bench in the second half too.

The rest of the week I finished out West as the King and I flew out to Albuquerque, New Mexico early Thursday morning for fun filled getaway.

Stay tuned for the various special posts I'm going to do to recap the epic journey.

I know it will be worth the wait. It definitely lived up to the hype and then some. Please bear with me as I play catch up.

As always, thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman

Royalty w/o 3/21 in review

This week consisted of a few nights off on Tuesday and Thursday after work.

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I went to see the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

On Monday night, the 2010 Eastern Conference Champion Boston Celtics came back to play the Knicks. The last time they played here in December they wound up winning a thriller with Paul Pierce making the game winning shot with a fraction of a second remaining. To refresh your memory, Amar'e Stoudemire made a shot that would have won it for the Knicks but it came after the buzzer upon review as the referees looked at the replay.

This time the Celtics didn't show up for the first three and a half quarters but they woke up with 5:31 left in the game to eventually overtake the Knicks who collapsed mightily down the stretch after leading most of the game.

Paul Pierce scored 13 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter to once again help the Celtics beat the Knicks, 96-86.

It should be noted this was a very physical game throughout. There were many hard fouls by both teams.

Ray Allen took an elbow to his face and he wound up getting stitched up and he came back to finish the game.

On Wednesday night, the Orlando Magic made their first appearance at the Garden this season.
The Magic wound up pulling away from the Knicks in the fourth quarter to come away with a 111-99 victory.

They got 33 points from Superman aka Dwight Howard, their dominant center.

The most impressive part of his game on this night was his free throw shooting. He's notorious for being a lousy shooter from the charity stripe. He made 11 out of 13 free throws which totally shocked me. He made his last eight in a row too. He normally misses almost half of them.

Friday night the Milwaukee Bucks returned to the Garden. They were the opponent the night Melo played his first game in a Knick uniform back on February 23rd.

Before the game, I got to speak to Knicks radio announcer, Mike Crispino. He said and I quote "the Knicks can't beat anybody." His honesty was a breath of fresh air.

He was right as the Bucks returned the favor by beating the Knicks on their home court this time.

They were led by second year guard Brandon Jennings who ran circles around the Knicks with his amazing quickness as he scored a game high 27 points.

He made a number of big baskets late in the fourth quarter as the Knicks hung around but they couldn't close the deal.

The Bucks emerged victorious in this one, 102-96.

On Saturday night I went out to the Nassau Coliseum to see the Philadelphia Flyers play the Islanders.
With a near capacity crowd on hand, the Islanders fell to the Flyers, 4-1.

As for the crowd, there were many Flyer fans in attendance. They wound up going home very happy.

As for the game, it started with a fight just 2 seconds in. 19 seconds later, there was another fight. Order was restored for most of the game thereafter. With just under 8 minutes left in the contest, a third fight broke out.

In the second period, two goals were scored in span of 22 seconds.

In addition, James Van Riemsdyk of the Flyers scored his first career hat trick.

When he scored his third goal of the game, hats went flying onto the Coliseum ice by many of the Flyer fans who were there. They came prepared just in case.

Speaking of Philadelphia, the King and I and company went down there on Sunday to see a basketball/hockey doubleheader.

Stay tuned as I'll write a special post about our visit to the City of Brotherly Love.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman