15/82 Warriors/Rockets
I have been looking forward to this day since I looked at the basketball schedules in September It’s a rare event where all the teams I watch are playing roughly in sequence. Here’s the line-up:
10 am UConn Women/NC State
12 pm South Carolina Women/Stanford
2 UConn Men /Delaware St
4 Michigan Men/Ohio
4:30 Warriors/Rockets
Today I test the question how much basketball is too much? Is the game at the end of the day as enjoyable as the game at the start? When will I take a nap or do the Sunday Crossword? Will this be fun or have I taken all the fun out of it? And also who will win?
Today I am writing this as the games happen. I’ll let you know the results when I know the results–at the end of each game.
This plan might be excessive. But this morning, I woke up to news of the Colorado Springs murders, and I feel the need to guard my joy. The foundation of sadness and grief will be waiting for me when the games have ended, and I wake up another day in a country that gives free rein to slaughter because we’ve decided that’s part of what freedom means. I will stoke the fires of my resistance with basketball, as silly as that might sound. Right now it sounds pretty darn silly.
10 am UConn/NC State
I will say this all year long but I wish the Warriors and Michigan and all teams would play defense with as much commitment as the UConn Huskies. They go after every possession. They play hard on both sides of the court for the entire game. The first four NC State possessions were four turnovers caused by UConn. 13 of the Huskies’ first 15 points came off turnovers. If you like the Warriors, watch the UConn Women play.
In the second half the Huskies take control and continue to do all the little things right. A rebound after a missed free throw, deflecting an inbound pass, harassing on every shot. This was supposed to be a team brought down yet again by injury with Paige Bueckers out for the year. And while that is significant, this does not look like a team that is missing its star–this looks like a team filled with stars.
Speaking of UConn stars, here’s a pic of UConn WNBA stars.
That’s Sue Bird getting a tattoo from Gabby Williams at Breanna Stewart’s home. Gabby is tattooing “oiseau”, which is bird in French. While the whole “home tattoo” situation is not the best, these UConn and WNBA stars hanging out in the off-season, having adventures, makes me smile.
At the end of the game, Azzi Fudd has 32 points and Nika Muhl sets a UConn record with 15 assists. Think of all the all-star guards they’ve had–Bird, Taurasi–and Nika Muhl has the record.
If UConn is the #5 team and they look extraordinary, what will the number 1 and 2 teams look like next?
W UConn 91-69
Stanford/South Carolina
My only game with no rooting interest, and I’m not trying to develop one. Eventually, these teams are going to face UConn and I don’t want any divided loyalty.
Although I am watching this game on slight delay, I don’t fast forward through commercials. Nonstop action is not my speed. I need the pause to reset, get some water, get a snack, stare out the window for 90 seconds or check Sue Bird’s instagram feed to see if she’s gotten a new tattoo.
This game is stellar. Cameron Brink (Stanford) is off to a strong start in the 1st quarter. Last post I mentioned Azzi Fudd (UConn) was at Steph Curry’s camp in 2018 as one of only two girls. The other was Cameron Brink.
This game is GOOD and I can feel myself getting sucked in. While UConn dominated their game, these two teams look to be teams of a different caliber. It’s hard not to like Dawn Staley, the South Carolina coach. I love how animated she is as a person and a coach. In a field where coaches are often male or white women, Staley is hopefully a trend and not an anomaly, as a Black coach who has played in the WNBA.
After being slightly behind most of the game, South Carolina ties the game with 2.1 seconds left. And we are in overtime. Even though Stanford is playing better and actually looks like the better team, that’s no guarantee that you will win in a close game. When the team who has to scrap the whole way through manages to hang in there, it can get under your skin. In overtime, they trade the lead with each possession. And then, in a series of unlikely events at the end (missing many free throws, a 5 second call, calling a timeout when there are no timeouts left), South Carolina wins in a bizarre finish.
W South Carolina 76-71
The UConn men’s game has already started but I have made an executive decision. I am exhausted by watching these two highly entertaining games back to back and I need a break. I will record the UConn game and watch it later. [Note: a week later, I have not watched this game and it’s clear I’m not going to.]
Warriors/Rockets
I managed to get in a completely perfect 35 min nap, the kind where you wake up and don’t know what day it is. I feel like a new person.
As I turned on the Warriors game, I saw that the Sacramento Kings were playing the Pistons on tv. With a quick sight of Isaiah Livers putting up a 3, who as you might remember, I also love. I’m recording it, to watch later on this week. It is easy to avoid the score of a Kings/Pistons game and I can watch that whenever I am ready to be an Isaiah Livers fan club member. I want him to have his wildest basketball dreams come true. [Note: a week later, I have not watched this game either but I absolutely will.]
Meanwhile the Warriors are off to a fast and furious start. Wiggins is scoring and defending, Klay is sinking shots and all of the sudden it’s 22-7. Klay is ON ONE! 6/6 with 19 points and 5 min still left in the 1st Q. Curry is once again the assist king.
But oh my, the second quarter! If the first quarter is the hopeful future and the once past, the 2nd quarter is the worst reminder of the present. Fouls, turnovers, clanked shots, rushed shots. My Lord. The 2nd quarter Warriors somehow keep confusing push the tempo with take rushed shots.Those are two different things
Please don’t screw this up by losing this game for Klay. We can’t keep having games where Klay or Curry or Wiggins is having a great game but there is no win. Is there any lead we won’t throw away on the road?
The overly pro-Warriors announcers keep trying to sell me on “all these teams we are losing to are playing out of their minds” when they play the Warriors. That is not the case. It has been true for a few of the games, but that’s not a reason why the Warriors are playing poorly.
We are in another close 4th quarter. But Klay! Klay!!!! 41 points. Steph and Klay have 74 of the 126 points making it a true Splash Brothers night in a way we haven’t seen in a long time and it is finally a Warriors road win.
There are a lot of things to say about Klay. I think about him a lot. It’s a subject for a different post because I have to watch another game, so I’ll leave it at this. Don’t you ever, not even once say that Klay is done.
W Warriors 127-120
One more game to go and it’s the only game that isn’t live. I keep the Warriors post-game show on and listen while I do the New York Times crossword puzzle. Truth be told, I’m tired. 3 games is a lot–especially 3 close games where I had to watch the whole time. 4 games is stretching it. 5 is too many. However, the Warriors play tomorrow, so I can’t stockpile games. So…one more game tonight.
Watched 15 minutes of the Michigan/Ohio game and knew that this would be another close game and decided to watch the live broadcast of Elton John’s last concert in Dodger Stadium instead. I know it’s a strange choice, but this is how the day is going. Elton John plays a really large role in my early life. I learned to read from the liner notes of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, following along with my finger as he sang.
Restarted the Michigan game, which continues to be back and forth in ways that make me nervous. Which brings us to now at 12:06 am
Photo Credit: Jon Block, my friend who was at the game
Of course this day ends in overtime! Why not! Michigan is a fun team to watch and while I can’t put my finger on it, they are infinitely more fun than last year’s team. This team has a ways to go, but they feel like a Michigan team, one that will probably lose some games that they should win but are also capable of magic.
12:11 am Michigan wins in overtime 70-66 and I am done watching basketball for the day.
Update: It’s almost a week later. I’m still thinking about Colorado Springs and the aching sadness of it all. Watching basketball did and does bring me joy. If there’s anything I’ve gotten to practice over the last few years, it’s this lesson of how to hold joy and sadness at the same time. Waiting for one to end to experience the other is a fool’s game. And with that, I’m closing the story of my epic last Sunday, with a poem from Saeed Jones, described as “an argument for community and the rebellion of joy”. Listen to the audio link there which is him reading the poem. If you can’t access that, then you can hear it here, but it’s not him reading.
And I have a book recommendation–Jones’ newest Alive at the End of the World, or his memoir How We Fight For Our Lives.
It’s already Sunday morning here and today there will be three basketball games.