Minnesota Timberwolves

This weekend Victoria and I went to see the Timberwolves play the Sixers at the Target Center in Minneapolis. It had been a LONG time since I’d been to an NBA game. I think the last time I went to a game, Iverson was in the middle of his first stint with the Sixers (we’re talking sometime in the mid-90′s). A few years ago I got a ticket to see LeBron in Cleveland, but never made it up to the game. But, I saw that the Sixers were coming to town and figured it could be fun to go to a game since both they and the Timberwolves are pretty decent this year. If nothing else, it would be a fun night out and I hoped for a competitive game.

The game started early – at 6pm – so we headed into Minneapolis and made our way to the Target Center while it was still light out.

I forgot about all the antics that take place in an NBA arena during the game. It’s almost like minor league baseball in a way. As we made our way to our seats, a man with a Best Buy backboard on his back was walking through the stands giving fans a chance to take a shot.

And of course there is always the silliness that is NBA team “dancers.” To be honest, I’d rather watch a little kid try to make layups.

I set the camera to “auto” and handed it to Victoria for this shot, which turned out pretty well. It’s not often I get a picture of myself at these events.

After 47 minutes of basketball, it turned out that the game was incredibly close. The Sixers, who had a small lead all game started to miss some shots just as Kevin Love heated up for the Wolves. With just 3.6 seconds remaining, the Sixers had just a one point lead while the Wolves had the ball.

Turns out the Sixers fouled Kevin Love with 0.1 seconds left on the clock and he sank both free throws. The game was over at that point, the Sixers never got to take a final shot. I was a little bummed to see that my Sixers had lost, but noticed a big smile on Victoria’s face. She came into the evening without a rooting interest and a few no-look passes later was a big fan of Ricky Rubio and the Wolves. “That was exciting,” she said, “so much better than I expected it to be.”