I have a confession to make. Sometime during the end of the first round, I was rooting for Atlanta to upset Orlando. Was it because of a potentially favorable matchup? Sure. But the bigger reason, was that a last-minute business trip would potentially put me in Atlanta during the series. And once the upset was complete, the schedule published, and a scheduling snafu pushing me to stay an extra day, the stage was set for my first road playoff game with the Bulls. (Warning: this will likely be a long post.)On game days, I tend to acknowledge that the Bulls are playing in some way. This time, I elected to go with my Bulls polo. At our partner site, I ran into a Hawks fan that disagreed with my choice in apparel that day. We had a short, spirited conversation on the series. It was his belief that as long as the Hawks played "their game", they could beat the Bulls. I politely declined to share my full opinions on the Hawks, choosing to highlight what I enjoyed about the Hawks in terms of athleticism and shooting ability. As soon as our work day ended, I immediately geared up and headed down to Philips Arena.
As you can see, there was a massive throng of people lining up to buy tickets.
That being said, Philips had a nice free event happening outside, with a shooting contest ran by a DJ for various Hawks items such as jerseys, t-shirts, autographed pictures and the like. 
I was also able to tease the DJ into why he was wearing red, on their white-out night at the stadium, so he promptly changed.
The gates opened at 5:30 pm, earlier than usual for the Hawks. While waiting, I got teased by Philips arena personnel that I was wearing the wrong jersey. I was also asked (by a Boston Celtics fan working at Philips), what my prediction for the game was. I figured, with the home crowd, first game, it would be a tough game throughout. Bulls by 8 or 9 points. Once inside, I met more truly friendly Philips arena ushers. Same joke on the jersey selection. But the added fun of them trying to jokingly redirect me to my "real seats". Usher: "See that light up there in the rafters? Keep walking toward it. That's where you should sit." Pretty funny. All good-natured. One usher kept gushing about the Hawks as a true fan would. I eventually made my way down to where the Bulls came out to warm up.
I got to meet Scott, the fellow with the awesome Bench Mob sign. 
Over the course of the season, he's gotten it signed by most of the players. 
Good fellow. We talked a lot of hoops while watching the Bulls shoot around. He's gotten a chance to meet a lot of Bulls dignitaries and some of the NBA dignitaries as well. Speaking of which, Scottie was there: 
NBA TV did their pre-game show on the floor as well, with Grant Hill making an appearance: 
By the way, my last minute seats were not bad at all:
Except for one thing, which you'll see later. Also nice? My section gave me access to a unique set of food choices compared to the rest of the arena. Steak sandwiches:
Fancy Mexican food:
A large bar area:
A pasta station and a diner rounded out the selections. Not bad, Philips arena! Finally, it's game time. Both teams are warming up, but the stadium is still pretty desolate: 
Even as the national anthem and player introductions complete, the stadium is embarrassingly sparse for a game of this magnitude: 
(Their player introductions were decent. Good use of a large drum line to give it a totally appropriate Southern feel.) This seemed like a pretty fun Hawks group:
Note the optimistic sign by this fellow:
(Basically, 4 wins against Superman - Dwight Howard, 1 win against Rose, ?? against the King - LeBron James, ?? against the Black Mamba - Kobe) Also somewhat fun, is that they had an in-stadium reporter, who sometimes would give live reports over the stadium displays. She was, quite easy on the eyes, as they say:
Finally, the game starts. Despite the lack of most of the crowd, the acoustics of the stadium amplify the sound quite nicely. Thus, I can see why Ray Allen mentioned this as one of his least favorite road arenas. Right on the tip, the Bulls show a lot more aggressiveness than usual, where they like to probe what the defense is offering up, versus making the defense try to react to what they want to do. A Deng jumper, followed by long missed jumper by Joe Johnson that leads to an easier than it should be DRose fastbreak layup and a quick Larry Drew timeout: 
The first quarter flies by in a flurry. Both DRose and Teague seem to be trading baskets. Teague is able to score on late arriving help, but DRose seems to effortless score from any spot in this first quarter. The Bulls fans in our section are able to coordinate an MVP chant, right after his floater, while the Hawks were on offense. One fun thing about my section, was that the seats next to me were never filled. Thus, on certain plays, I got to high five with some fellow Bulls fans (Carol and Ken) that flew up from Las Vegas. Not a lot going on in Altanta Hawks history:
Kirk Hinrich, would have liked to see him in this series: 
Back to the game:
DRose had a commanding first quarter. When I think of annihilation, I'll think of this game.If not for Teague's 11 pts in the quarter, the rest of DRose's performance was absolutely brilliant: 17 pts, 7-10 FGs (1-3 3PT), 1-1 FTs
1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 block, +6 (+/-)He would finish the quarter with 21 pts.
The Bulls would withstand some mini-runs by the Hawks, but would stamp out their hopes in the 4th.Sad face matadors (bull fighters, get it?)
There's a type of fan commitment that comes with doing body paint, since it's a terrible feeling when you make the effort, and your team doesn't:
For the Hawks, it was too many looks again from the outside, and too few looks from within. When the Bulls rebound well, and score well in the paint, it's pretty tough to beat them.A great game for the Bulls, but this was more about an excellent effort by DRose and the Bulls, combined with one of Atlanta's poorer efforts in the post season. A lot of talk on the national broadcast, was about local Atlanta residents revealing themselves as Bulls fans. The reality of it is, many people, such as myself made the travel up to see the team play.These two made the long drive from Mississippi. 
Fellow Chicagoans, right in front of me!
Funny story here, as it relates to me get beer dumped on me during the game.
The woman on my right (and her husband) took some Chicago fans to watch the game. Pretty friendly as most Atlanteans (?) go in terms of joking about the game. But as she meant to elbow me in a joking fashion during one bad stretch for the Hawks, she forgot she was doing it with her beer arm, and woosh! Beer dumping! I'm sure these kids would have been happy to have seen it happen to me, as we were engaging in a chant duel. (I'd shout Defense! And they would respond with Offense!) 
Not pictured of course, are two fellows that drove up from Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Carol and Ken, United Center season ticket holders from Las Vegas that travel to every game (wow!). It was a fantastic and unforgettable time for obvious reasons. I definitely recommend doing this for your favorite team (provided they aren't playing in Philadelphia, New York, or Oakland...haha)
10 to go!Hoop Data box score:
http://www.hoopdata.com/boxscore.aspx?id=310506001PopcornMachine game flow:
http://popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20110506&game=CHIATL PopcornMachine box score:
http://popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/boxscore.cgi?date=20110506&game=CHIATL Here's the full photo set too:
As you can see, there was a massive throng of people lining up to buy tickets. That being said, Philips had a nice free event happening outside, with a shooting contest ran by a DJ for various Hawks items such as jerseys, t-shirts, autographed pictures and the like. I was also able to tease the DJ into why he was wearing red, on their white-out night at the stadium, so he promptly changed. The gates opened at 5:30 pm, earlier than usual for the Hawks. While waiting, I got teased by Philips arena personnel that I was wearing the wrong jersey. I was also asked (by a Boston Celtics fan working at Philips), what my prediction for the game was. I figured, with the home crowd, first game, it would be a tough game throughout. Bulls by 8 or 9 points. Once inside, I met more truly friendly Philips arena ushers. Same joke on the jersey selection. But the added fun of them trying to jokingly redirect me to my "real seats". Usher: "See that light up there in the rafters? Keep walking toward it. That's where you should sit." Pretty funny. All good-natured. One usher kept gushing about the Hawks as a true fan would. I eventually made my way down to where the Bulls came out to warm up. I got to meet Scott, the fellow with the awesome Bench Mob sign. Over the course of the season, he's gotten it signed by most of the players. Good fellow. We talked a lot of hoops while watching the Bulls shoot around. He's gotten a chance to meet a lot of Bulls dignitaries and some of the NBA dignitaries as well. Speaking of which, Scottie was there: NBA TV did their pre-game show on the floor as well, with Grant Hill making an appearance: By the way, my last minute seats were not bad at all: Except for one thing, which you'll see later. Also nice? My section gave me access to a unique set of food choices compared to the rest of the arena. Steak sandwiches: Fancy Mexican food:A large bar area:A pasta station and a diner rounded out the selections. Not bad, Philips arena! Finally, it's game time. Both teams are warming up, but the stadium is still pretty desolate: Even as the national anthem and player introductions complete, the stadium is embarrassingly sparse for a game of this magnitude: (Their player introductions were decent. Good use of a large drum line to give it a totally appropriate Southern feel.) This seemed like a pretty fun Hawks group:Note the optimistic sign by this fellow:
Finally, the game starts. Despite the lack of most of the crowd, the acoustics of the stadium amplify the sound quite nicely. Thus, I can see why Ray Allen mentioned this as one of his least favorite road arenas. Right on the tip, the Bulls show a lot more aggressiveness than usual, where they like to probe what the defense is offering up, versus making the defense try to react to what they want to do. A Deng jumper, followed by long missed jumper by Joe Johnson that leads to an easier than it should be DRose fastbreak layup and a quick Larry Drew timeout: The first quarter flies by in a flurry. Both DRose and Teague seem to be trading baskets. Teague is able to score on late arriving help, but DRose seems to effortless score from any spot in this first quarter. The Bulls fans in our section are able to coordinate an MVP chant, right after his floater, while the Hawks were on offense. One fun thing about my section, was that the seats next to me were never filled. Thus, on certain plays, I got to high five with some fellow Bulls fans (Carol and Ken) that flew up from Las Vegas. Not a lot going on in Altanta Hawks history:Kirk Hinrich, would have liked to see him in this series: Back to the game: DRose had a commanding first quarter. When I think of annihilation, I'll think of this game.If not for Teague's 11 pts in the quarter, the rest of DRose's performance was absolutely brilliant: 17 pts, 7-10 FGs (1-3 3PT), 1-1 FTs1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 block, +6 (+/-)He would finish the quarter with 21 pts.
The Bulls would withstand some mini-runs by the Hawks, but would stamp out their hopes in the 4th.Sad face matadors (bull fighters, get it?) There's a type of fan commitment that comes with doing body paint, since it's a terrible feeling when you make the effort, and your team doesn't: For the Hawks, it was too many looks again from the outside, and too few looks from within. When the Bulls rebound well, and score well in the paint, it's pretty tough to beat them.A great game for the Bulls, but this was more about an excellent effort by DRose and the Bulls, combined with one of Atlanta's poorer efforts in the post season. A lot of talk on the national broadcast, was about local Atlanta residents revealing themselves as Bulls fans. The reality of it is, many people, such as myself made the travel up to see the team play.These two made the long drive from Mississippi. Fellow Chicagoans, right in front of me! Funny story here, as it relates to me get beer dumped on me during the game.The woman on my right (and her husband) took some Chicago fans to watch the game. Pretty friendly as most Atlanteans (?) go in terms of joking about the game. But as she meant to elbow me in a joking fashion during one bad stretch for the Hawks, she forgot she was doing it with her beer arm, and woosh! Beer dumping! I'm sure these kids would have been happy to have seen it happen to me, as we were engaging in a chant duel. (I'd shout Defense! And they would respond with Offense!) Not pictured of course, are two fellows that drove up from Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Carol and Ken, United Center season ticket holders from Las Vegas that travel to every game (wow!). It was a fantastic and unforgettable time for obvious reasons. I definitely recommend doing this for your favorite team (provided they aren't playing in Philadelphia, New York, or Oakland...haha) 10 to go!Hoop Data box score:http://www.hoopdata.com/boxscore.aspx?id=310506001PopcornMachine game flow:
http://popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20110506&game=CHIATL PopcornMachine box score:
http://popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/boxscore.cgi?date=20110506&game=CHIATL Here's the full photo set too: