The Hallway Series

Immediate reaction last night: DEREK FISHER!!!! holy shit. First buzzer beater of the season and it was scary and spectacular, just like they are supposed to be! I only watched the 4th quarter because I didn't want to sit in my room on my computer for 3 hours, but I'm so glad I tuned in at all. From what I've gathered, it was a pretty dismal performance with Shannon coming alive and bailing us out in the 3rd. Saw that ridiculous 57 foot buzzer beater too, he's so good at those! But yes, those last few minutes of the 4th: Lamar fouls out. Pau throws it away and I got really mad, even though I know he's exhausted. Kobe only has 4 points in the 4th but they are SO CLUTCH!!! And both off of huge steals on consecutive possessions by Ron. Huge huge huge. And THEN Kobe hit another jumper to take the lead, but the Clippers fouled him before (they had a foul to give) and the shot didn't count. It was gorgeous. And if that had cost us the game, I was going to scream bloody murder. Luckily, it didn't. Instead of the normal jumper to tie/win the game, D Fish got the ball and dribbled straight to the basket, laying it up AS TIME EXPIRED AND THE BACKBOARD FLASHED RED! My computer connection was preeetty good, but it was still hard to tell if it got off in time. Thank God it did- it was one of the closest calls I've ever seen. Holy shit, it was exciting!! My heart was racing for a good 20 minutes after the game ended.

I have this weird habit of plugging my ears and blocking out sound when I get nervous watching games... usually in the last few seconds, or minute. I think it's because I literally cannot take all the stimulation and stress out of nervousness, but I don't want to look away, so I take away one of my other senses instead haha. Don't remember when I started doing it, but it makes me feel calmer. My eyes were glued and my ears were plugged with my fingers for the last minute of the game. It really was almost too much to handle... those last five seconds felt impossible to keep watching. I wanted to blink or close my eyes or look away, but I would never forgive myself if I did. Sports fans need to man up when they watch their teams. I'm not one of those people that can turn the tv off and pace around. I. have. to. watch. Epic win or epic fail, I have to watch or I will feel like I didn't earn the right to celebrate what happened because I was too scared and didn't have enough faith in my team. That's also the main reason I try my hardest to watch every game, and to never turn it off unless we're down by 10 with 5 seconds left. What if I had missed Kobe's 81 points because it was a meaningless January game against the Raptors and we were down by 20 in the third? I live in fear of missing a life changing sports moment and consequently feeling like a bad fan.

Hahaha. I take this WAY too seriously, and I have way too much guilt mixed up in my sports allegiances, but whatever. That's the way it is.

Btw, Blake Griffin is amazing. I'd contemplate going to a Clippers game just because the tickets are cheaper and he is awesome.