I had to take the bus back in from the burbs this morning to go to work...and when it is cold and/or rainy, such a commute requires me to travel through both the Port Authority AND Grand Central. These, incidentally, happen to be my top two very least places on earth. So since it was nice out this morning, I opted to walk across town instead. The dilemma then becomes, with something like 2,000 songs on the ipod and no suitable playlist, how does a fly little lady such as myself ensure something suitable to strut to for 15 straight minutes? Well, the answer is clearly "click 'next' a lot" and that is what I did. I hit like a 10 song lag there for a minute, until I came across...Delinquent Habits! Bad. Ass. And that, my friends, is what the Nets need to be tonight.

(Cheap lead in? Perhaps. But I am nothing if not cheap and easy.)

Anyway, none of this "Owwwwww my pinky finger!" crap from you-know-who. Seriously, we were sitting right above the entrance (exit?) to the Nets locker room, and my dad spotted Vince "walking out, holding his arm" like he couldn't move it. He sounded nervous and panicky, but, having watched way more games than him this season, both my mother and I rolled our eyes and said, "He'll be back in 5 minutes." "I don't know," my dad said worriedly..."It looked pretty bad." Annnnnnd 5 minutes later, guess who checked back in?

One more note on Wince before I banish him from my thoughts for the rest of the post. From theSlam recap of Game 3:

If Vince Carter’s jumper has an STD yet his drives to the rim are clean, why would he keep f—ing with the wrong trick? Does it just feel so good or something?

Moving on.

I liked the intensity Mikki finally brought to the boards. He needs to be a little more of an enforcer and throw a couple 'bows here and there to let opposing bigs know they can't just traipse through the Swamp. I think he has the build and ability to be a poor man's Dikembe. Short of that, I think maybe Uncle Cliffy can be used in the "goon" capacity. Since, you know, he's doing little else besides sitting on the bench and actually NEGATIVELY contributing when he DOES play. Boone has been decent...he makes rookie mistakes and has terrible hands. But he's been alright. But someone needs to do the whole "Nuh uh, you do NOT COME UP IN MY HOUSE LIKE THAT" routine. Much like our dearly departed K-Mart used to do. As for the "useful" Jason Collins...hell, I dunno. Yeah, the boxing out business seems to be his specialty and what makes him so "invaluable" according to the other guys. And obviously this boxing out business is huge, since Lawrence showed apparently showed the team hours of "missed box outs" tape prior to Game 3. And this somehow got them boxing out more and such boxing out subsequently led to more rebounds. And really I just like saying "box out." But I just always find myself yelling at Twin, "GRAB THE BOARD!" Because it's just so silly how he's right there but like...can't. I don't know. It's frustrating. It's possible he also has bad hands. It's also possible he's afraid of the ball. Seriously. As soon as he gets the ball he passes it off like a hot potato. He can be 2 feet from the basket with no one in front of him, and he still throws it back to JKidd like it was covered in spiders or something. (I would too, I really fucking hate spiders.) I'm not sure when this started, but I think it was right around the time he stopped hitting free throws and teams started in with the"Hack-a-Collins" nonsense. (First person to catch my hypocrisy wins a prize.) Is it possible that players with above average intelligence are more sensitive to criticism? Or is Collins just too nice of a guy? (I said to my mom, "See, that's why you need a guy like K-Mart...he was a dick. He made fun of Zo's kidney." She laughed and we high-fived. I hope hell is nice. For my sake.)

Speaking of sensitive to criticism, firstMarcus, thenBoki? Oy. This is what you call "bad timing." Suck it up, boys. It's the SECOND SEASON.

As for the "It's a brand new season" shirts...it DID look a little silly that only half the crowd was wearing them. So as opposed to a "sea of red," it was more of a...red...tinged...uh...ocean? I don't know, that's just gross (although does make me think of cool shark attacks). But before everyone keeps picking on the Meadowlands fans, let me just throw this out there- the people RUNNING things may have been the people that fucked up here. Walking out to the car after the game (yes, the whole fam decked out in playoff red), we overheard some dude bitching how "tacky" it was to not hand the shirts out to everyone; "If you're going to hand them out, you should hand them out to EVERYONE." It was a bit whiny, but...makes sense, no? I don't know what the criteria was (first thousand people? attractive people?) but dude was right. "To make an impact, you have to go to extremes." (First person to tell me what movie that's from wins my undying love.)

RJ looks goooooood. Stop taking 3s, hon. You're doing just fine playing aggressively.

A couple more notes on the Game 3 experience before I get pumped (slash nervous?) for Game 4. If anyone wants to TAKE me to Game 4, I promise you will get laid. (Disclaimer: I have slutty friends, you're not guaranteed a Becky.)

Bitches on stilts: still in the house.

If T-Mac is in the house? I want to see him on the Jumbo-Tron (or reasonable facsimile of a Jumbo-Tron in Continental's case). It's nice to see Tony Soprano, but I'd much rather see THE MACK.

I came very close to wearing a SIGNED replica SHAWN BRADLEY jersey. It was gonna be ironic and awesome. Then my dad would not let me tie a knot in it (necessary to show off my "assets") so that idea went down in flames. He wore it though! Only, on him it was not so ironic. Just kind of dorky. But still very much AWESOME.

Spotted in the crowd: a chick in a replica ED O'BANNON jersey. Hey, I own one too! We'll be best friends!

No senior dancers in the house...but the kids dance team is pretty awesome, I have to say. One complaint: they dance to a song whose chorus includes "CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP! CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP! CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP! CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP!"...but they don't DO the Chicken Noodle Soup dance! Unacceptable.

K, that is all for now.