Portland Fend Off Knicks

On yet another cold, crisp and cool Portland winter's evening was host to the Trailblazers and the New York Knicks at the moda centre in downtown Portland. Getting there isn't an issue if you just jump straight onto the Max tram service that the city has, then a straight short walk to the arena. Getting into the venue isn't very difficult, besides the initial security detectors, but that is a given. Finding my seat wasn't difficult, however, on this occasion I had special seats due to a friend of mine offering me his spare ticket. These seats were about 10-12 rows back from court-side so I was almost there in the action. It may sound like a fair way away, but the way the rows have been angled and are rather close to each other to the court, it does make it feel much closer.

Portland were in control all game, but there were times where the Knicks began to claw their way back into the contest. The margin at times was blowing out to 15 points, but through some resilience from the visitors, the margin was kept around the 9-10 point mark. However, Portland had a better day at the office, compared to the game I saw against the Jazz. They were sinking every basket, stringing passes together, moving across the court well, rebounding and applying great pressure when defending.

Food-wise, I had a cheeseburger with chips. This time round they didn't give me any ranch or blue cheese sauce which was a shame as the chips were delicious but could have done with some dipping condiments. The chips were garlic, herbs and salted which made a nice touch to just ordinary chips. The burger was fresh, with the lettuce crisp and the bread soft. However due to the nature of an Oregonian winter, the tomato was virtually white, tasteless, lifeless and soggy. An unfortunate aspect of out of season produce. With a large cup of coke it was in total 20 dollars, I think the cup is actually smaller than the collector's cup so you are getting ripped off for the same price for cool drink. Also with Oregon and the west coast of America getting obsessed with banning straws etc, they have biodegradable straws, which are fine at first, but they turn into a soggy useless mess due to exposure to the coke or liquid you're drinking.

The Blazers ran out winners over-all 111 to 101 with the fans once again winning a 6-pack of nuggets as they hit over 100 points. I really do enjoy coming to the Trailblazers games, especially when I was treated to some special seats from my friend. I really appreciated that and hopefully can experience the NBA again close up!