doodledee

Checked out the Wolves/Mavs today as part of some Holiday 3-pack that Hoffmaldo assures me will get us into the Boston game when they come to town in February. He better be right.

Here's me in full rube mode with Crunch.

And here's some quick bullet style takes:

• Pregame atmosphere: flat. Find our seats, not bad, realize I should have brought the laptop to liveblog the whole game. Next time. Or not.
• Player announcements: awkward. It's a matinee game, the arena is maybe a third full, and we've got 4 wins this season. I'm no tastemaker, but at what point does the darkened arena and pumped up music and Crunch on a ladder with a huge 'noise' sign and American Gladiator style pyro effects all become just a bit silly? The answer: about 14 losses ago. Ok, make it 20. The collective embarrassment was palpable.
• Tipoff. Oh, look, it's already 14-4. That was fast. General atmosphere in arena: flat. It's Rookie Day. Lots of features on the scoreboard about the new kids. Some good, some humiliating. For everyone. Meanwhile, the cotton candy vendor dude is showing more hustle than most of the Wolves.
• Breaking news: Dirk Nowitzki can play basketball.
• Lots of debate about Wittman's coaching. Is he rotating the right way, what should he be doing, who should he be playing. JoePa full of opinions. Quality banter ensues. This debate lasts maybe 16 minutes and is more inspired than anything I will see on the floor for the remainder of the afternoon.
• Halftime show was these quick change magic act you've heard so much about. I've watched the video on youtube and my mind is still blown. Great stuff.
• Second half. Arena dead quiet. At one point a phone rang down on the scorer's table and I could hear it clear as day. I am not making this up. It was just that quiet. I could have yelled something "funny" to Trenton Hassell down on the Mavs bench and he would have heard me no problem. But as usual, the words didn't come. Sorry, T.
• Malt cup snack break. $3. I was going to get a pretzel, but I wanted cheese, and cheese was $1 more. So pretzel with cheese was going to be like $4.50. Which is a bigger joke than Antoine Walker's pick and roll defense. So malt cup it is.
• Final buzzer. Mercy buzzer. Either way, it buzzed.