What an evening! I enjoyed it more than expected I must say. It was more that a 108-103 Raptors win.
The first impression, the crowd. Thousands of NBA fans all over the Bell Centre with all kinds of NBA apparel shirts and hats, not only Raptors fans but from all around the league. It was impressive how the Stoudemire shirt #1 was already popular when the star has been in Knicks a few months.
Once you are inside the arena the feeling is even better, more than 22.000 fans sheering at every play, every point. The first idea that comes to your mind is why Montreal does not have a NBA team? With a crowd that support with that energy two teams which most probably will not make it to the playoffs is certainly a good sign. But is very different support a team all season long, specially at the same time you support the Canadiens, than go and enjoy an exhibition game. We can see the same effect with soccer and the Montreal Impact which can't take more than 9,000 fans in a semifinals game (we hope that change when in MLS though).
The game was a fun one, even when Raptors seamed to win easily on the 3rd quarter the Knicks recovered the distance and put the game by 4 points with 2 min left. Being able to see an all star like Stoudemire score 24 points in 26 min was just amazing. Also the 11 (8 offensive) rebounds by Evans from the Raptors give a difference in Toronto attack. A 3 pointer with 0,1 sec left from Calderon in the 3rd quarter was also one of the highlights of the night.
At the end we hope that next year we can have more preseason games to continue enjoying the show that the NBA is.
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