Being inspired by bluexfalcon and Czheck, I thought I would continue the tradition and post several of the pictures I took while watching my Lakers play against the Jazz in Salt Lake City. Maybe even tell you a little about the happenings of that evening. Most of the happy memories came from warm-ups and the first quarter. Everything went down hill from there......(as you all know)

I went to the game with my wife and her family. Her sister, brother and mother had never been to a Laker game. They live in Bakersfield (yes, Dex - some "normal" people actually live there) and have never made it down to LA for a game. Her mom and step-dad were visiting for the holidays, as my wife's bro and sis both attend college in Utah, so we decided to get some Laker tickets. They would be much cheaper than going to a game in LA, anyways.

We decided to go to the game super early, before the doors were even open. Upon the opening of the doors, the hundreds of Laker Fans that were freezing outside (the temp was probably in single digits), rushed in to see their beloved Lakers warm up.

Every player warmed up except for the one everybody wanted to see. (He warms up before anybody is allowed in the building). Below are some pics of every player, besides KB, warming up.

Even A-Bizzle was warming up. On a serious note, he looked pretty good. He had fluid movement in his post moves, had no visible limp, could twist and turn in any direction, and his hops are coming back. He just looked a little slow. A little hesitant, if you will. He looked really good though. Here are some pictures of him getting a work out in with the one and only, Brian Shaw.

Speaking of The Brian Shaw, he actually allowed me to take several pictures of him.

Hell, I even got a picture of Stu Lantz, who I havent seen in quite some time (as I live in Salt Lake City and don't get KCAL).

I was so picture happy, I even snapped one of Phil's chair.

Towards the end of warmups, Sasha and Pau played this weird game where Sasha smelt Pau's arm pits and then Pau smelt Sasha's hands. It was pretty strange. See below.

Pau then went and signed a couple autographs before heading back into the locker room.

My wife and her sister even worked their way through the crowd and actually got his autograph. My wife took some awesome pictures of him. She said that he was leaving to go in the locker room when she yelled "Pau, just one autograph. I'm wearing your jersey." At which point he stopped, turned around, and signed her ticket.

The Jazz came out for their official warm up, at which time I immediately yelled "Thank You Raja Bell." Then, out came the back to back defending champs, to a mixture of boo's and cheers. Luckily, I was surrounded by a bunch of Laker fans, so I mostly heard cheers.

At this point, because we hadnt seen him yet, I started snapping pictures of Kobe. Lots of pictures. Here's a few of them.

The national anthem was sung by somebody I dont know, and the Lakers have a round of high fives afterwards.

The game is about to begin. Here is some of our starters getting ready.

And here is our superstar MVP getting ready as well.

And the game begins (Get some ups Pau).

Below will be some action shots of the first half. I got some good pictures, as I had borrowed my dad's camera with a telephoto lens, and we also had decent seats.

The first half was awesome. We were talking all kinds of shit to Jazz fans sitting around us. But I guess karma really is a bitch. Nobody said anything to me, or anybody I was with, but their was a loud Laker fan who was sitting in front of us who was getting a lot of flack from surrounding Jazz fans. It didnt help that he was a loud mouth. I also didnt help that he looked about 5'8" and was all by himslef. Glad I was with a group of 6 people, with all the guys being over 6'6".

Even after leading by 19 in the first half, the Jazz erupted in the second half (as you all know). And the Jazz celebrated their regular season win in November (I repeat, November), like it was the NBA Finals. I gotta admit though, their Western Conference Championship banners did look good with all that confetti around it.

We still represented our Lakers, even after the loss.

We did have one person trash talk as we were leaving the building. Well, they were in a car and didnt really say anything. They just pointed and laughed at us. At which point, I stuck up one of my fingers and pointed to it. Thats right, I stuck up my ring finger and pointed to my wedding ring. At which point, they stopped laughing and drove off. LOL. 

Enjoy your November win Jazz fans, we'll beat you when it really matters.