On The Floor

That was my view at the Verizon Center last night as I was able to swing my first ever courtside photo assignment.

It was pretty overwhelming. Head over to DCist for the results.

I've become very familiar and comfortable shooting MLS games but this is a much different beast. The action is much faster and since the court is much smaller than the pitch, the lulls in action are few and far between. Thank god for TV timeouts. The ball almost hit me once, but thankfully I didn't have to duck out of the way of a player while he was jumping out of bounds or anything like that.

I had a hard time finding the right lens to use. I brought out my 70-200mm and my 17-50. One was too long and the other too short. Hopefully my 28-75 will be just right. Still, I got some shots I was proud of.

Even though the TWolves are 3-16, it was really cool seeing all the Celtics from last year's team. Minny has a decent squad, but the pieces don't mesh very well. Corey Brewer is a keeper though. He was battling Brendan Haywood for boards all night long. And when he'd corral one, he'd take off up the court and take it to the hole.

Unfortunately for him, he had to guard Caron Butler. I'm having trouble coming up with a long list of players that are playing better than Butler is this year. Seriously, if you're not paying attention to Tuff Juice, you're missing out.