I was at the Dallas games yesterday and there was def a palpable deflation in the air when the last teams came out and AI wasn't around
Overall thoughts though:
If you're a huge NBA fan like me, the people watching is pretty fantastic. Just outside waiting for tickets we ran into Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels (who no one recognized either despite being in the Mavs building). You also get to see the entourage / groupies from the players section way up closer than you would in a NBA game
The basketball was kind of what I expected, though there was a lot more dunking in the games than i expected given these guys age. A lot of shit talking you can hear if you're close enough. For some reason Mike Bibby and James White really got into it lol. And of course, this is the closest i'll ever be to Ice Cube and LL Cool J, so that was fun