The draft lottery can’t come fast enough, after a massive win against the Magic on the weekend, the Raptors are 1 game out of 3rd worst; Wizards are holding tight. Including tonights game in New York, three of the remaining six games are against playoff teams, with the Bucks trying to sneak in past the Pacers, but are currently sitting three games out. Even though the Knicks have secured a playoff spot, they can clinch the 7th seed with a win tonight; it’s on yea?
In yesterday’s Power Rankings, Marc Stein (thanks weinermobile) had this to say about the Raptors:
Make that two wins over Orlando to go with an improbable season sweep of the Thunder as well as wins over Dallas (road) and Chicago (home). So give the Raptors this much: When they do win, it’s almost always an event.
Quick hits:
- Sonny Weems seems to have woken up from the three straight games of inducing projectile vomit in fans to a solid showing off the bench against the Magic. Expect that to revert tonight, and I’m glad his future contract worth is in the 2yr/$4mil range with the arrival of Johnson; if that.
- Bayless has the opportunity to continue the impressive run he’s been on in the last two games, wont be easy against Chauncey, but the Knicks as a whole could counter his effectiveness as an individual. Maybe; probably not…
- James Johnson can do us a solid by letting Carmelo put up 25+ shots; volume shots out of sync = good for the Raptors.
- Ed Davis vs Amar’e Stoudemire, very interested in this match-up.
- If Bargnani gets any more burn for the rest of the year, I’d like to see him sweat it out like a migrant worker in a strawberry field.
- Put me down as a ‘yes’ for Barkley taking over as the Raptors GM if BryCo is shown the door. Why? Why not! Seriously, how much worse could things possibly get? Charles may not be the smartest basketball mind in the world, but he’s smart enough to know he can’t do the job well and will need to surround himself with smart people to help in the decision making. Also, I miss the Sam Mitchell soundbytes somin fierce; Barkley will provide plenty of that. This is all about entertainment right?
The Knicks are 9.5 point favourites with an over/under of 219.5; this has the makings of the Nuggets game written all over it.
