The Toronto Raptors beat the Dallas Mavericks 122 to 92 yesterday. RJ Barrett had 31 points. He grew up in Mississauga (which is a place with a lot of transit terminals and very few reasons to stop at them) and now he scores points for the basketball team we watch. It is a nice circular life path.
The team is now 36 and 27. If you told someone in 2019 that our future would involve a heavy dose of RJ Barrett and a lot of transition buckets, they probably would have asked you who else was on the team. Then they might have gone back to celebrating a championship. It is funny how time just keeps moving forward whether you have a parade or not.
Running Around for Sport
This team currently leads the league in fastbreak frequency. It is interesting to watch five men run as fast as they can toward a hoop just to do it again two minutes later. It reminds me of those nature documentaries where the gazelles run because they have to, except the Raptors run because Coach Darko Rajakovic probably enjoys the pace.
We are back in the win column after some robust bench production. The bench players are the guys who sit on the comfortable chairs until someone tells them to stop. They did a good job of stopping their sitting and starting their basketball playing against Dallas. It was a thirty point win, which is statistically better than a one point loss.
The Opinion of Dillon Brooks
Dillon Brooks apparently said he likes playing against Scottie Barnes because Scottie cannot shoot. Dillon Brooks is from Mississauga too. There must be something in the water there that makes people very confident or very good at driving to the rim. Scottie probably heard him, or maybe he was busy thinking about something else (like how many different types of dinosaurs there actually were).
It is a bold thing to say about a franchise cornerstone. Most people try to be polite, like when you tell someone their new hat looks good even though it is clearly too small for their head. Dillon Brooks does not do that. He just says the words that are in his brain.
Auditions and Other Uncertainties
Michael Grange is reporting that Markelle Fultz might be auditioning for the 15th roster spot via the Raptors 905. Fultz was the first pick in the draft once. Life is very strange. One day you are the most promising teenager in America, and a few years later you are in Mississauga trying to prove you can still play.
The team has until March 15 to make a decision. That is also around the time people start thinking about spring, even though it usually just snows again. We keep looking for pieces to fit into a puzzle that might not even have a finished picture on the box yet. We just keep clicking the pieces together and hoping they stay.
The Raptors play the Rockets next. It is another game in another city. We will probably run a lot. I hope everyone stays hydrated. The air on planes is very dry.