The Raptors just beat the Oklahoma City Thunder by a score of 103 to 101. It was a close game, the kind that makes you question why we spend our limited time on earth watching tall men bounce a ball.
The Thunder are the defending champions, and they have many talented players who are very good at basketball. We somehow beat them. My uncle says games like this are a fluke, but the scoreboard doesn't usually lie, unless it is broken, which happens more often than you would think at the local community center.
The Defensive Player of the Future
Scottie Barnes did several things on defense that were quite impressive. People are saying we should hang photos of his defensive stops in the Louvre, which is a museum in France with a lot of glass.
I am not sure if Scottie has ever been to France, but his reach makes it look like he could touch two different countries at the same time. He is making a very strong case for Defensive Player of the Year. It is nice to see someone try that hard on defense, because mostly people just want to shoot threes and talk about their podcasts.
The Belt and the Quickness
We now hold something called the Regular Season Championship Belt. This is a concept from the internet where a hypothetical belt is passed around to whichever team beats the current holder. It is like a relay race but nobody is running for a medal, they are just playing a regular basketball game in January.
The Raptors have won this imaginary belt ten times this season, which is more than anyone else. It is a strange thing to be proud of, like being the best at finding parking at the Scarborough Town Centre on a Saturday afternoon.
Immanuel Quickley had 22 points and 11 rebounds. Having a point guard who rebounds that much is confusing, like seeing a cat that knows how to use a doorknob. His heat map shows he was active all over the court, though heat maps always just look like a spilled juice box to me.
We play the Knicks on January 28th. The Knicks are from New York, a city that is like Toronto but with more steam coming out of the ground. We have a record of 29 and 19 now. That is ten more wins than losses, which is a mathematically sound way to live your life.
Everything feels fine for a Tuesday. I might go look at a tree later or eat a sandwich. The Raptors are good, or at least they were for 48 minutes last night, and that is usually enough to get by.