The Raptors have won two games in a row. This is technically a winning streak, mostly because two is a larger number than one. It feels like the air in the arena is a little thinner, or maybe that is just the industrial fans they use at Scotiabank Arena to keep the court from getting too humid.
I am not sure how to feel about a two game winning streak in March. It is like finding twenty dollars in the pocket of a coat you were about to throw away. You are happy, but you still do not have a coat, and the twenty dollars might be from 2011.
The Eight Man Rotation
Darko Rajakovic decided to play only eight players with any real regularity tonight. Most of the starters played over thirty five minutes, which is a lot of running in circles. Jamal Shead played well enough that I found myself wondering if he has ever tried that specific brand of Jamaican patty they sell at the Warden station. Probably not.
Mogbo took a small role in the first half but then sort of drifted away, like a balloon at a child's birthday party that nobody noticed was gone until it hit a power line. It seems the coach is tightening things up for the play in tournament, or the playoffs, or whatever we are choosing to call the extra week of basketball we might play in April.
The Form and the Superstition
People on the internet are passing around apology forms again. They want you to check a box saying you were wrong about a player and then sign it, as if this is a legal document that will be filed with the city. I do not think I will sign anything. My handwriting has been poor since the Jorge Garbajosa era (everyone remembers where they were for the leg injury).
There is also a growing movement to say thank you to Mo Bamba. Usually, when people say thank you to Mo Bamba, it is for the song, which I am told is very popular in clubs I have never been invited to. Now we are saying it because we need the winning to continue. Basketball is mostly about putting a ball in a hoop, but a small part of it is definitely about appeaseing the gods of center depth.
The Beasts Among Us
The Pelicans apparently woke up a beast, though it is unclear if the beast knows it is awake yet. Immanuel Quickley had a difficult shooting night, which happens. Sometimes the ball just does not want to go home, like a teenager staying out past curfew because they found a cool park to sit in.
I am tired, but the Raptors are winning, and that is a confusing combination. My uncle once told me that winning cures everything, but he also once tried to fix a radiator with chewing gum. We will see how much more of this we can take before the season mercifully ends or starts over again.