First Time For Everything

My room is a mess – littered with dirty dishes, mounds of paperwork from Raptors games of weeks past, and wrappers from lozenges and disinfectant wipes used for the powers of good.

My sinuses have finally decided to give me a little breathing room, after plowing through 1.7 boxes of Kleenex in 4 days of work… or lack thereof.

You see, for the first time as a reporter… I called in sick. This soldier missed a game. But not a practice.

Yesterday was my first day back at work, after skipping out on Friday and Saturday festivities. I went down to the ACC, still feeling a little light-headed, after sneezing my brains out while watching College Hoops all weekend.

I guess I picked a good weekend to cave.

Going in, I was going to ask the guys about the main differences between themselves and the Knicks; Only 4.5 games in the standings, but worlds apart in the PR department. In case you’re not familiar, Stephon Marbury and Coach Larry Brown are essentially at wits end. After going through 65 games, and picking up only 19 wins – Marbury wants to go back to “Starbury” – the player with the flash, not the extra pass – and Hometown Brown just wants to win… his way… still. So they’re having it out in the papers, similar to how the Raptors expressed themselves last year.

Thankfully for my energy level, and my good grace of not wanting to share the illness that took me out of commission, others had the same (granted: not too original) line of thinking.

As you’ve been hearing and reading all year, the answers were as consistent as white bread: “We’re all friends, here.”

It’s truly a beautiful thing, from these eyes. Then, a certain reporter kept asking the question:

“Do you wish you had more games left?” Implying: ‘if November’s 1-15 start never happened, where do you think you’d be?’ To me, it didn’t need to be asked, but that’s just me. And essentially, how it works is I build my story around the clips I get.

Once I got back to the station and fired off a couple quick reports, I did a little more research about that last one… the whole: “What if November Never Happened?”

Well, I took all the records from every team in the East, and wiped out the first month. The Raptors would still be 4 games below .500 (23-27), but they would be tied with Philly for 8th (the Sixers own the tie-breaker). The Raps would be just a game out of 7th, 2 out of 6th, and 5 out of home court advantage, believe it or not.

Just thought you might be interested in that.
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On Friday, the Raptors started out a stinker, only to pull out an amazing win over Milwaukee:

Raptors 97, Bucks 96

Toronto was down 16 points with 5:41 left in the 4th, when they went on a tear to pick up their 3rd win in their last 4 games. Milwaukee had exactly one bucket in that span, by the way.

Chris Bosh had 27 points and 10 boards for double-double #30 on the season. He also had 4 key blocks.

Mike James and Charlie Villanueva each had 14 points (half of Charlie’s came in the final frame).

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I was there on Wednesday for the game against the Pistons, but that’s nearing week-old-news, so I’ll do another ‘briefy’:

Pistons 105, Raptors 98

Toronto came within 1 point on a couple occasions, but could never overcome the hump.
Teyshaun Prince helped lead an early Motown charge, with 6 of their first 8 points (to finish with 21 points). Chauncey Billups had 26 points and 10 assists.

Bosh was held to 15 points (6/18 shooting, after dropping a career-high 37 in their last meeting). Mike James had 25 points and 11 assists, while Mo Pete had 23 (10/14 from the field).

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Tonight, the Raptors are in New York, then head to Boston for tomorrow night’s game before returning home for Friday’s tilt with the T-Wolves.

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Keep all those beautiful e-mails coming… I love hearing what you guys think.
But also don’t shy away from sharing your opinion in the comments section.

Anything you guys want more of? Less of?

What are your thoughts on the Raptors? Share your thoughts.
Thanks for the time.