The Kings are a good team at home, and 538 gave the Raptors a 58% chance of a win. They pulled it off, but barely. The thing about the Raptors is when someone is off, another takes over. Powell, happily, has hot hands herewith. Gasol will find his groove. Ibaka and Lowry had some good moments. VanVleet is missed. Anunoby has been shooting better and forcing turnovers. But bygone bout, the bench bit. We’ve seen them do a lot better.
And Phoenix beat the Bucks for their second straight surrender. Anyone can beat anyone, some nights.
The Raptors register a road win against fourth-in-the-west Utah in the second of a back-to-back - not bad, one of the better wins of the season. They don’t play again until Saturday, which still might not be enough rest time for Norm Powell, who went from NBA player of the week to getting side-lined with an ankle sprain in, like, the opening minute of the game. And winningmost team since Jan. 15. Nice seeing Ibaka outmatching Gobert.
The Raptors win was especially impressive given that, with Patrick McCaw out there for 43 perplexing minutes, they were basically playing with four and a half men against five.
Ibaka played a darn good game. Lowry kept his head. Nurse knows what he is doing, and I know he has a good reason for what he does. But I don’t always know what the reason is. He seems to have brought Anunoby back to life. Wasn’t McCaw on two championship Warrior teams? Might be trying to do the same thing, and not just make do due to a lack of options.
They can resume the season in mid to late April if things look like they’ve calmed down. Get a few games in and then start playoffs. I mean, in the long run, not a lot of the games between now and then are important.
It was the right decision due to liability and concern for fans, players and their families. Take a hiatus and see what happens.
One in five people worldwide caught H1N1. I suspect this is also already widespread. The Jazz player diagnosed felt okay to play tonight. Most cases might similarly be mild, but untested. Clearly the number of cases reported is an underestimate.
Wash your hands and follow advice, of course. But don’t panic. I suspect it will fizzle out and play will resume. Of course, many more will be diagnosed and some won’t do well. But most will.
Other leagues will look at this and take a break too once (basically healthy) players test positive. Which will certainly occur.
On one hand hats off to Adam Silver for doing the smart and correct thing by suspending the season. On the other hand, my Lakers are riding high right now and looking like they could win it all and I hate to lose momentum. All I can do is hope that we can pick back up when/if the season starts back up.