The schizophrenic Toronto "Raptors" went into the Pawn Shop to play a reeling bunch of "Cadavers", and came away with a lose bruise.
Cleve had lost six of seven but got the Dub. Tonto has lost three in a row, including on back-to-back nights at home against the two worst teams in the conference. It is the fourth time this season that the "Angry Birds" have lost exactly three straight. Previous threeks were ended at Philadelphia, at Sacramento, and home against Milwaukee. If they're to do it again it will be Wed. in San Antone. Somebody needs to perform a group psych eval on Toronto. This is mad, and maddening. They are firmly in the play-in group at 7th, 3 full games behind Lake Mistake. They have won: five straight, six straight, and eight straight at different periods of the season. I don't know Toronto's coach or players but if I was their coach, I would make resort to wind tunnel force screaming, blow torches and sledgehammers against the players. Honestly, I think I'd fucking go full postal on these guys.
Miami is the 4th-best team in the entire association. PHO is the Secretariat leader, 8 games ahead of the nearest competitor. Miami is 8.5 back. Then there's s fall of of two games to the next group, a big group, nine teams, seeds 5 through 13 separated by increments of a half game to a full game. Thirteenth Minnehaha at 13 is five behind 5th Utah. 14 through 18 are kept apart by only two games. The teams 14th-18th exhaust those who are playing at or around .500 ball. The rest are also-rans who have shown no sign of a great leap or even one small step. They are mired in government-subsided projects off Middlesbrough with no indication they can even get to Middlesbrough. The Projects Division is overcrowded with 12 teams. That includes the "Lakers" and the Dolans, the later enjoying "for now" a humongous 19-point lead over the 15th "Clippers" at half time, a score that will surely tighten in the second half and may not stand up at all. No prediction is ventured.