Another close game and another tough loss for the Raptors as their execution late in games continues to be just not quite good enough to produce a win. The beat goes on when it comes to the bottom line as Toronto has been close but is still sitting on a six-game losing streak as they will leave Atlanta this afternoon and head for Detroit.
It was an extremely quiet and sombre locker room post game yesterday after the loss to the Hawks as the Raptors knew, even though they were undermanned, they just let another one get away.
Chris Bosh said it best because although some might think it's too early to start the "scoreboard watching", Bosh made a poignant comment regarding the post season when asked about the rest of the season.
"Yeah, it's time, because we're running out of time," said Bosh with his voice reflecting a tone of aggravation after chronicling the late game mistakes. "I know we're only two games in (to the second half of the season) but we have to do it now or we're going to be watching the first round of the playoffs eating popcorn."
"I want to play in the post-season. I want to have the chance to play for a championship. That's all I've been thinking about since last year and we have to reward ourselves. We are not giving ourselves a chance. Simple fact of the matter is we have to do a better job."
To quantify Bosh's urgency, at the current pace, it is going to take 39 wins to get the last playoff spot, and 40 wins to get the seventh. That means a 23-17 finish the rest of the way. He's right, they better pick it up.
Good to see Nathan Jawai in uniform but for all the people that have been dying to see the big Aussie play, it's more likely you're going to see some highlights and clips of his play when he is sent to the D-League in the not too distant future. He may have been there already had there not been a need for bodies on the bench in the event of an emergency. There was no Jermaine O'Neal, Jose Calderon, or Kris Humphries.
Jermaine O'Neal said post-game that he will go through an individual work out today and guaranteed he would play against Detroit.
Sam Mitchell does attend games here in Atlanta and occasionally occupies a courtside seat across from the visitor's bench. But he wasn't in the building Monday to watch his former team as he was out of town.
Can you believe that in spite of the Hawks having more than 21 wins before January 1st for the first time since the 1979-80 campaign there is still the occasional rumble about Mike Woodson's job security? Hey that's the business.
Alright, enough about basketball in a direct sense as we focus on hoops in a more indirect way. It is Inauguration Day in the U.S. as history will be made when Barack Obama the first African-American president is sworn in as Commander-In-Chief. Obama is a huge hoops guy and in his book, Dreams From My Father, he chronicles extensively his love of basketball and how he was attracted to it. Obama's personal assistant, known as his "body man" Reggie Love, played basketball and football at Duke and hoops has become a routine and ritual in the Obama camp.
How else is Obama connected to basketball? Alexander Wolff does a nice job of telling you about the "Baller-in-Chief" in this article, but it would be too much to chronicle all of it in this space. But what you should know is the Obama crew played routinely on primary days as a good luck ritual; Obama's brother-in-law, the first lady's brother, Craig Robinson is the head coach at Oregon State University, and it has been said that Obama has assembled the best basketball playing cabinet in history.
Soon bowling alleys will be out at the White House replaced by a basketball court with the NBA volunteering to foot the bill for the change. The president will be taking his game and everything else including his domestic and foreign policies to the ultimate prime time stage. Good to hear that the "pres" can "run one" when he wants to relieve some stress. He's going to need it. There have been many significant historical events over the course of my time here on this planet, but right now, Tuesday January 20, 2009 ranks at the top of the list.
