After taking time out for the inauguration of President Barack Obama on Tuesday it's back to basketball. But before we put it all to bed I just couldn't resists one more "Let's tie the President to hoops" reference, and this one involves the Toronto Raptors.
You have to love traveling with basketball junkies like Associate Producer Matt Bloom or "Mayor Bloomberg" as we call him, and John Rusin, the ace graphics producer and stat man for the Raptors television broadcasts. You may know him as Johnny "Rocket" or simply "Rocket" as he is referred to by my television colleague Matt Devlin.
We're on the plane headed for Detroit yesterday and "Mayor Bloomberg" drops this one on me: Kobe Bryant with his 20 points in the 105-88 Los Angeles Lakers win over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers Monday night now has the second most points in any U.S. president's two term administration. Kobe scored 17,340 points over the time that George "Dubya" Bush was in the White House. So who occupies the number one spot I ask as the usual test of wits that always happens when the group is together is now off and running. I had to think, which presidents had two terms over the course of NBA history and after frying my brain, I ask for the perfunctory hint.
Bloomberg gives it away when he says, "He's on the plane." Of course! Alex English, who dropped 17,423 points over the time that Ronald Regan was in office. English was unaware that he owned that distinction. I know; I can hear some of you out there like my wife at times, uttering the line "useless numbers" but hey, I thought it was interesting.
If you're a Raptor fan here is another set of numbers that may have you say who cares. But what it does show is how close the team is to having a six game win streak or at least a better record if they were able to make a few plays late in the game. Mental errors such as turnovers, poor shot selection and a lack of execution are killing Toronto at both ends of the court.
Check out these close calls for the Raptors: Monday in Atlanta down one-point with 54 seconds before losing by three; Sunday against Phoenix, they trailed by one with 1:18, lose by four; Friday in Indiana, down one with 1:13, lose by seven; last Wednesday at home to Chicago, down two with 29 seconds remaining and they drop a four-point decision. Then there was the back to back set with Boston where Toronto suffered an overtime loss and prior to that a six-point setback at home. Take out the Boston defeats and you have four games lost in the fourth quarter over the course of 3:54. Hmmmm, 4-2 over that stretch puts them at 20-23 good for eighth spot in the East and a game out of seventh.
I know, I know, useless numbers.
So like Obama being sworn in yesterday (sorry the presidential thing isn't out of my system) there seems to be hope for Toronto, but they have to start making plays when it counts. Maybe the law of averages is on its side on Wednesday as the Raptors have lost 11 straight games at the Palace and you figure it's going to turn at some point? Jermaine O'Neal will be in the line up but Jose Calderon and Kris Humphries will not be active; so is this the night that they break both losing streaks?
The Detroit Pistons aren't exactly motoring along right now either. The Pistons have lost six of their last eight and recently broke off a five game losing skid with a win over Memphis on Monday. To boot, Detroit is struggling with its chemistry since the trade that brought Allen Iverson to Motown for Chauncey Billups. In an attempt to turn things around, the Pistons coaching staff has decided that Richard Hamilton will come off the bench.
