OK let's get the perfunctory weather comment out of the way as I sit here in Phoenix with not a cloud in the sky and the temperature close to 24 C.
It was hard to resist the temptation to highjack the second bus with the Raptors' traveling party and force the driver to make a left turn when leaving the Phoenix airport Wednesday evening.
A sign pointed to Tucson where the World Golf Championships Accenture Match Play Championship is taking place and some guy you might have heard of named Tiger Woods is making his return to golf after reconstructive knee surgery last June.
It would have been nice to have been able to bookend his U.S. Open last June and then catch a few glimpses of the world's No. 1 golfer on Wednesday, but I resisted the temptation.
No big deal though, since after covering Raptors practice Thursday morning with the rest of the day in front of me I could make the drive to Tucson for the golf or take a quick jaunt to catch some Cactus League baseball.
On a side note, while I was just killing time on the nearly-five-hour flight to the Valley of the Sun (and yes of course all my notes for the game), I picked up a golf magazine to try and help my game.
I noticed in the 10 Questions with a Pro section Hunter Mahan was asked who is the most famous person on his speed dial?
His response was Jason Kapono of the Toronto Raptors.
With all the talk about the uptempo game being the way to play in Toronto since the acquisition of Shawn Marion, who was at his best when he played that way here in Phoenix, Toronto's numbers on the break have gone up.
The Raptors are still last in the NBA in fast-break scoring with just over eight points per game, but in the four contests since Marion arrived they have totalled 75 fast-break points for an average of 18.75 per game.
To put that into perspective, the NBA's top squads on the break are Golden State and Philadelphia, who put up 18 per game, followed by Denver, Atlanta and Dallas who put up 16.9, 16.2 and 15.6 fast-break points per game respectively.
In Tuesday's win over Minnesota, Toronto extended its streak of consecutive games with a three-point field goal to 837.
The 10-year-old began with a Vince Carter triple the afternoon the Air Canada Centre opened its doors to basketball, Feb. 21, 1999 in a win over the Vancouver Grizzlies.
The last time Toronto failed to make a three-point shot in a game, Bill Clinton was still the president of the U.S. and as my broadcast partner Eric Smith put it, that means we can forget the Bush era now that the streak has gone past it at both ends of the spectrum.
The streak nearly ended in Dallas on November 29, 2006 but Darrick Martin came to the rescue by hitting a trey with 0.5 seconds left in a 117-98 blow out loss.
Since then D-Mart has always been referred to by T.V. producer Paul Graham as simply "point five."
Word in Dallas was that some in the Mavs organization were upset that night as they would have had the new mark after stopping Toronto's streak.
Looking at the release sent out by all round good guy and Raptors media relations guru Jim LaBumbard and his band of merry employees, it would surprise you to see the names that have contributed to the NBA's longest current consecutive three-point streak.
Look at this list and I bet more than once you will find yourself saying, "really, he made a three?"
Or, "oh yeah, he did play for the Raptors at one time."
Here are some of those names: Rafael Araujo, Andre Barrett, Michael Bradley, Derrick Dial, Dion Glover, Art Long, Lamond Murray, Tracy Murray, Charles Oakley, Milt Palacio, Uros Slokar, and even a guy who is now a referee, Haywoode Workman.
At present, the Dallas Mavericks have the second-longest consecutive three-point streak in the NBA.
It started the same year as Toronto's, 1999, as it currently sits at 830 games and counting.
It has been mentioned here before but watch out for 2011 when a lockout seems to be on the horizon.
There was another interesting article in the New York Times where super agent David Falk discusses fixes to the NBA during these tough economic times and he suggests the players will have to acquiesce to the owners demands.
