As one of my buddies put it, "the fat lady is warming up" and the Raptors will be hearing her sing shortly.
But in the meantime, wins are never a bad thing. I never buy the "lose games for more ping-pong balls theory" because it just sends a bad message.
If you work hard and do everything you can and you still lose the game, that's one thing, but disrespecting the game, cheating fans - some of whom have paid good money and may be experiencing their first game - and then being unprofessional and giving your organization a bad name is just not a good thing.
It was a pretty good crowd last night in D.C., 18,455, as Toronto was the last home date on the schedule for the Wizards this season and the Raptors enacted a little payback thanks to Chris Bosh's three-point shot with just over nine seconds to play.
It wasn't really the play that was called for, as Bosh and Jose Calderon were supposed to play screen and roll and instead of diving to the basket after setting a screen at the top of the key for Calderon, Bosh popped back to the three-point arc.
In the locker room post-game, Bosh said he noticed a few things, namely Wizard centre Brendan Haywood standing in the lane, and that influenced his decision to go with the pick and pop as opposed to the pick and roll. Haywood already had four blocks on the night so Bosh opted for the jumper and it turned out to be a good choice as he made the game-winning bucket.
Apparently, moments earlier when Shawn Marion's layup brought Toronto to within two points, interim Wizards head coach Ed Tapscott told his team to call a time out if the Raptors scored. Not sure why Tapscott didn't just do it himself after the Marion hoop or inform the officials when the time out concluded before the Raptor possession that those were his intentions in the event of a Toronto score.
But the problem with the players not asking for the timeout is what I refer to as the "black line memory eraser" known as the sideline.
Not sure how it happens, but a coach can look a player in the eye on the bench and give him explicit instructions during a timeout but when the player steps across the line it's like the sideline erases his memory when he hits the playing surface forgetting everything the coach has told him.
So the Wizards did not call the time out after the Marion score, even though it looked from my courtside vantage point that Haywood was signalling for a time out when Juan Dixon was trapped in the backcourt. Instead, with Haywood trying to get a timeout from referee Mark Ayotte, Dixon's pass went about 60 feet from the Washington backcourt diagonally into the Raptors bench where Dixon thought Haywood would have been wide open. That's the way it goes in a season when you have racked up 62 losses.
Not only was it the last game of the season for the Wizards, it was the last time fans would see the gold and black third uniforms on display. Those uniforms, that don't have any colour sequence close to the team's base colours, are being put into moth balls. There are some in the capital district that are hoping the team goes back to the red, white and blue colour scheme that was associated with the old Bullets squad.
Speaking of courtside, Washington and Chicago are two of only five arenas in the eastern conference where the radio broadcast crew is on the floor.
My preference is always to be on the floor. While it is not always the spot to get the best view of the game, Madison Square Garden in New York above the exit sign at midcourt was the best spot ever. Before being moved, it did allow us to hear the communication between players, players and coaches, players and referees and to get a feel for the game which we try to relay to our listeners all over the world.
To that end, Eric Smith, my broadcast partner actually heard Haywood asking for the time out before the fatal turnover and told the listeners.
But apparently another radio location will bite the dust as we will be moving off the floor in Washington next season and the same is said to be happening in Chicago.
That will leave Orlando, Detroit and Toronto as the only three venues where we will still call the game from the floor. Apparently when the new arena opens in Orlando the "Gucci" courtside seats as they are often referred to, will be sold to those with the money to buy them, sending you guessed it, the radio crews up to the concourse level.
Don't get me wrong, we have one of the greatest jobs in the world broadcasting the games and just being in the building to do the job is a privilege.
But in trying to bring our listeners closer to the action and being their eyes and ears in the building, it's nice to be on the floor to dispatch the information.
Thank goodness half the games we call are on the floor at home in Toronto, and a big thanks to Raptors media relations director Jim LaBumbard and his crew (Jamie Deans and Roven Yau) for making our job easier with all their hard work and the extra little touch by giving us a close up view from the floor at the Air Canada Centre.
*** OK, so it's a late night flight from Washington to Chicago and to kill the time there is always work to do like updating your notes, reading up on the next opponent and the like. Post-game travel is convenient but not necessarily the glamorous part of the job, hauling your bag through a hotel lobby after a 2 or 3 a.m. arrival, but every job has its pit falls. But last night, we all took a break from the usual routine as TV producer Paul Graham pulled out a game where you respond to questions by writing down three answers on a list. Some of the questions are simple involving everything from sports to current events and answers are called out in rotating order. If someone calls out an answer on their turn that is on your list, you're out of luck and its gets negated from your list when your turn comes around. The person with the most answers that are correct and is actually able to articulate them gets one point per correct answer and the most points wins.
So with Matt Devlin acting as quiz master, away we went. The players were Eric Smith, TV director Troy Clara, associate producer Matt Bloom, graphics producer and statistician John Rusin, along with yours truly. Of course it gets competitive and heated and Jose Calderon comes to the front of the plane to hear what all the fuss and noise is about.
It's close at the end, and we're down to the last question. We ask Calderon to pick the question. We're all pumped because it's a sports query only to find out when Devlin reads the question Calderon has stumped most of us as the question involves Formula One champions from 1980 to 2000.
Way to go Jose!
Apparently he's a big F1 fan and really wanted to test us. The words of Eric Smith when he found out the final Jeopardy category were "F1, c'mon FU."
Needless to say E. Smith lost out.
During the course of the game when one of the questions was all-time top 18 scorers in the NBA. A few in the game were surprised to learn that Larry Joe Bird of Boston Celtics fame is not in the Top 20.
*** The hot news in Washington continues to centre around the imminent arrival of Flip Saunders as their new head coach.
Detroit's Richard Hamilton thinks that the former Piston bench boss will be a good fit in Washington. It says here the key will be what kind of working relationship Saunders establishes with Gilbert Arenas as "Agent Zero" can be very quirky at times.
According to one Eastern Conference assistant, former Wizards coach Eddie Jordan did a good job of "managing" Arenas.
"Eddie did a good job because that guy can be a wing nut at times," according to the coach.
Saunders is a terrific offensive mind but his reputation for handling "the locker room" is something that has always been in question.
It was interesting to listen to Tapscott before the game as he addressed the media. Tapscott is reported to be headed back to the front office in Washington but did not rule out coaching on an NBA bench after some time to reflect as he put it, at the end of the season. He did say that he is much more aware of the dynamics for success and failure after his stint as interim head coach and one should never assume a good year is in the works for a team as he stated "every year is a different one."
Hey "Tap," Toronto fans will concur with that last statement.
*** As mentioned in an earlier entry here, there is talk of doom and gloom when the current NBA collective bargaining agreement expires following the 2010-2011 season.
It is expected that the owners will take a harder line on many parts of the agreement such as maximum salaries and length of contract. Commissioner David Stern spoke about the issue in his annual pre-playoff conference call on Monday.
