It's March Break in Canada right now.  Tuques are being put away because our snow is finally melting, kids are oot and aboot practicing our national summer sport parents are inside eating a nice steaming bowl of poutine while listening to CBC Radio and all of our front doors are unlocked.  Somewhere khandor is in his parents' basement typing up another 10,000 word blog post of elite-level basketball analysis.  This is the home of the NBA's 10th most valuable franchise despite the fact that the team is mostly horrible and would challenge us for worst defense in the league.  The fans are a nice bunch, though, and continue to support their favourite Canadian NBA team even though nobody likes their colours and their centre only averages 5.5 boards per game.  The Raptors are currently 18-48 and sit two slots below Detroit in the Leastern Conference (ha, see what I did there?).  They've had flashes of great play from DeMar DeRozan (who was robbed in the dunk contest) and Reggie Evans is back from injury and has grabbed 44 bebounds in the last 3 games.  That's Michael Curry effort right there.

Plus après le saut!

Playing the Raptors this season hasn't been pretty.  The Raptors set a record when they came back from a 31-point deficit on December 11th and beat us in an ugly, embarrassing game.  Then December 22nd became Rip's statement game where he scored a season-high 35 points and managed to annoy everyone in the process.  

The last time we played the Raptors in Tronno on January 14th, we somehow escaped with a 101 to 95 victory.  The Good T-Mac creaked and cracked his way to 22 points while Wontcox grabbed 12 boards!  Bargnani had 31 points and everyone's favourite Johnson had 10 rebounds, 7 points, and 4 fouls. 

What can we expect tonight?  That's a good question.  Q-Star has used so many different starting lineups this season that it's a mystery who will be on the floor tonight.  As long as Monrobocop is getting minutes I'm happy.  I'd love to see our guys run some plays for Greg and let him do his work but I think it might be even more important to just keep attacking the rim against the porous Raptors D.  Don't settle for jumpers.  MFWB (if he gets playing time -- I hope he practiced hard yesterday!) could have a big game.  On the flip side, this seems like the perfect opportunity for someone like Ed Davis to break out and have a big game.  He's quietly playing pretty well for a skinny rookie who hurt his knee in a pickup game earlier this year.  

The game doesn't tip-off until 7:30, so that gives me plenty of time to run to Timmy's, watch my copy of Men With Brooms for the 25th time, and possibly even break out some jams with my friends like our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.  Enjoy the game, folks.  It could get ugly.  And not just regular ugly -- Canadian ugly.