Post Up: Luck of the Irish

by Holly MacKenzie / @stackmack

Damn.

Over a week without any home games, Raptors on a five-game losing streak and the Hawks were in town. With an ugly start, both teams trading control and then a fourth where the Raptors clawed their way back, the game was won on a baseline jumper from Chris Bosh and I can’t tell you the energy in that arena when the shot dropped.

Players jumped off of the bench and ran onto the court to mob him. Fans –many drunk from St. Patrick’s Day celebrations– jumped and screamed, and writers frantically deleted the stories they had scripted, no one expecting the Raptors to pull off the victory. Finally, there was a win. There will be a practice with smiles. There is a little more separation between the eighth and ninth spots in the East.

Makes you wonder what it’s like to be covering/rooting/working with the Nets. Can’t even imagine.

Luck of the Irish or something? They had on green uniforms. They’ve got Patrick Fitzgerald O’Bryant on their team. Yeah, that’s what we’re going with for this one because I thought for sure the Hawks had it.

Bosh struggled before hitting that shot, shooting just 6-19 from the floor. DeMar DeRozan shook the passiveness from his game and attacked the rim again and again, scoring 19 points on 7-12 shooting. It was probably the best game I’ve seen him play and makes me want to know why he can’t be that aggressive every night.

We spoke about him yesterday and I’ll say it again, Jamal Crawford is the 6th man of the year. He has to be. He had 33 points last night and while he cooled down in the fourth, he was pretty unstoppable through the first three quarters. Man, he’s fun to watch. I asked DeRozan what it’s like trying to guard him when he’s going J. Creezy, and working his handles. The rookie laughed and said it’s crazy because you know what he’s going to do and you also know there’s nothing you can do to stop him.

The Warriors won against the Hornets and there were a lot of angry NO fans in my Twitter timeline. Love seeing those D-League call ups killing it for GS. While Monta had 23 points and 13 assists, Anthony Tolliver poured in 30 points –including four 3-pointers– Reggie Williams scored 22 and Chris Hunter added 17.

When you click on a guy’s name in the Yahoo! boxscore and you just get the team’s logo, you know you’ve been d-leagued. Love their heart.

The Bobcats continue to lose against the bad teams and win against the tough ones, taking down the OKC Thunder one night after dropping a tough one to the Pacers. Raymond Felton had 17 points and seven assists as Stephen Jackson scored 20 points to go with five rebounds and five assists.

The Thunder are in town on Friday and I can’t wait. As per usual, a team loses a game against a team they should have defeated before heading to Toronto to face the Raptors.

Another big night for Aaron Brooks as he racked up 31 points on 11-14 fgs in the Rockets 107-94 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies. Kevin Martin scored 18 points and Luis Scola had 20, but took 21 shots to get them. Zach Randolph had 30 points and 15 boards in the Memphis loss.

LeBron had 32 points, nine rebounds, nine assists, three steals and two blocked shots in a Cavs 99-94 victory against the Pacers. After taking down the Bobcats last night and playing without Danny Granger, the Pacers showed some serious fight against Cleveland, but LeBron and Co. managed to hold on and prevent the upset.

I love the Matt Barnes signing for Orlando more and more with each Magic victory. Last night it was a 110-84 blowout against the Spurs who had taken down the Heat the night before.

As a rookie traveler, I don’t have any idea how these guys perform on road trips and back-to-backs, because my sleep is still screwed up from taking that red-eye home on Monday morning after the week in Cali. I know they have chartered flights and things to make it easier, but still. It’s not easy getting your body adjusted to the time zone of whatever city you’re in.

Speaking of which, I’m going to try to get myself to bed. I hope you had a wonderful St. Patricks Day if that’s your thing and I’m thrilled that the Raptors are done with this awful green uniforms for another year. Yay to that.