<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Little on the light side today, slow start to the morning but an easy day awaits since The Colleague’s on a jet plane to Philly and I can hang with the family, even take in a little bit of Mississauga Minor Basketball action today. Whoop!!! And Eeee!!! Three Things I Learned A new look coming A year or so, a wise old sage suggested these guys should have a third jersey, that should be black ‘cause that’s cool. Finally, someone listened to me. The prototypes are done now, it’s a very cool all-black Jersey with red trim and a wee bit of silver and a very nifty tiny Canadian flag on the back at the top above the name. Right now it says “Toronto” on the front. But before you race out and give MLSEL more of your money, the jerseys aren’t going to be worn until next season, when they’ll trot them out a dozen times or so. - That’s why you drive We all know Sam’s been on Jamario Moon to drive the ball more and Friday night we saw why. From our perch on press row, had a great angle to see Moon catch a pass about the left elbow with nary a Hawk in his path to the basket. Had a great angle to see him set to take a jumper when you know the dulcet tones of Yelling Sam were rattling around his head. He took the ball down, drove it, when the defender collapsed he dished to Bosh who scored, got fouled and completed a three-point play. I swear I saw Sam smile. - Given a chance Since Andrea Bargnani hardly plays in a fourth quarter – think the last time he got significant crunch time minutes was in San Antonio right after Christmas – many wondered why Sam didn’t leave him in in the first quarter when he gets his obligatory two personals. Well, he left him in last night and it only took about 90 seconds for him to get his third. - A visit to the mailbag Q: Hey Doug, a hockey fan here who nonetheless loves your blog (and is slowly becoming a fan of Dr. Naismith's game because of it) -- particularly the touch of linking to other coverage, it's always a good read. (Thursday) you mentioned sitting around telling stories with the Detroit grunts about the Kevin O'Neill era. How 'bout sharing some of them every so often? One of the things I love about your blog is that your writing style feels like we're all just sitting around having a beer, and a regular selection of stories would only make an already great blog ridiculously awesome. You could call the segment, "Stories for Stephen" as a permanent homage to my ingenuity. Or perhaps "Smitty's Stories" as a tribute to your own. Either way. Stephen H, Toronto A: Okay, some of ‘em are not meant for family reading but anything to get you away from the pucks. It’s the second night of KO’s only season here, Halloween against Washington. If you knew KO, you knew he didn’t suffer fools, or foolish questions, too well. Could be cranky like you’ve never seen. We’re at shootaround and dude from Raptors TV is working on a rather off-beat story and KO doesn’t do off-beat. Not at all. Guy asks the coach, “what was your favourite Halloween costume.” KO, being KO, gives the guy a look that could kill, turns to PR czar Jim LaBumbard and says, “Will the ridiculousness never end?” Never did find out if KO ever dressed up as a ghost. - Here’s how Cousin Sekou summed up last night’s affair? - And here's how Uncle Phil gets us ready for the Sixer game tonight. - Washington 111, New York 96. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled Knicks season. - More mail Q: Okay, I know Smitch's thing is to go with who ever has shown they came to play in the fourth, but I don’t think the T-Raps can top the Bosh-Delfino-Moon-Parker-Calderon lineup that just tore the Hawks up. How good were those 5 looking together? Everything else equal, is that the lineup you'd throw out there to finish off games? Sean K, Ottawa A: They looked excellent, didn’t they? Not sure if it can be done every night, though, because the Hawks were playing small, too. But if there’s a power forward on the court that Delfino can guard, I’d trot that group out without any hesitation. - Timing is everything A year ago today, these dudes lost to Utah and fell to 19-22 (I’m sure the inbox was flooded with fire Sam, start Jose, Bargnani’s a bust e-mails). But that loss was followed by 10 wins out of 12 games before the all-star break as they cemented themselves as a playoff team. There are 11 games between tonight and this year’s break: at Philly, at Boston, Milwaukee, home-and-home with Washington, Lakers, at Miami, Clippers, Minnesota, San Antonio and Jersey before we all head to New Orleans for the bash. If they go 7-4, that’d be all right, 8-3 would be excellent. Then they’d find themselves right in the race for third, fourth and fifth for the stretch run.</div> http://thestar.blogs.com/raptors/
