and the streak is over...

unofficially, tonight was the end of my raptors season (and likely the end of any playoff hopes the raptors had) as i went down to the acc to see the raptors lose (again!) to lebron james and the cleveland cavaliers. tonight's company included ebrian, nocturnalbear, and worms. with the lebron james being a big draw, not surprisingly, we also kept bumping into a bunch of people we knew. anyway, the raptors were just getting smoked in the first half. in continuing our tradition of getting some beer at the half, we figured that we should all get a glass since they had yet to lose when we drank at the game. it actually looked like that it might work as the raptors made a run early in the 3rd quarter and came close to tying it up. however, our hopes were short-lived and dashed as the raptors started making poor shot selections and shooting a ton of airballs--they must have had some beers at halftime too. thanks to the beer, the highlights of the game were:

1. the raptor dunking over miss world.
2. these suits right in front of us who didn't know very much about basketball.
3. watching this crazy old guy cheer for the raptors. it's funny watching old people get riled up about sports. he was actually scaring us though 'cause he was getting pretty fired up. ;)
4. cheering for lamond murray when the scrubs were coming in.
5. cheering for the pizza point. at least, the raptors sent the fans home somewhat happy with some food. nocturnalbear, worms and i actually took advantage of the freebie and got a fresh, piping-hot pepperoni slice. yum.

Here's a season review of all the games that I attended this year, plus what I drank:

• Oct. 29 v. Nets W 90-87 (Beer)
• Nov. 1 v. Mavs W 77-71 (Beer)
• Nov. 16 v. Rockets W 101-97 (Beer)
• Dec. 14 v. Heat L 90-89
• Feb. 1 v. Lakers L 84-83
• Feb. 4 v. Magic W 110-90
• Feb. 18 v. Spurs L 86-82
• Feb. 29 v. Celtics L 91-82
• Mar. 10 v. Cavs L 106-92 (Beer)

well, i was lucky enough to see 9 games (+ 2 pre-season games) this year. in those games, the raptors went 4-5. not bad. most of the games were pretty entertaining and close until the end, so i definitely got my money's worth. another observation: in the games that ebrian and i had some alcohol, the raptors went 3-1, but when we stayed sober they were only 1-4. what does this all mean? if we drank at all the games, the raptors might be in 3rd or 4th place right now! :) anyway, thanks again to ebrian for making the games enjoyable. it was good to finally find someone to go see a bunch of games and talk ball with. even though we often disagreed on the value of vince carter to the franchise, it sure made for interesting conversation--especially when the raptors would go 5 minutes between buckets.

it's a little disappointed though that i won't be seeing any more games this year--especially from the sprite zone with all the hardcore fans. it was fun listening to people trash talk vince, mo pete and lamond murray. i'm already looking forward to more action next year. with the probable hockey lockout, basketball is going to be the only major sport in town next fall / winter.