Those silly Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons sure are making it hard on anyone who might like to do some advance NBA playoff planning.

Now, I don’t care where we go – I really enjoy Indy but Detroit’s easier to get to and has its charms – but I’d like to have an idea.

But, no. The Pacers won’t go away, the Pistons win the games they’re supposed to win and you cannot even guess who finishes seventh and eighth right now.

The interesting thing?

The HOTH might have something to say about it since one of Indy’s last five games is here on Friday night.

And here’s the thing about that one:

It’s the second game of a tough back-to-back for the Raptors, who have an 8 p.m. game in Atlanta on Thursday and Friday would seem to be good time to give a player or two a night of rest.

Can they? Can they possibly manipulate a playoff race by not using their best players in a key game that might ultimately determine who they face in the first round of the playoffs?

I don’t think they can, there’s a Karma thing at work if they did it against, I don’t it’s fair to Detroit or the game but it truly is a tricky decision that will debated either way and I’m glad I don’t have to make it.

And, sure, they could rest who they’re going to rest on Thursday in Atlanta – and I don’t even know for sure it’s in the plans but I suspect some people in the organization are thinking of it – but that’s also playing a part in a playoff race since the Hawks are right there in the muck for three through six with homecourt and first- and second-round matchups hanging in the balance.

These are unique times indeed for the Raptors, they seem basically cemented into second place in East, they have more weighing on the first round of playoffs than ever before and they have to be selfish to some degree in the last 10 days or so of the season.

But when you start toying with what might happen after that by the selective sitting of key players, you open yourself to all sorts of basketball god retribution.

There’s no easy answer to what they should do or will do but it’s going to make the end of this week kind of fun.

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Totally missed the Junos but heard this guy did well?

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Oh yeah, the 10 or 12 centimetres of snow on the driveway, the walkway, the deck on April 4 sucks beyond comprehension and while I was miffed and got sore just looking at it, Super Dog was particularly put out.

Global Warming? Yeah, gotta be something to it, right?

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This popped up sometime yesterday, news that the young phenom Thon Maker from Orangeville Prep is going to try and get himself into this year’s NBA draft.

Now, before you all go off half-cocked trying to figure out where he’ll go – and assuredly I’ll be hit with “should the Raptors take a look at him questions” – please consider that it’s not even a certainty he’ll be eligible and until the NBA rules on that, this is all pipedreams and big wishes.

It certainly looks at first blush that it’d be hard for him to say he’s met the NBA requirements – be at least 19 and out of high school for at least a year – since it would appear he’s still a student but somebody somewhere must imagine he’s good to go.

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But until we find that out – and I don’t know when the NBA might rule – this strikes me as a tiny story not getting to worked up about.

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Completely nice to spend a late Sunday afternoon watching a real ball game and judging by conversations with friends who are at best casual fans of the game and came to the Blue Jays just last August and September, this would be one of the most anticipated seasons in franchise history, I’d say.

I know my guy Baseball Steve tried to do the smart thing and snap up tickets to home game No. 2 because they’ve historically been readily available but the combination of the interest in the home side and the likelihood of David Price pitching made that virtually impossible to pull off and if these guys get off to a torrid start, those easy ticket nights aren’t going to be easy to come by.

Good for them, bad for us, I fear.

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Was fun putting together the final look at the first season for the Unfortunately Named Mississaugas because I truly think it turned out to be as good and as important as Masai hoped it would.

The kids got valuable playing time that hastened their development, I think the people out here had fun going to games (average attendance of about 3,100 strikes me as quite good given the somewhat goofy schedule) and it’s a solid base to build on.

One thing I couldn’t get to in the story was the job – totally unenviable at times, I’d suspect – that Jesse Mermuys did coaching. He served two masters – making sure the Raptors kids got better and winning games – he had 23 different players run through town (and that’s with 10-man rosters) and he seemed to pull it off quite well. There were weeks when he’d have guys only for shootarounds and games but no practices, some weeks when he have assigned players for practices but no games and that can’t be conducive to consistency.

And when I asked him about it, he did mention there were, um, challenges.

“It’s fun to have to adjust and have to adapt and not try to control everything and just make the most of what you’ve got on a night in, night out basis.

“It’s forcing you to do some creative stuff. We played so many different styles throughout the season and different things that we were doing simply based on who we had available that night.

“It makes you a better coach. You have nothing else to do but adapt and get better.”

So, except for the name, seems the first season in Hazelville went about as well as could be expected.

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