Kingless?

It has already been a very busy day in Dino Nation Blog. But still going to bang out a quick preview of Raptors vs Cavs. As much as everyone fears the prospect of a Raptors vs Cavs first round series the Raptors have actually not done badly against the Cavs. In happier more optimistic times the Raptors opened their season with a surprising win over the Cavs. That made the Cavs 0-2 on the season and many were more concerned about the Cavs then the Raptors back then. Pretty sure there is not much to worry about in Cleveland these days. Cavs are 60-15 since those opening 2 losses and are 34-4 at home this season. In fact they have clinched everything that they can. In fact rumours are LBJ may not play tonight. However if the Raptors fans remember this is a team that lost to the Spurs with no Parker or Duncan. So they really can not let it impact of their effort regardless of if flight 23 takes off in Cleveland tonight or not.

When you scoreboard watch the Bulls caught a break literally in terms of Andrew Bogut's horrific injury the other night. The Bucks count on him to do a lot and will be trying to figure things out for their own playoff future. The Bulls just want to make it to Sunday and still have a chance for it to matter when they hit Toronto. The Magic number for the Raptors is 5. That means any combination of Raptors wins and Bulls losses that adds up to 5 and the Red and Black Attack lives.

The issue for the Raptors will be find those W's with 3 tough games this week before they get to the Bulls on Sunday. Tonight with Cavs, tomorrow @ home to Celtics and then an Atlanta team that they did beat last time they faced them. But that was without Joe Johnson and it is also the Atlanta team that with him scored 146 points against the Raptors.

If Raptors can win any of these 3 games for the folks that consider themselves realistic fans it would be a major surprise. It would also take some pressure off this team at least a little bit. The Raps can take some comfort in playing Pistons and Knicks to close the season, assuming they show and bring an effort they should win those.

If James does not play there is really nothing you can take away from this one in terms of a playoffs match-up. Maybe that would be the point for the Cavs. They honestly have nothing to lose by sitting him. If James were to go down injured in any of their final games the Cavs playoff chances would be doomed to failure. The one thing you would hope if you care about fair play at all that if James sits for both games with Raps and Bulls or plays in both. If it did not happen you almost wonder if that was the Cavs trying to send a message has to who they would prefer to play.

So if James sits tonight and plays against the Bulls that would at least suggest the King James want Toronto and the Cavs want the Raptors. That would be interesting if that was the case. Maybe as I suggested the experience the Bulls had in pushing Boston to the limit worries them. That was a different Bulls team thought that had Ben Gordon and he was last seen with an over paid contract in Detroit.

Will see what happens I am liveblogging it for the Score and tip time is 7pm.