Breaking radio silence (Go Raptors!)

This may have been the longest I have gone without posting in some time, though I have made very minor updates to my primary reading list, striking off books I've finished.  It's not that I didn't feel like writing, but I just haven't really had the time.  When I am at the computer at home, I'm working on one special project or another (and feeling guilty about not having time to support an academic research paper).

However, I thought it was worth posting to celebrate the Raptors and their improbable success.  I certainly hope I don't jinx it, but it does seem improbable that they don't win one more game out of the next three (with two of them being at home).  Famous last words I know, and they really need to put the hammer down on Monday.  The good news is that they finally have a player or two with that killer instinct, who won't let up until it is over.  Even if Kevin Durant comes back in game 5, he will be so out of shape that he will probably do more harm than good, aside from providing moral/emotional support for the Warriors, but he might actually contribute in game 6 or 7, so best to close it out Monday.

I'll be honest and say that I didn't think they had that much of a chance against the Bucks after losing the first two games (and getting so close to winning the first one must have been heart-breaking) and then just barely winning game 3 in double-overtime.  However, that was sort of the low point, and the other (non-Kawhi) players finally started hitting their shots, and the series turned in their favour.

At the start of the championship finals, I didn't think they had a particularly good shot at knocking off the Warriors, but I didn't feel it was impossible, as they #1) had home-court advantage and #2) play much more intense defence than most of the West Coast teams the Warriors normally play against.  In fact, Five-Thirty-Eight gave a slight edge to the Raptors, but even they weren't sure they believed their model.  At any rate, I was at the gym on Friday, just occasionally checking out the score, and the Raptors were hanging pretty tough with the Warriors until about halfway into the first quarter when they went completely cold.  They were just slowly digging their way out of that hole when I left the gym, but I didn't really like their chances.  Of course, they pulled away in the third quarter and that was it.  It's kind of odd for me to care about a sporting event that has so little to do with me (aside from messing up traffic near where I work!), but I would like them to win.  Toronto will go pretty crazy (and Trump will sulk and send out some stupid tweets).  I may even do the superstition thing of repeating what I did last Friday (to obviously give them a better chance of winning game 5).  So that means working out at the gym at the start of the game, which means I probably need to go to the gym early today.  A small sacrifice on my part.