Preview: Cavaliers at Raptors, February 26th

(Quick cultural anecdote: I absolutely LOVED the rendition of the Canadian National Anthem that the jazz phenom girl did at the Olympic opening ceremonies. Every both of my Canadian friends HATED it. When I asked them why, they said that the fancy/American Idol rendition of the song made it impossible to sing along with and ruined the spirit of the song.

This struck me as a completely alien concern, because of how used to our National Anthem getting American Idolized every possible way at every possible sporting event. In fact, the harder some big-time singer is trying to bend the anthem, the bigger the event feels. Apparently it’s the opposite for Canadians, based on literally multiple accounts. Any American/Canadian readers care to chime in on this? Also, I love the Canadian anthem.)

Anyways, to basketball.

I don’t have time for a proper preview. No Bosh for Toronto, no Shaq for the Cavs. Toronto’s been able to exploit Shaq at times during the first two meetings, so matching up with Toronto’s mobile bigs might actually benefit the Cavs in this game. The other thing to watch will be to see how Cleveland reacts to a back-to-back. Might see some Powe tonight because of that and no Shaq or Z.

Finally, I apparently jumped the gun by blogging the report that Z had decided to re-sign, as David Aldridge is now reporting that Z’s agent is denying that Z’s mind is made up. My apologies. I’m in the live-blog thunderdome tonight, so let’s have some fun.