Good afternoon all and welcome to this week's first dose of lunchbox links. Let's kick things off with some takes on last night's Raptors' loss, first from SB Nation's Bullets Forever, then from the Toronto side via RaptorsRepublic's Blake Murphy, who gives a similar take on "tanking" as I did this AM.
More important than the outcome of last night's match though?
This gif, which I've probably watched 1000 times showing Javale McGee's latest hilarious blooper.
The loss last night to Washington probably isn't going to help the Raptors in the "Power Rankings" department. Toronto came in at 26 on SB Nation's rankings, and slightly higher, 23, on ESPN.com's.
Continuing on with Raptors' news and notes, we have Bryan Colangelo talking about his recent visit to check in on last year's draft pick, Jonas Valanciunas. It sounds like he's developing nicely, essentially the opposite of former Raptor Oliver Miller's career.
More links after the jump...
We're guessing the Raptors won't have any players participating in the All-Star game this year. But SI.com's Zack Lowe had Andrea Bargnani penciled in until his second stint on the IR.
However Leandro Barbosa has a chance to make a run at the annual NBA "Sixth Man" award, a role he discusses with SB Nation's Mike Prada.
NBA TV ratings are up, both overall and even for the Raptors, making some wonder if the shortened season isn't the way to go from now on thereby, Giving Viewers What They Really Want: Much Less.
And finally a happy birthday shout out to Steve Nash, who turns 38 today and who according to the National Post's Eric Koreen, should be asking for one birthday wish and one birthday wish only; a trade.