If the Raptors beat the Rockets tonight, it’ll be nothing short of a miracle.

OK, maybe that’s overstating it a little bit. But Houston is one of the hottest teams in the league right now. Tracy McGrady, though his scoring is down overall, is having one of his best all-around seasons. They play great defense, with the lowest opponents-field-goal-percentage in the league by an entire percentage point (42%). They’re also fifth in the league in rebounding.

Oh yeah, and they’re doing it all without Yao Ming. Yeah, they’re pretty good.

So in come the Raptors, off what may have been their worst loss of the season; not only did they get obliterated by the Spurs, they also lost Anthony Parker to an ankle injury. (Jorge Garbajosa, also hurt Monday, should be OK to play tonight.)

The Raptors do have a few things going for them. One, the Rockets are one of the worst shooting teams in the league. Two, the Raptors have been rebounding much better lately. And third, they have shown an amazing “bounce-back” ability, not having lost two in a row all since December, with Chris Bosh leading the way – every time he has a bad game, as he did Monday, he bounces back with a good one.

McGrady, meanwhile, has been battling the flu; he missed Monday’s game and although he’s expected to play tonight, we can hope he won’t be 100 per cent. Peterson, who has plenty of experience guarding T-Mac, will presumably get the assignment tonight, with Parker out. It won’t be easy; unlike, say, Vince Carter, McGrady seems to have taken the booing from fans in Toronto as motivation, and is averaging 27.5 points in 17 career games against the Raptors - his best mark versus any opponent.

As for the rest of the matchups, Bosh is obviously far superior on both ends than Juwan Howard, but I expect the Rockets to double often, or even use Shane Battier on Bosh one-on-one for stretches. Though smaller than Bosh and Howard, Battier is an excellent defender, with quick hands and great upper-body strength. He might give Bosh trouble. The rest of the time Garbajosa should be matched up on Battier; they’re both very similar players, I expect they’ll kind of cancel each other out when matched up.

Dikembe Mutombo is having a throwback year in place of the injured Yao, but this matchup is exactly why the Raptors traded for Rasho Nesterovic. Mutombo is obviously the better shot blocker, but Rasho’s offensive game is much stronger. And when the Raps bring in the Garbo-Bosh-Bargnani lineup, Mutombo will be forced to play defense on the perimeter, where he doesn’t like to be.

At the point guard spot, TJ Ford and Jose Calderon are both better than Rafer Alston, although Alston’s been playing well. My biggest concern is that Alston will play extra hard and try and show up Mitchell and the Raptors, since the two didn’t get along during Alston’s time in Toronto. While that in itself is not a concern, TJ Ford’s inevitable response – to go one-on-one right back at him – will hurt the Raptors, much more than Alston himself. Just pass the ball, TJ. It’s what you do best!

Bench-wise, Bonzi Wells has been playing some solid ball of late and his size and strength might hurt the Raps. Joey Graham might match up best against him. The rest of the Rockets bench is pretty weak (Luther Head, Jake Tsakilidis, Chuck Hayes) but with Parker out and Mo starting, the Raps’ bench is also slim. Thankfully, no one can match up with Andrea Bargnani, and Juan Dixon should benefit from the extra playing time.

Meanwhile, looking at the standings, the Raptors need to be careful – the Nets are surging, having won three straight, and are only 3.5 games back in the division, with a home game against the lowly Celtics coming up. Thankfully, after that, they go on the road for six straight, including the Texas triumvirate of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Conference-wise, the Raps themselves sit in a virtual tie with Chicago in the 4/5 spot, one game behind Washington and two behind Cleveland. It’s getting tight with 25 games to go!

Well, even if they lose tonight, they better at least make a game of it, unlike Monday night. Sam’s always talking about pride, let’s hope they show some!

As I mentioned the other day, what got me interested in The Dark Tower was the first issue of the new comic book tie in series, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born, so here’s a short review of the first issue.

The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #1
Writers: Peter David and Robin Furth
Artists: Jae Lee and Richard Isanove
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Marvel made a big deal over “signing Stephen King to write a comic book series” a couple of years back, and much joy rung out with King’s “Constant Readers” when that series was announced to be a Dark Tower tie-in.

But of course, as it turned out he’s not the writer, just the “Creative Consultant.” No one was really surprised at this… Marvel likes to hype things before the details are ironed out.

Thankfully, the people actually handling the writing are veteran comic book and sci-fi writer Peter David (Hulk, Spider-Man, Star Trek) and King’s research assistant, Robin Furth, who turned her Dark Tower research into The Dark Tower Compendium (published initially as two volumes, and recently as a single-volume edition). While not the heavyweight that King is, at least they brought a solid writer and a Dark Tower expert on board.

The art chores are being handled by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove; the series is scheduled to be seven monthly issues. Marvel is giving it a big publicity push, trolling for mainstream media coverage by shouting King’s name at every opportunity, even organizing a midnight release event on the day the first issue was published. They also had King as a guest at the New York Comic-con last weekend.

Clearly, the hype is working, since I bought the damn thing! I feel like such a sucker. Actually, Jae Lee’s art was really the main reason I bought the first issue, but whatever the reason, I’m glad I did – I loved it and now, as you know from the book reviews the other day, I’m hooked

The series is described as a prequel, taking place in Roland the Gunslinger’s early days, telling the story of how he became a gunslinger. Supposedly, the bulk of the story will take place in between flashback scenes in The Dark Tower Book IV, Wizard and Glass, although the first issue mainly illustrates one of the flashback scenes from Book I, The Gunslinger.

If I had already read the novels I suspect I might be disappointed by the first issue as I didn’t really get anything new out of it. As someone new to the series, though, it was all new to me, and I enjoyed it immensely. The language, the fantasy setup and epic scale of the artwork, and the story itself all created a very engaging first issue. I was pretty much hooked from page one.

The art was gorgeous, a wonderful blending of Lee’s pencils and Isanove’s colours. Though it doesn’t have quite the dark mood of Lee’s Inhumans – which was mind-blowing at the time – it had a wonderful “weight” to it, befitting the scale of the fantasy world and noble times of Roland’s youth.

I have an interesting history with Lee’s work. He got his break at Marvel on Namor in the early 1990s, a title which I loved – mostly because of John Byrne’s artwork. Byrne was my favourite comic book creator, and he was writing and drawing Namor. The stories were good, though they fizzled a little by issue #25, but the art was – I felt – Byrne’s best in years. But for some reason – some crazy Byrne eccentricity or another I’m sure – Lee came on board as artist with issue #26. Byrne stayed on as writer. I read issue #26, hated the art, and never read another issue.

I read a couple of X-Factor issues he did, and didn’t hate the art (probably because I wasn’t mad at Byrne’s leaving) and then he went to Image for a couple years, returning to Marvel to draw the Inhumans in 1998.

Being a longtime Fantastic Four fan (in which the Inhumans had been supporting characters in the past) I picked the title up, and I was blown away by Lee’s work. It was so dark, so moody, so full of character and emotion – I couldn’t believe it was the same guy! He’s done great work since then on many projects, including the Sentry, a Fantastic Four mini-series, even a GI Joe and the Transformers mini-series (say what you will about the subject matter, I thought his art on this was amazing).

I met the man at the Toronto Comic-con in, um… hmm. What year was that? 1999 or 2000. I found him to be a kind and friendly guy. So I was happy that he would be getting some nice hype with this Dark Tower series, because his art deserves it.

Thus, his name was a big reason I wanted to pick this series up. Unsurprisingly, he delivers great work again. Having now read some of the books, I can say I really feel he captured King’s fantasy world amazingly well.

The first issue also contains a couple “goodies” – an afterword by Ralph Macchio (the editor, not the Karate Kid!), a text piece on Roland’s world (complete with additional art), a preview of next issue – and best of all, a map! I love fantasy maps. I don’t know why. I just do. I probably spent more time looking at Middle-Earth maps than it took to actually read The Lord of the Rings!

Anyway, all told, I give the first issue of this series a solid four stars (out of four). Good story, great art, some extras, and a great introduction to the world of Roland the Gunslinger and the Dark Tower. And I’m hooked on the books, and will be picking up the rest of the series. That’s a textbook case of a successful first issue!

Well, that was certainly one of the Raptors’ more disappointing efforts of the season. I didn’t really expect them to beat the Spurs but I thought it was going to be a good game at least. The Raptors didn’t show up at all, and were soundly trounced.

They were slow on defense. They weren’t moving the ball on offense. Their rebounding wasn’t too bad, although there was that one offensive board that Robert Horry got where he didn’t even leave his feet! Overall it was just an awful performance.

I actually knew about five minutes into it, I could just tell the Raptors didn’t have the energy and weren’t focused on defense. I think Tony Parker hit a layup, and I said, “well, this one’s over,” and my girlfriend said “what are you talking about?” I said, “the Raps just don’t have it tonight.” They hung around until the end of the first, but I just knew. And then the Spurs dropped the hammer in the second.

When they showed the “Parker, Duncan and Ginobili, 43 points; Raptors 38 points” stat at halftime, well… that about says it all.

I have to say, TJ Ford played one of the worst games I’ve ever seen a point guard play in a Raptors uniform. And that’s saying a lot! But he let Tony Parker absolutely abuse him, and then forced up bad shot after bad shot on the other end. Seriously, why can’t the guy hit a layup? I don’t get it. I thought Jose Calderon played much better defense on Parker (Jose was forcing him left, where he obviously doesn’t like to go) but by that point, the game was out of hand. Sam has to do something to curb TJ Ford’s tendency to get into a one-on-one game with opposing point guards.

Chris Bosh was pretty awful, too; they doubled him a lot, so I can forgive the 6-16, but on defense, he didn’t rotate over on numerous occasions when Parker and Manu Ginobili drove the lane.

Andrea Bargnani did a decent job on the boards again, but he didn’t look nearly as confident on offense as he has in other games recently. He was hesitating a lot on shots, then shooting – those never go in. Just shoot it, young man!

So what are the freakin’ odds that Anthony Parker would get hurt? By stepping on Bruce Bowen’s foot no less! Fortunately for Bowen, this one did look accidental; they were both moving through the lane. So I won’t take that hit out on him.

I can’t overlook Ginobili’s foul on Garbo, though. What the hell is Ginobili doing, careening into him halfway through the third quarter when the Spurs are up by 25 points? That was a real dick move. I think Ginobili and Bowen are now my two least favourite players in the league.

I actually thought the whole Spurs team acted like a bunch of dicks. They’re up 30, yet there’s Horry, launching 3 after 3; there’s Parker trash talking Ford; there’s Ginobili driving wildly through the lane. And they’re all a bunch of cheap shot artists, from Bowen on down. Elbows and bodies were flying everywhere! Did you see Elson take that half-ass swing at Bosh!? I couldn’t believe the refs didn’t see that. Jackass.

After Garbo went down, I was thinking to myself, has it ever happened that a team just defaulted a game? Because if I were Sam Mitchell, I’d have to be saying, “OK, we’re down 30, there’s 15 minutes to go, we’re clearly not gonna win – and these guys are beating the crap out of our players. Let’s call it a night.” I guess you can’t really do that.

All in all, you know it’s a bad day when Rasho Nesterovic is your best player! Sigh. At least they have a little cushion over the Nets and Knicks; it’s not like the season is hanging in the balance with each loss. As long as it’s just an aberration, and they bounce back tomorrow – not even necessarily with a win but with at least a good, solid effort. Although that in itself may be hard without Anthony Parker to guard Tracy McGrady…

Incidentally, anyone who says the Spurs aren’t as good as Phoenix and Dallas… I may have to disagree. The Raps aren’t a great defensive team, but they’re not that bad, and the Spurs carved them up. They had 88 points through three quarters! They moved the ball well, played great defense, and that physical style, that’s always good for the playoffs. I wouldn’t count them out yet.

By the way, surf over to NBA.com and check out Shaun Livingston’s latest hideous injury. Wow. It’s awful. One of the most gruesome things I’ve ever seen.

Tonight the Raptors play the first of their two Texas games of the week, facing the Spurs in San Antonio.

We know all about the Spurs. They’re good. Three NBA championships in the last eight years, good.

They’ve got perennial MVP candidate Tim Duncan at power forward, matching up with our all-star, Chris Bosh. Like the Jermaine O’Neal matchup the other night, this is the key one to watch tonight.

Unfortunately, Duncan’s supporting cast is much, much better than O’Neal’s. You’ve got Tony Parker, who’s matured into an excellent point guard, who can dish as well as score. He gets to the hoop like… well, like Jose Calderon. He turns that corner and whoosh, he’s at the basket. They also stretch the defense with Brent Barry, Matt Bonner and Bruce Bowen, and of course, Manu Ginobili, who can score from anywhere and get in the passing lanes. Michael Finley’s old but can still knock down shots too. And don’t forget ageless Robert Horry.

The Raptors are actually built in a very similar manner, from the offense that revolves around pick-and-rolls with the power forward, to penetrating point guards, to wing players who can slash and hit threes. The Raps’ biggest advantage may be Andrea Bargnani, who the Spurs – like most teams – don’t have a real answer to. How the heck do you guard a 7-footer with three-point range? Of course, the Spurs have a lot of experience guarding Dirk Nowitzki so I’m sure they’ll figure it out.

My biggest concern – and this is sad, but I am worried about it – is Bruce Bowen injuring somebody. He’s notorious. He’s injured dozens of guys with that cheap shot move of his, sticking his foot under players so they land on it and twist their ankles. He may have changed Vince Carter’s career irrevocably, by injuring him so badly Vince became afraid of going to the basket. If Mo or AP go down with an injury because of this guy, I’m putting a hit out on him.

Bottom line: The Spurs have a deep bench, tons of experience, and are always tough at home. The Raptors will have to play flawless basketball – move the ball, hit the open shot, grab every rebound, rotate quickly on defense – to win.

Quick overview of the Oscars from last night. Yes, I cribbed the format and even one of the jokes from Bill Simmons. Sue me.

Thumbs up to Ellen, who, although there weren’t a ton of laugh out loud moments, didn’t say or do anything that made me cringe, didn’t say anything political and looked like she was actually having fun. I thought her giving the script to Scorcese was a great bit.

Thumbs down to Jennifer Hudson, who looked like she was trying to win another Oscar for “best performance at an awards show” on the spot. Come on. You were an absolute lock to win. You don’t need to act all surprised. Really. Everyone in the building and watching knew you were going to win, and so did you. Nice try though. Next time, ask Helen Mirren for some pointers.

Thumbs up to Martin Scorcese for finally winning; and I’m glad it was for a great film, not some mediocre film somewhere down the line when everyone says, “you know, it wasn’t a great film, but he deserves an Oscar for all the other great films he made, so let’s vote for him.”

Thumbs up also to the best unintentionally funny moment of the night (at least I think it was unintentional) – After ribbing George Lucas about not having an Oscar, Speilberg and Coppola give Scorcese his… then walk off the stage arm-in-arm with him, as Lucas trails behind, in a “welcome to the Oscar winners club, Marty. Um, George, we like you, but you can’t join. Sorry, pal.” kinda way. That was classic.

Thumbs down to Michael Mann’s bizarre “America on film” short, the one presented by Will Smith. What the heck was that? Was he trying to show the international audience that America was full of racist, war-mongering Jesus freaks? If so… hey, good job!

Thumbs up to the Academy for recognizing James Doohan, albeit a year late (he died in July 2005!). He may not have been a great actor (like anyone on Star Trek ever was) but he did create one of the most memorable characters in television and film in Scotty. And he was a Canadian war hero, having landed on Juno beach on D-Day.

Thumbs down to the new rule that says Jack Nicholson must give the best picture Oscar every year. I like Jack just fine, but that’s two years in a row now. Can’t we mix it up a little? And he was in one of the films – the one that won! And can he please stop wearing sunglasses indoors? He looks good with the shaved head, though, I’ll give him that.

Thumbs up to embalmers who worked on Peter O’Toole. They really had me convinced for a minute or two that was still alive.

Thumbs down to Philip Seymour Hoffman, who apparently purchased Tom Hank’s hair from The Da Vinci Code on eBay for $8.75, bleached it blond, and didn’t bother washing or even combing it for the past two weeks.

Thumbs down to Clint Eastwood’s bumbling introduction of Ennio Morricone, which he then covered up by saying “I should have worn my glasses.” Um, Clint? You’re an actor. Memorize your lines, man.

Thumbs up to Robert Downey Jr. for making fun of himself with that great “just a typical weeknight for me in the mid-90s” bit. I like it when people can laugh at themselves – usually celebrities take themselves way too seriously.

Thumbs down to Forest Whitaker and Alan Arkin for reading their speeches. Like Clint, you guys, you know, you’re actors. Rehearse it if you must, but don’t read it. Ugh. I mean I can accept it when a producer or editor does it, but you guys are performers! This is your job! Sigh.

Thumbs up to Helen Mirren, who should be running a clinic on how to give an acceptance speech. Make a cute anecdote, talk about your inspiration, thank the people involved, give a triumphant fist pump and walk off stage. Well done. And she looks pretty damn good for 62!

Thumbs down to this odd occurrence that is Al Gore becoming the most beloved man in America. Is it because he made a good, important, film, or is it because left-leaning Hollywood thinks he should be in the White House instead of Bush? Either way, hey, Leo, why don’t you get your nose out of his butt and watch the ceremony, huh?

Thumbs up to both Jennifer Hudson and Forest Whitaker for not making a big deal out of winning an Oscar as a black actor. Are we finally going to stop seeing actors as black, white, Japanese, Spanish or whatever and just see everyone as actors, or artists? I hope so.

Thumbs down to the inevitable Spike Lee diatribe about the Academy keeping black films and actors down, by snubbing Dreamgirls both in nominations and awards. You have to love Spike’s singlemindedness. On the red carpet, Ryan Seacrest asks him who he thinks is going to win best picture. Spike ignores the question and says, “since it’s black history month, let’s talk about all the great black actors represented tonight.” God, leave the agenda behind for one night, Spike. Sheesh.

Thumbs up to Jerry Seinfeld for his successful audition to be the host in 2008.

Raptors 110, Pacers 88
Raptors 93, Bobcats 76

Well, those were two quality wins. It’s unfortunate that they allowed both teams to make a run in the fourth quarter, but I never felt either game was in doubt after halftime. Although the absolute silence of the ACC after that second Darrel Armstrong three was a little scary. That guy is always trouble for the Raptors.

A couple of thoughts about the games:

- Andrea Bargnani had 11 boards against Charlotte. Now Charlotte’s not an elite rebounding team, but the kid is averaging 8 per game since the all-star break. Hopefully, he’s finally learning how to box out.

- I said the other day our big guys would be key against Indiana, and boy, did they step up. Rasho Nesterovic had his best game as a Raptor, guarding one of the best forward in the league in Jermaine O’Neal. Garbo beat them inside and outside, with 16 points, 8 board and five assists. Bargnani hit 3-5 threes to go along with his 6 boards. And Bosh had another fantastic night: 23 points (8-12 from the field, 6-8 from the line, 1-1 from downtown), 12 boards, four assists, and three blocks. Jermaine O’Neal, by contrast: 17 points (7-18 FG, 3-5 FT), 8 boards, 4 assists, 1 block. They outrebounded Indy 48-37! I thought for sure the Raps would lose that battle. They also outrebounded Charlotte 50-48. Maybe they can be a decent rebounding team down the stretch?

- I hope that the big runs both teams made don’t mean the Raptors are lacking killer instinct. They really had a chance to drop the hammer down on both teams but it looked like they thought they had the game won, and stopped playing hard for a while. Hopefully Sam will get on them about that, and it’ll change.

- How about the ball movement Friday? 32 assists on 42 made field goals. That’s an impressive figure.

- I’m glad both games were blowouts. Bosh played 33 minutes Friday and 31 Saturday. Those are great figures at this time of year. Get him all the rest you can.

So, after the Pacers, Bulls, Cavs, and Wizards all lost yesterday, the Raptors sit in fourth place in the East, two games up on Indiana, a half game up on Chicago, a game back of Cleveland and two back of Washington. Two games out of second place in the conference! Unbelievable.

I’ll admit it – Indiana scares me as a Raptors fan. Probably more than any team in the east, except Detroit. In fact the Raps might even match up better on paper against the Pistons than they do against the Pacers.

The Pacers strengths – rebound, slow the game down, run halfcourt sets, pound the ball inside – play right into all the Raptors’ weaknesses. The Raptors don’t rebound well, and have weak interior defense, and have been known to breakdown on halfcourt sets.

Of course, the Raptors are much faster, they move the ball much better, and they can score from the outside, where the Pacers don’t like to defend. So it’s not like they’re totally overmatched here. Indiana’s coach, Rick Carlisle is about a zillion times better than Sam Mitchell, unfortunately, so they’ve got a big edge there.

The real matchup is the one at power forward: Chris Bosh vs. Jermaine O’Neal. O’Neal is stronger and better low-post player; Bosh is faster and a better shooter. They both grab about 10 boards a game, and neither is a great one-on-one defender, but O’Neal is a much better shot blocker/weak-side defender than Bosh. Hopefully Bosh is working on this part of his game and will get to O’Neal’s level, and surpass it, in the next couple years.

Even though it’s the marquee matchup I expect the two of them to pretty much cancel each other out. The real key is whether Toronto’s faster perimeter players – Mo, Parker – and outside-shooting big men – Garbo, Bargnani – can take advantage of the slower Pacers, or if the stronger Pacers – Murphy, Dunleavy, Granger – take advantage of the lack of a Raptors inside presence. The PG matchup is a good one too; Both Ford and Calderon are superior to Pacers starter Jamaal Tinsley, but backup Darrel Armstrong is the type of speedy, aggressive guard that gives them both trouble.

So far this season, they’ve split their two games, each team winning rather easily at home.

If the Raptors box out, play to their own strengths and set the tempo – and go to Chris Bosh (as opposed to TJ Ford) at the end of the game if it’s close – they should be able to take this one.

I’m reading the Dark Tower series by Stephen King at the moment.

The Dark Tower is a traditional “great quest” story. The protagonist has an object or goal he needs to reach and must cross great distances, face many trials, meet many new faces along the way, etc. I’ll discuss without spoiling anything, incidentally.

I’ve never read much Stephen King – I’m not a big horror fan. I read the Eyes of the Dragon in junior high, which is a pretty straightforward fantasy novel. I came to the Dark Tower a couple of weeks ago, with the release of the first issue of the Marvel Comics mini-series tie in, The Gunslinger Born. I decided to give the first issue a try and I enjoyed it enough that I wanted to read more. So I picked up the first book in the series, The Gunslinger.

The Gunslinger is not, by my account, a great book. It has its moments – including what King calls the greatest opening line he’s ever written:

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

That’s pretty much a one-line clinic for how to set up a story. And the story is good, all the elements of a great introductory chapter are there, but the style is pretty raw and the structure – most of the significant events occur in flashback – robs the story of much of its tension. The sci-fi, fantasy and western elements don’t blend very well at first – A water filtration system built by “North Central Positronics,” railroads, horses and guns, talking birds, demons and wizards don’t seem to mix very well. And the “climax” – I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by saying Roland catches the Man in Black at the end – is very… subdued, is all I can say. There’s some tense moments leading up to their meeting, but when they finally come face-to-face… they just sit and talk. That’s all. It was pretty anti-climactic.

The flaws I’m sure are a result of King’s inexperience – after all he started writing the story in 1970 when he was 19 (although it wasn’t published until 1978, and even then, only in installments in The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy; the first collected edition wasn’t printed until 1982). He’s clearly got a lot of great ideas, and his stated inspirations – The Lord of the Rings and Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns – shine through.

So while the story dragged here and there, and fizzled at the end, it did hook me – big-time. Like I said, it was a great introductory chapter, and hooking the reader is exactly what you want an introductory chapter to do. I learned just enough about Roland, the Gunslinger; his adversary, Walter O’Dim, the Man in Black; Roland’s quest; and the world they inhabit, to make me want to read more. Thankfully, it’s not an overly long read, and I had the second book waiting for me when I was done.

Of course, I can’t imagine reading this in the early 80s, not knowing anything about else about this story or if he’d ever write another chapter to the story. It would have been very frustrating. And I wouldn’t have had the Internet or a blog in which to voice my frustrations! The horror.

But, it’s 2007 and I know the story is complete. It continues in part II, The Drawing of the Three (1988), which, I’ll say right off the bat, is a much stronger book than the first. In this story, Roland “draws” his companions for his quest to him (forming what he calls his ka-tet) before moving on. It’s full of action, impending danger, and suspense, and the awkardness of mixing the Old West, sci-fi and fantasy is gone; the way King has integrated the elements, and Roland’s world and “the real world” – which I felt hurt the story in part one – really serve the story here. I have to believe this is due to King’s growth as a writer in the years in between writing the first part and this second book.

There are still flaws – most notably, at the end of Part II we still don’t fully understand WHY Roland is searching out the Dark Tower – but I didn’t want to put this one down. The new characters definitely make up an interesting group.

In part III, The Waste Lands (1991) – which I’m reading currently – we are finally learning some motivation for Roland’s quest. This book has been a real page-turner too, although it appears we are adding another member to the group that has joined Roland – so I must wonder why this didn’t happen in the last book; after all, wasn’t that the story of the group coming together? Oh well, I suppose King was making a lot of this stuff up as he went along. Hindsight being 20/20 I’m sure one could integrate the first three books into two books and have a much more cohesive, structured narrative.

Either way, the story really seems to be kicking into gear now, with the ka-tet finding a potential path to the tower, learning more of the history of Roland’s world, and discovering more connections between “our world” and Roland’s world – all of which are helping us understand the main character’s motivations a lot more.

I’ll continue to post my thoughts on The Dark Tower as I read more of it…

As for the other notable literary event I'm following, Marvel's Civil War… I'm still collecting my thoughts on this one, but I will have a full review at some point.

Ah-ha! Look at that. Clearly Varejao’s pushing Bosh with his left hand. It’s right on his shoulder! It’s a textbook case of reaching over the back, which is a loose-ball foul.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the defense rests.

Image from ESPN.com

Interesting game last night. This seemed like one of those games no one really wanted to win. Credit the Cavs for actually running a good play on their last possession, and blame Sam Mitchell for not having a play for the Raps’ last possession, which resulted in a wild TJ Ford layup attempt.

A few words about the final seconds, now. After Ford’s shot, Drew Gooden clearly knocked the ball out of bounds. Yet… the officials called a jump ball, claiming they couldn’t see it. Um, what? It's the game's most crucial play!! There's three of them! How can they not see it!? I mean I know it’s easier on TV, but it seemed pretty obvious to me. I cannot believe that the refs didn't make that call. I mean, a no-call on a foul is one thing, an out of bounds play, there has to be a call. How can they be such cowards as to chicken out of that call? I hope the Raptors are sending that tape to the league office because that was a disgrace.

Of course, the refs also blew the last call, when TJ called timeout with two seconds left, as he clearly did not have possession of the ball, and of course, you can’t call timeout without possession! The Cavs had a right to be upset about that one.

And I will say the Raps got a decent shot off in those two seconds, although MoPeterson should know better than to shoot off balance like he did. Two seconds is plenty of time to get your feet set.

It also looked to me that Varejao went over Bosh’s back on his big putback – that could very easily have been a loose ball foul. But Bosh deserves some blame for not only not boxing out properly, but not having his hands up to receive the ball. Didn’t I say something about rebounding yesterday? Sigh. It really was an impressive play, though, foul or not. The guy was everywhere last night. After that last play I would have traded anyone on the roster short of Bargnani and Bosh for him.

The Raptors had their chances to win, though. In addition to the last possession and resulting jump-ball, bad-timeout play, they also blew their previous four possessions, including Ford dribbling out the shot clock and forcing Bargnani into a wild three, and Bosh turning it over on an offensive foul. Much like the Bulls game, they had zero points in the last three minutes. Why do they not have a single play to run in the last few minutes of a close game? Why was Ford the one to take the final shot, and not Bosh? I mean… don’t you want whoever has the ball to be someone that draws a double team, so that someone is open? You know… exactly what the Cavs did!? TJ Ford doesn’t scare anyone. Sigh. I really think Calderon needs to be finishing games at this point. I like Ford but he really doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing in the last three minutes.

Sigh. Well, there were a few highlights, anyway. LeBron’s dunk on parker was great, but I love that Parker came back down and drilled the three in his face. Bargnani was dropping bombs, and how about Garbo’s breakaway dunk? That was classic.

Plus, thankfully, the Nets and Knicks both lost as well, so the Raps didn’t lose any ground in the Atlantic.

Big game Friday against Indiana, though. Gotta win that one, the last home game before a tough three-game road trip. The games in San Antonio and Houston are pretty much guaranteed losses, so they really need to win at home and in Charlotte.