Another game on TSN2? Fantastic. Thankfully, I don’t have much desire to see the Washington Wizards, so I don’t feel too upset about this one.

In fact I suspect this game would make me tear my hair out or smash my remote control in disgust, so I’m glad I won’t be watching. Because even though the injury-ravaged Wizards are terrible, and should be an easy foe for the Raptors to beat, you know they won’t be. You know the Raps will come out strong, but then they’ll relax, let the Wizards hang around, and then they’ll give up the lead and it’ll come down to execution down the stretch.

And God only knows how the Raptors will respond.

Will it be like Sunday, when they played aggressive D, crashed the boards, held Orlando to one shot, and played smart on offense?

Or will it be like Monday, when they let the Bucks hit threes and made terrible decisions at the offensive end?

Who the hell knows. I sure don’t. I don’t even know why I bother predicting these games, I’m never right. Sigh.

As for the matchup, well, even with their struggles, Washington has the best player on the floor on this game in Caron Butler, and Antawn Jamison and Chris Bosh are a complete wash (except for the fact that Jamison always plays better against Bosh than vice versa) which cancels out our best player.

If Calderon were playing, he’d obviously be superior to Mike James, and of course even a hobbling Jermaine O’Neal is better than Darius Songalia. But they’re out and if you don’t think James is drooling at the thought of playing Will Fucking Solomon and Roko Ukic, then you obviously don’t remember his tenure here in the T-Dot. The guy does not lack confidence.

Naturally, Andrea Bargnani should have a huge advantage at the centre spot, but clearly he can’t be trusted at this point. He could have another great game, he could stink. You just never know with him. Will he take advantage of his size, quickness and range against Songalia? Or will he allow Songalia to get in the paint, and end up in foul trouble? He’s probably due for a stinkbomb.

The Wizards are starting Dominic Maguire at the 3 because DeShawn Stevenson is out, but I’d say he and Moon are probably even as well.

EDIT: Looks like Moon is out too. Meaning it’s either Kapono or Graham in the starting lineup. Since Kapono has played like garbage most of the year (how wrong was I about him!? I should probably write a post just apologizing for thinking he should start), I think it should probably be Graham. He hasn’t been stellar or anything, but he’s been decent. Better than the usual Joey, and better than Kapono… either way, this might give Washington an edge here, especially since we’ve been known to give up big games to young threes.

EDIT 2: Eric Smith is reporting that Graham will indeed start.

Bench wise, I don’t even know what the Wizards have but then we don’t have much either - especially with three bench players starting. Probably another wash.

This one’s gonna come down to the end I think. I foresee a tie with 35 seconds to go, a blown Raptors possession, a Caron Butler miss at the other end - and a Songalia rebound which he kicks out to Jamison for the game winning triple.

Washington by 3.

Civilization Revolution was another game I mentioned way back as one I was looking forward to playing. I didn’t get around to buying it, as Rock Band 2 and Fallout 3 took up all of my time in the fall, but I was lucky enough to get it for Christmas.

Did it bring back fond memories of all-night Civ games back in high school, or fall flat as the first Civ game on a console? Read on…

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