Game 10: Bulls at Raptors!

The home stand didn't get off to the start the Raptors had hoped with a loss to the Wizards. Gotta shake it off and get your head right as the tricky Bulls come back through for a rematch from opening night.

• Kyle Lowry was ejected early in the second quarter during Sunday's game. It's something to watch this year as the refs are seemingly not tolerating much mess from players and pulling a quick trigger on ejections.
• Either way the Raptors need to have better starts. It was a problem last year digging out of large defecits, especially at home. Alfonzo McKennie was sent down the 905 G-League affiliate. Other than that all Raptors are go.
• Bobby Portis returns for the Bulls tonight after serving an eight game suspension for an in-practice brawl with Nikola Mirotic. Mirotic is still out along with Zach Lavine and Cameron Payne

Tonight's Raptor Track!

The Cat Empire - "Bulls"

The Cat Empire have been writing and performing their own unique brand of ska, reggae and jazz Down Under since around 1999. Their 2016 album Rising With The Sun has quite a few tracks named after animals. Track #2 is called "Bulls"

Tonight's Game Day Drink!

Bloody Mary

I'm picking this tonight because of the time I spent in Chicago. It was the first time I had a Bloody Mary, the US' answer to Canada's Caesar. Typically made with Tomato juice and vodka, each bartender seems to put their own unique twist on the drink. Which is what I like about bartending. Another outlet for one's creativity

Raptors 5th in the East 5-4! Bulls 14th in the East 2-6!

Game 6: Raptors at Trail Blazers!

The Western swing rolls on for Toronto as they stop in Portland, Oregon to face the Beaver State's only professional sports team, The Portland Trail Blazers

• Raptors are still without their starting big man tonight, Jonas Valanciunas and it has been announced that Serge Ibaka will also not be playing. Though the reason for Serge sitting has yet to be announced.
• Trail Blazers will be without Meyers Leonard, CJ Wilcox, and Noah Vonleh, but with all stars like Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum still in the line up it's likely the Raptors won't notice
• Look for Pascal Siakam and Jakob Poeltl to continue to improve as they get heavy minutes tonight and hopefully Norman Powell wakes up from the funk that he seems to be in

Tonight's Raptor Track!

The Cowboy Junkies - "Oregon Hill"

I was going to include Drake's "Portland" here, but it appears there is some issue with having the video uploaded to Youtube as all I can find is the instrumental version. So here's Canada's Cowboy Junkies instead!

Tonight's Game Day Drink!

Port

Port is a famous after dinner wine which is typically a fortified wine from Portugal. It's usually a sweet red wine, but there are also dry, semi-dry and white varities. As well as Canadian, Australian, Indian and South African types. On a cool night like this a snifter of Port will warm your core!

Raptors sixth in the East 3-2! Trail Blazers fourth in the West 4-2!