Clippers treat Sunday game as day of rest
At one point in the early going of yesterday afternoon's Raptors-Clippers game, Sam Cassell, the 37-year-old Clippers point guard, let loose a wide-mouthed yawn worthy of a lion.
NBA players are largely nocturnal creatures, after all, and yesterday's noon start meant the Clippers were served with their earliest wakeup call of the season, a ring of the hotel phone that came at 8 a.m. local, or 5 a.m. Pacific time. So as good as the Raptors were – and their 58.7 per cent shooting from the field was their second most accurate outing of the year – the Clippers, who'd won seven of their eight previous games, looked especially listless on both ends.
The early start, said Sam Cassell, "affects your body in a major way."
"It definitely affects your whole mindframe. You're a little tired when the game starts," said Sam Cassell. "But it's a game on the schedule. If you're crying about it, you shouldn't be in the league."
It was noted here yesterday that the Raptors' winning percentage in Sunday home games was .492 all-time. It's .496 after yesterday's 122-110 win, which is considerably better than their home winning percentage on the other six days of the week, .472.
Breaking it down a little more, yesterday's win, in a noon-hour start, brought them to 34-31 all-time in Sunday home games that began at 1:30 p.m. or earlier.
It underlines what alert observers have sensed for a while; that the Raptors, because they're one of the few NBA teams to play regularly on Sunday afternoon, are at a competitive advantage in those games.
Adding to the advantage is the idea that Toronto's array of Saturday-night pleasures – nightclubs and restaurants and various emporiums of artistic expression – doesn't hurt the home team's cause.
When the Clippers got to the arena yesterday, it was a little before 7:30 a.m. Pacific time. For athletes who live a late-shift existence, playing mostly night games and eating mostly midnight suppers, the result was completely predictable.
Christianity's day of rest was Chris Kaman's day of rim-wrecking. The Clippers centre shot a zombie-ish 1for11 from the field.
The visitors, who took a long while to warm up, shot like they were a little weak in the legs – 37.0 per cent from the field in the first quarter, for instance, compared to Toronto's sizzling 78.9 per cent.
And though L.A. made the obligatory late run, cutting a bulge that got as big as 18 points to as little as eight in the fourth quarter, the home team won in a relative walk.
So the win streak grew to three and there's no reason it shouldn't stretch on for at least a couple more games. The schedule is in the Raptors' favour. Struggling Orlando, which visits Wednesday, is in Milwaukee tomorrow night. The Lakers, who visit Friday, are in Detroit the night before, and their game at the Air Canada Centre will be the seventh outing of a marathon eight-game road trip. And yes, the Raptors have to head to Detroit on Saturday night for the second end of their home-away back to back. Most scheduling advantages even out into disadvantages.
But Toronto's Sunday afternoon home games might not have a downside. They're 4-3 in them this season, and they've got one more next month against Seattle.
"They've got to come play us at seven, which is 10 o'clock their time, so it goes both ways," said Kaman. "But I think it's a little bit tougher to wake up earlier than it is to stay up a little later."
Don't think the Sunday advantage is by design. Toronto's last three Sunday games this season are 6 p.m. starts, which mitigates the edge. Television gets what television wants. But perhaps it's no coincidence the Raptors pulled off one of the more unlikely upsets in franchise history – a 109-108 win over the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls squad that won 72 games in 1995-96 – on a Sunday afternoon. It certainly wouldn't surprise the Clippers.
"Guys are sluggish and trying to wake up. It's morning where we're from," said Elton Brand, the Clippers forward. "We don't want to make any excuses. ... We get up early (for practice at 10 a.m. Pacific), but not that early."
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