RAPPING UP THE ATLANTIC RATHER MUTED

Are there any similarities between the Raptors' first division title and their Toronto neighbours' first one back in 1985?

Thinking of the Jays' clincher in '85 still raises chill bumps 20 years later. A lot of people in Ontario of a certain age have it burned in their memory.

Meantime, the Raptors clinched their first division title last night with a rather open-and-shut win in Philly and it's like no one noticed. The reality is a division title isn't looked at the same way in basketball, especially with three divisions to a conference, plus and Toronto was barely pressed by the Nets and Vin Weasel once it broke the magical .500 barrier in January.

Everything was just kind of aligned against it: Much of the media focus is on the Leafs' playoff chase (all together now, "It's arbitrary!") and the Raptors have been on the road this week. Then team didn't even learn it had clinched until New Jersey's game, in the Central Time Zone, ended. Not only that, but they beat the 76ers in rather open-and-shut fashion last night, with Anthony Parker (pictured) draining a couple big threes during a 15-0 run that iced the win late in the third quarter. (A big little play that came right before that was an offensive foul on Philly's best big man, Samuel Dalembert, which forced him to take a powder.)

Besides, once it became obvious the Raptors were winning the division, most of us fixated on winning the No. 3 playoff seed and staying out of the 4-5 quarter-final against the Chicago Bulls -- and now, LeBron James' Cavaliers. (The Bulls or Cavs, who are tied with five games left, will be slotted into the 2 and 5 spots for the first round, with the Raptors or Heat at 3 or 4.)

Anyway, Doug Smith of the Toronto Star captured the spirit of the thing pretty well today, playing up the whole aspect of a team savouring its somewhat unlikely feat without distractions from "outsiders." That's probably how it should be for the Raptors' first banner-worthy accomplishment, and now it's on to whether it can get that third spot. Cool Standings' projections average out to 46.5 wins for Toronto, with 45.7 for surging Miami and 42.5 for Washington.

By the way, it was irritating on Thursday to hear TV types segue into the news about Wizards stars Gilbert Arenas' likely season-ending surgery with, "Winning the No. 3 seed in the NBA's Eastern Conference just got that much more important." When wasn't it important? Long before Washington lost Arenas and their No. 2 scorer, Caron Butler, anyone who follows hoops was tuned in to realizing how important that 3 seed was for the Raptors. The Wizards were almost a piece of cake for them before Agent Zero was hurt, since a complete team will beat an opponent built around one scorer eight times out of 10, unless that scorer is named after Japanese beef.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.