We're making a list, and checking it twice of course. We don't much care if you've been naughty or nice (although we lean toward nice, as a general policy), but we care deeply if it has been a good week or a bad one for National Basketball League (NBL) of Canada folks.
We know for sure who is having a good week. Let's start with the Summerside Storm. The Storm (24-14) is riding high these days, cruising along on a five-game winning streak, just when you want to be hot – right before playoffs begin.
The Storm has wrapped up the Atlantic Division championship, a playoff berth, home-court advantage in the semifinals and have two more home games before resting up for a week while the league's fourth- and fifth-best regular-season teams battle it out for the right to join the semifinals.
The winner of that preliminary best-of-three series will gain the dubious distinction of playing the ferocious London Lightning, who merely has a record of 33-6 (won-lost) going into their final game of the season at Eastlink Arena against the Storm on Thursday.
This game means nothing to either the Storm or Lightning in the standings, or in determining their playoff semifinal opposition, but it should be a ripper. Each team wants it to be a precursor to their hoped-for meeting in the league's final series, and both teams want to make a statement tonight – especially to each other.
Who else is having a good week?
How about the Moncton Miracles?
The Miracles lived up to their name by finishing their season 11 whole days ago at 20-20 and out of serious playoff contention, and now find themselves having actually qualified for the playoffs, due to London's victory in Halifax on Tuesday.
I'm not sure the Miracles even know where their players are at the moment, but I expect the phone companies are making a lot of money this week on calls from New Brunswick.
Another group having a good week are NBL of Canada fans that are math majors. With just a few games left, all of them this weekend, there is a very real possibility that the four teams battling for the two remaining playoff spots – Saint John, Oshawa, Halifax, and Windsor -- could tie Moncton and finish at 20-20.
The first tiebreaker is the records between the teams involved, which is why Moncton is making playoff plans this morning, although they don't know if they'll be in the three, four, or five spot. Neither does anyone else, for that matter.
This mathematical marvel of five 20-20 teams may all have come undone depending on the score last night from Oshawa. If Saint John won, then Oshawa is eliminated. But if Oshawa won, it's Math Heaven heading into this final weekend.
Finally, the Storm's Omari Johnson may be having the best week of all. He was named NBL of Canada's player of the week on Monday, after averaging 29 points in three crucial wins, and having made some shots in the dying moments of Thursday's clinching win against Oshawa that basketball fans here will be talking about for years.
Bob Gray is a freelance journalist with a long history of P.E.I. basketball reporting. He welcomes comments at bgray@pei.sympatico.ca, and can be followed on Twitter @bgray5.
