Along Steph Curry’s torrid scoring pace this year he’s broken another record. Dropping 49 points in last night’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers Steph Curry dropped 30-plus points for the 11th straight game. In doing so Curry surpassed a record set by the late, great Kobe Bryant for number of 30+ point games in a row over the age of 33.

Over the 11-game stretch Curry is averaging 40 points, 6 rebounds and 4.5 assists all while shooting 49% from deep and 54% from the floor. In the 49-point effort against the sixers Curry also happened to bury 10 threes, marking his sixth game this season with 10 or more three pointers while no other in player has more than 5 in their entire career.

This historic hot streak has also pushed Chef Curry to the head of the pack for this year’s scoring title with the Warrior averaging 31.4 points per game to Washington Wizards’ Bradley Beal’s 31.1.

The only thing holds Curry from being a serious MVP candidate this season is team success. As of today, Steph Curry is averaging 31.4 points on 49% shooting, during his unanimous MVP season he averaged 30.1 points while 50% shooting from the field.  The catch is that the Warriors are below .500. MVP candidates are typically the best player on the best teams in the league. In the last 45 years only one player had been awarded MVP with a team less than 10 games over .500, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, in the 1975-76 season.

Despite the torrential scoring whether the Warriors will make the playoffs is yet to be seen. The Warriors are 29-29, a game behind the eight placed Grizzlies, landing the Dubs in the play-in tournament but requiring them to win twice to qualify for the post season.

With Steph playing the Warriors are 28-22 and 1-7 without him. And with Klay Thompson injured, Draymond Green taking a step back offensively, James Wiseman remaining an enigma and seldom help from Andrew Wiggins, the Warriors playoff fate sits on Curry’s shoulders. Despite the historic scoring explosion Chef Curry’s play is indicative of the Warriors dire straits offensively.

“All in.”

That was Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas’ mantra entering the 2021 NHL trade deadline.  His team that has flirted with playoff success, only to ultimately be let down in utter disappointment, has put together one of their better rosters in recent memory and is all-in on making a deep playoff run.

It has been a record 54 (long) years since Lord Stanley’s most prized possession was awarded to Toronto’s NHL club.  In that time, the organization and it’s fans have seen some high peaks and some tremendously low depths.  Will this year be any different?

In a pandemic-wrought season that has brought forth new divisional alignment and a chalengingly-flat salary cap, the Toronto Maple Leafs are fully expected to contend for the Stanley Cup.  They have ridden some adrenaline-fuelled heights, including goalie wunderkind Jack Campbell’s historic 11-game win streak and Auston Matthews’ tremendous goal-scoring campaign.  There have been some (painfully bad) lows however, including the squandering of a 4-goal lead to Ottawa, an extraordinarily bad power-play in the last month and now the potential loss of spark plug, Zach Hyman.

Enter Nick Foligno and Dave Rittich… and Ben Hutton.  The newest additions to a Maple Leafs squad that has stumbled up-and-down as of late.  

Foligno, the now-former captain of the Columbus Blue Jackets joins the Buds as a veteran-presence that can chip in some offence, play up and down the lineup, and bring some sandpaper to the team.  That Dubas surrendered a first-round pick and two fourth-rounders for him is a testament to the character, leadership and grit that he brings to the room.

“Big Save Dave” Rittich joins the club to shore up their backup goaltending, a position that has been subject to many questions over the past year and a bit.  Hey, if he can regain even partial-form from his peak in Calgary before this year (and prevent Michael Hutchinson from ever playing again), everyone’s worries are solved.

And I guess big boy Ben Hutton bolsters the team’s defensive depth, too.

This is it.  The time is now for the Maple Leafs to capitalize after pushing all their chips in.  With a tight North division race, the Leafs can see themselves playing anyone from Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary or (*cries internally*) Montreal in the first two rounds (if they can finally make it out of the first one).

It is time for this team to finally show the league what they’re made of.  A young core of ravaging goal-scoring firepower, the best D-corps the team has rolled out in YEARS and solid goaltending, even in the absence of starter Freddie Andersen, has this team poised to end in either tremendous glory, or complete and utter sadness.

Go Leafs Go.  

This season has been less than ideal for the Toronto Raptors. The team is stranded in Tampa Bay, playing games in front of fans who don’t entirely support the team. The 2019 champions are currently sitting with a record of 24-34, currently in the play-in tournament. With less than 20 games left in the season there are tangible takeaways that can be gleaned from this season despite the team being over 2000 kilometres away from Toronto. 

The Raptors sold their immediate future for the 2019 title. Given how everything played out, that’s a decision that should be made every time it’s on the table but certain concessions have been made to the team’s depth. The infrastructure was cracking last season when the Raptors were trying to find their ninth man, giving Terence Davis and Matt Thomas a run for limited minutes. They were traded for second round picks at the trade deadline. 

The stakes were low when there was a core rotation of seven guys you could count on but when that rotation is shaken up with departures there’s nowhere to go but down. Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka departed in the offseason and Norman Powell was traded for Gary Trent Jr. and Rodney Hood. Out of the championship team only five players remain after Patrick McCaw was waived two weeks ago: Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby and Chris Boucher. 

Trent and Hood are two reliable pieces but Trent has the potential in the Raptors system to become a star which he’s shown in more playing time.  He recorded a career-high 31 points against Oklahoma City on March 31st, posted the best plus-minus in franchise history, plus-54 in the win over Golden State on April 3^rd, and hit a game winner against the Washington Wizards on April 5^th. That’s quite a stretch for the third-year guard out of Duke.

As well as Trent, Chris Boucher was thrusted into a big-time role, with the off-season addition of Aron Baynes being unsuccessful. Recently the Raptors signed Khem Birch for the rest of the season and Freddie Gillespie from the G-League but those are additions on the margins at best.  

So how do the Raptors add legitimate talent? The T word, also known as tanking. Getting a talented player, no matter what the position will help the Raptors out immensely. Whether it is Cade Cunningham or Evan Mobley, the Raptors main objective should be trying to get in the position to get one of these guys for next season, hopefully in Toronto.