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Just two games on the sched, Tuesday night, and I only watched one of them. This doesn’t feel right, and neither does being done with writing by 1:00 AM. A much quicker BfB than normal as we hit the halfway mark of the season.

Cavaliers 108, Raptors 100

• “Conflicted” doesn’t even properly capture how I felt watching LeBron James in this game. Generally, when I watch players I love up against the Raptors, I’m simultaneously rooting for them to do well and for the Raptors to win. It’s weird – things get tricky when it’s a close game and a favourite of mine on the opposing team makes a big play. With LeBron, it’s weird every time I watch him anyway. I feel privileged to watch him as he makes breathtaking plays, and then I get angry as he needlessly hoists up three-pointers. As Twitter favourite Noam Schiller pointed out, LeBron’s shot selection was plain stupid at times. He could score whenever he wanted to on drives or post-ups, but he chose to bail the Raptors out with jumpers on numerous occasions. As a Raptors fan, I was hoping he would jack shots because I knew my team couldn’t stop him otherwise. As a LeBron fan, I wanted to yell, “do that every time!” when he scored around the rim. Every missed jumper had me instinctively frustrated and then thinking, “well, at least the Raptors have a chance.” Unfortunately, the Raps didn’t capitalize on those chances.

• One reason why: Chris Bosh disappeared down the stretch. This bothered me because of the stage: a nationally televised game with essentially no NBA competition. People who don’t watch every Raptors game will have seen this and assumed that this is who Chris Bosh is. After an unbelievable start to the game, he missed his last two field goal attempts in the first half and then went just 2-6 in the second half, almost entirely on jump shots. In the whole game, he only shot 3-4 from the line (he averages 9.2 FTA’s). I feel guilty criticizing Bosh at all with how amazing he’s been all season, but I can’t let him off the hook here. Sure, his coach and his teammates should have made more of an effort to feature him. Sure, he can’t be expected to do it all by himself. But he’s got to demand the ball and he’s got to be aggressive when his team needs a bucket. That doesn’t mean no jump shots – if his man is playing off him, I want him to take the J because he’s so damn good at it. I still don’t think 4 free throw attempts is acceptable, though. And I don’t think franchise players should be held to just 5 points in the second half very often.

• Marco Belinelli and Hedo Turkoglu are going to take years off of my life. I’ve seen both of them at various times described as having “high basketball IQ” but I think that’s basically because they’re European and are good at passing. Seriously, they take some of the most maddening shots I’ve ever seen. Sometimes, they go in. Other times, you know as soon as it leaves their hands that there’s no chance. And I haven’t even mentioned the defensive end of the floor… K, I’m not a hater, I’ll stop there.

• I don’t want to hate on Jay Triano either, for a couple of reasons. First, no one should expect Toronto to beat Cleveland in Cleveland. Second, I think .500 is an acceptable place to be right now with the Raptors’ roster and tough early-season schedule. But, again, I have to complain a bit. I just can’t see the logic for keeping both Jarrett Jack and DeMar DeRozan on the bench for the entire fourth quarter. DeMar was fantastic, scoring 14 points on 10 shots and showing the same aggressiveness that was there against the Knicks the other day. I have learned not to expect his good early minutes to be rewarded with fourth quarter burn, but his play in this one had me hopeful. No dice. Now, Jack: the man started at point guard and scored 11 points on 6 shots, but played less than 22 minutes. I haven’t been a huge fan of the duel point guard lineup that’s received a lot of crunch time minutes for the Raptors this season, but against Mo Williams and Delonte West I’m cool with it. There’s also the fact that Jose Calderon failed to play the same type of ball we’d seen from him in his past couple of games. He missed shots I assumed he would make and he lost Mo Williams on a couple of occasions. I wouldn’t have been mad if he was sent to the bench along with Marco and Hedo.

• Positivity: Antoine Wright was very good for Toronto on both ends. This man took a lot of shit earlier this season, at least online, and I’ll admit that much of it was deserved. In this game, he produced just fine in his 23:49 of action: 12 pts (5-8 FG, 1-1 3PT, 1-3 FT), 5 reb (1 off.), 1 TO. This, while putting in more than respectable work against LeBron on the other end.

• Speaking of LeBron, that guy who I blasted just a few bullet points ago… He barely missed a trip dub: 28 pts (8-18 FG, 0-7 3PT (!), 12-14 FT), 9 reb, 11 ast, 3 blk, 3 stl, 3 TO in 41 minutes. The man is incredible, right?

• Mo Williams had one of his best games of the season. Check the line: 22 pts (7-15 FG, 4-8 3PT, 4-4 FT), 3 reb, 10 (!) ast, 4 TO in 37:37. He remains terrifying to me when he’s left open, but Cleveland fans know his shot has been inconsistent at best. Especially in the last two weeks. On nights like this, when he is hitting his shots AND piling up assists (he averages only 5 a game), Cleveland is going to win the vast majority of the time. And they did here, even though I don’t think the team played very impressive basketball on the whole.

Heat 113, Pacers 83

• I recorded this game and intended to watch it following Raps/Cavs, but the final score is just gross. I asked the internet if it was worth my time and this is what Jared Wade said: “Don’t bother. Flash had 18 in the first. Other than that? Huge waste of time.”

• I feel bad for Pacers fans. They start games terribly so freaking often. Sometimes, they make a run and make things exciting. Against the Raptors and Suns recently, they had huge comeback victories. This time? They were down by 17 after the first and they were outscored in each of the following quarters.

• Some efficient stat lines to look at: Dwyane Wade had 32 points on 20 shots in 31 minutes. Michael Beasley had 21 (on 15 shots) and 10 rebounds, but it took him 40 minutes. Brandon Rush, with his sub-50 TS%, remarkably finished with 17 points (on 10 shots) along with 10 rebounds in 36 minutes.

• Again, I feel bad for Pacers fans.