Back to the Raptors

Last week's Target post was fun and games, but now it's time to get down to business: Talking about the Raptors making the playoffs.

Toronto is four games over .500 and atop the Atlantic, or as I call it: the Most Ferocious Division in the NBA. Brooklyn is making a run at the division lead, but that doesn't really matter. The Raps are a 3-5 seed. Looking at the teams below Toronto (Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, Brooklyn and Charlotte), it's safe to say the Raps are locked into the middle-of-pack playoff seeding.

Chicago is drastically hindered by injuries (though remarkably overachieving under Thibodeau and strong performances from Noah), Atlanta can't quite seem to put together a run with Horford and Millsap as its main cogs, Washington has some potential, and Charlotte is just Charlotte (but props to the Hornets coming back!).

I can't find much more to say about the East. It's an abysmally weak conference, with only four of its 15 teams notching a positive points differential. Compare that with the West, where 10 of the conference's 15 teams have a positive points differential, and the East will cause you to throw your feces at your computer monitor as you write this column.

A feces joke is a good a place as any to end this post.

Enjoy All-Star weekend this weekend!

Here's a video of the best Dunk Contest dunks to make you completely forget how horrible this event is to watch.