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Later this evening, the Dallas Mavericks will be in Toronto to face off against the Raptors in a basketball game. But that really doesn't matter.
What matters is that today, something horrifying happened.
If you have any children, hold them close today. If you have younger brothers or sisters, grab them too. If you have anyone you care about, actually, squeeze them tight and tell them how much you love them.
There's nothing else appropriate I feel I can say right now. If you want to know about tonight's game, well here are some things:
The Raptors aren't very good. They have four wins. They were supposed to be a niche pick to maybe grab an eighth seed in the East behind coach Dwane Casey's guidance. Instead, they've fallen apart thanks to awful play from former No. 1 pick Andrea Bargnani, some injuries to Kyle Lowry and an awful regression on defense from last season. Toronto is in free-fall and could be canning their general manager any day now.
The Mavericks are playing better and almost won a game with 454 turnovers on Wednesday. Derek Fisher somehow continues to post a positive +/- and Shawn Marion is back. Dirk Nowitzki is still not practicing. O.J. Mayo looks like a keeper. Darren Collison is great when he's pushing the ball. Things are slightly looking up.
But other then that, yeah, there's a basketball game on tonight. Feel free to use it to be with your kids or your brothers or sisters or loved ones. Use it to try and not think about the lives lost, an escape for just a few hours.
Tonight, the Dallas Mavericks play basketball. It's never felt so meaningless.