Twenty-two years ago, Cleveland rap group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony released the underground classic "Creepin on ah Come Up." The title song was a dark, menacing track about catching an unsuspecting person off-guard and robbing them in an effort to "come up" economically.
These days, another group from Cleveland — the Cavaliers — is in danger of being robbed of something it has seemingly possessed all season: first place in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs are just two games ahead of the Raptors with 20 games remaining after Toronto beat Brooklyn 104-99 on Tuesday.
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The Raptors (42-20) are 7-3 over their last 10 games, including a 99-97 win over the Cavs on Feb. 26. The Cavs are 6-4 over their last 10 games — not horrible, but not good enough to put distance between themselves and the Raptors.
With a quarter of a season to go, anything could happen, but with so little distance between the two teams, the Cavs may be forced to play LeBron James more than they would like in order to lock up the top seed and home-court advantage throughout the East playoffs.
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Whatever happens, it looks as though they're in for a long fight if they want the top spot, which bodes well for the rest of the conference
Stud of the night
LaMarcus Aldridge again showed why the Spurs picked him up this offseason. He came up big with San Antonio's "Big Three" (Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker) out, scoring 29 points on 11-for-13 shooting as the Spurs blew out the Timberwolves 116-91.
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Dud of the night
Shelvin Mack had a night he’d probably like to forget. Mack scored just five points on 2-for-13 shooting as the Jazz fell 91-84 to the Hawks.
Tweet of the night
Yeah, if someone could give Evan Fournier his ankles back, that’d be nice.
Jordan Clarkson took Evan Fournier down to the ground with this crossover!
— SB Nation (@SBNation) March 9, 2016
(via @Lakers ) https://t.co/ pXF2Pe2hQ7 https ://t.co/6oUsKLMNFc
Looking ahead
Clippers (41-21) at Thunder (43-20), 9:30 p.m. ET: LA and OKC are fighting for third place in the Western Conference. The Clippers are 6-4 in their last 10 games, including a 103-98 win over the Thunder on March 2. The Thunder have been headed in the opposite direction, winning just four of their last 10.