January 8, 2006
Vince Carter breaks 19,000 hearts
Lang wrote this today:
Where was that shot in the Eastern Conference semi finals back in 2001? As much as most of you love to hate on Vince Carter, there is no denying the fact that he convincingly pulled the rug from under the Toronto Raptors this afternoon with an incredible game-winning shot.
Vinsanity does live on, and it completely ran wild on us today. Somewhere in America, Hulk Hogan was watching and saying, “… and THAT’S why you drink your milk and eat your vitamins.” You absolutely have to give credit to Vince for running New Jersey through the win column again and torching the Raptors for 42 points in a game where we played solid defence.
I hate losing, more than I hate ironing a basket full of dress shirts. But you can’t feel bad about losing a competitive, exciting game like this where we did all the right things. However, if I could blame someone for giving up our late fourth quarter lead, it’s got to be Mike James.
I know what you’re thinking. Here he goes again about Mike James, the hottest hand in the last 5 games, the heart and soul of the team, the savior of Toronto basketball. Lang, why don’t you just leave this guy alone?!?
No.
I’ve been saying time and time again, Mike James takes stupid shots. I’ve said it when they don’t go down, and I’ve said it even when they do. When Mike had the basketball with 45 seconds left in the game, I knew what was going through his head.
“I’m Mike James, b*tch. I’m Mike James, b*tch. What did the five fingers say to the face? Mike James, b*tch!”
There was no doubt he was going to run the clock down and wait for the right moment to jack up a 3 to be the hero of the game. Hasn’t anyone else noticed the crazy look in his eyes lately? He drains a couple of baskets and all of a sudden he goes wild eyed like Gargamel at a smurf convention. I’ve never seen anyone with that much misplaced confidence since I did the worm at a grade 8 dance.
And what did Mike do? Between the legs, between the legs, and jacks the long ball. That’s not the shot a veteran player should be taking in the dying seconds of the game when we’re nursing a lead. It was stupid, horrible, and selfish - and it left the door open for the Nets to walk right back into the game.
It doesn’t matter if you score 30 points, or dish out 15 assists in a game. If you’re up by 4 points against the hottest team in the league with 45 seconds left to go in the game, you eat clock and go inside. You jack up an unnecessary 3 ball while the rest of your teammates are in position and that negates anything good you’ve done up until that point.
Mike James needs to realize that he’s not the star of the team. Great teams are built by assembling pieces that work together, not by stacking up on scorers. Everyone has a functioning role to drive a larger engine and you can’t just take it into your hands and abandon your primary duties to the team.
There’s no doubt in my mind we could have, and deserved to win this game. But I have to give Vince Carter credit for capitalizing on a poor decision by Mike James and sticking it to the Raptors. No matter how fashionable it is to be a VC detractor these days, he’s getting the job done. Plain and simple.
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January 9th, 2006 at 11:55 am
I’m with you on this one. Brutal. Mike James should have done one of his patented out of control drives to the basket as he surely would have received a foul call. Bad decision making and that’s why the ball should have truly gone down in the post to Bosh. So as much as I hate getting on Sam, as a coach you HAVE to make it clear that there is no need for a three, that you need to get it inside. It should be so clear that you shouldn’t even have to say it. Sam, you’re to blame too.
On another note, Calderon HAS to make that free throw. When it comes down to the crunch, you have to make your free throws. Those are what decide games.
Let’s not forget that MoPete was ejected on probably the most ridiculous ejection I’ve ever seen. Vince even says he’s going to pay MoPete’s fine. I can guarantee you there’s no way Vince nails that shooting over MoPete. Mo’s defence is his strongest point and how many times have we seen him make a big defensive play at the end of a game?
Final note: Let’s give Vince his props. Star players make star plays and THAT “my friends” (to quote Calderon) was a star play. That’s what you pay him the big bucks for, especially when Jefferson goes down with an injury.
Better keep their eyes open for the Baby Bulls…