Newsflash
Vince Carter woke up again. You know it must be something big to get Carter motivated and Nets fans might have Orlando Magic GM Otis Smith to thank who called Vince Carter “Fools Gold”. Or it might have nothing to do with the comment and Vince just realized that the Nets are fading fast from the Raptors and out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Whatever it was, he has woken up and is playing some of his best basketball in years averaging 37.3 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists last week including two 40-point games.
Now I thought that was a great comment and not a bad analogy when describing Vince. After all he has so much talent but he just doesn’t bring it every night. I love Nets’ fans that keep defending Carter pointing to his stats this season and the stats do look nice, no doubt (25.5 ppg, 4.5 apg and 6 rpg). Those stats are the problem. Vince can do all that effortlessly. He can do that by standing around and not touching the ball for a few minutes and then taking some 35 foot threes and a few closer jumpers. If Vince wants to be more than that he has to keep doing that every night like he did against Charlotte or New York. You know Vince is bringing it when you look at how many times he gets to the free throw line. In the last 4 games he is averaging 10 shots from the line a game. This means he is attacking the basket, which he does best and becomes virtually unstoppable. There are a lot of games this year when he gets to the line 2-4 times and a bunch when he doesn’t get to the line at all. That isn’t going to cut it when he could easily get to the line 12-14 times a game.
If there is a Nets game on and you can watch it, you really should because watching Vince when he is on is what makes basketball so great. Now do it soon because it just might not last too long.
Shaq is back
and healthy but now it is Wade who is injured. Am I the only one that finds the rest of the Miami Heat season so intriguing? A lot of writers feel that Wade will skip surgery in hopes of coming back for the playoffs but there is one big question. Are the Heat good enough to make the playoffs? If the playoff started today they wouldn't be in it and making it depends solely on how good Shaq can be, This is what intrigues me so much. There are so many questions surrounding Shaq like can he stay healthy? How much does he have left in the tank? Can he bring it every night? Does he still have any 30 points 18 board games left in him. So far it has been hard to tell with some good, bad and ugly games (The ugly being the 3 rebound performance against the Knicks the other night). We are starting to watch one of the biggest challenges in Shaq's career as this might be the worst group of players minus Wade he has played with in years, making the final tow months so damn interesting.
