Vince Carter Passes Up Big Shot, Hands are Wrung

The biggest storyline seeping out of Toronto's close victory against the Nets last night should be Jose Calderon's sparkling performance or Andrea Bargnani's first postseason "I'M HERE" statement. But nope, it's Vince. Always Vince.

Hoops columnist Ian O'Connor of the Bergen Record takes Carter to task for... passing the ball to an open Boki Nachbar for a potential gamewinning three in the waning seconds of the game, instead of a taking a runner in the lane for the tie and overtime.

O'Connor cites Nachbar's less than optimal output to that point (he was 0-6 from three). I'll cite something else: Nachbar shot .423 from three this year. Vince shot about .500 from close range this year. You have a 42 percent to end the series, or a 50 percent to head to overtime where you'd guess your team would have a 50 percent chance to win, which comes out to a 25 percent chance to end the series. 42 > 25.

Of course, math doesn't figure in when you're driving the lane. I tend to defer to the basketball smarts of a pretty damn good player instead of a second-guessing columnist. When the numbers back the player up, it's game set match.

Carter said in post-game comments he'd make the same play again. That's right choice. He may be a star, but stars don't win. Teams do.