ICYMI: Vince Carter With the Buzzer Beater for Dallas

Yes, Vince Carter is still in the NBA. And playing significant minutes for the Dallas Mavericks.

The 37-year old Carter, once a Top-10 player in the league, still played a big role for Dallas as a 6th man. And likely he's not made a bigger play than the one he made Saturday night.

Carter drilled a 3-pointer from the left corner at the buzzer, giving Dallas a 109-108 win over the San Antonio Spurs in game 3 of their best-of-7 series. The Mavs now lead that series 2-1.

The shot, which came on a play that began with only 1.7 seconds left on the clock was a counter to the Spurs Manu Ginobili who drilled a runner giving the Spurs a 108-106 lead.

And then Carter performed his magic--

Your highlight, with musical accompaniment from NBA.com:

ICYMI: Spurs Sit Big 3, Win Anyway...

((HT: NBA on TNT))

The last time this happened, the Spurs sat practically everyone at Miami, sent Duncan, Ginobili, Parker, and Green and only lost by five. That didn't sit well with the Commish who fined the team a quarter of a million bucks...

It was a marquee match-up and he wanted the stars on the floor, gosh darned it...

It kinda happened again last night when the Spurs took on Golden State...

Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili sat and it took a Tiago Splitter bucket with less than three seconds left for the Spurs to win 104-102


Apparently, it was the first time that three Australians started in an NBA game with Andrew Bogut, Aron Baynes, and Patty Mills... but the Warriors are more concerned about letting one slip away that they should have won in the first place...

But it will be interesting to see if the Commish's office will do anything this time...

Popovich Looking Out For His Team, NBA Mad... (UPDATE: Spurs Fined $250k)

((HT: WOAI-TV))

Everyone, including the Commissioner of the NBA David Stern, seems to be getting bent out of shape about the idea of San Antonio Spurs head coach looking out for his team come June...

Except here at the HQ...

We were listening to the very sly, sports talk radio network late last night when their overnight host was throwing "bricks" at the Spurs for not being there for the fans...

Which we thought was absolutely ludicrous...

And if the late night host actually believed that, then he's there for entertainment purposes only and has no journalistic integrity whatsoever...

This host was throwing his bricks at the Spurs telling them that if any of their fans thought that holding out four starters and sending them home early- for a game that was far more important this weekend- actually approved of the move, then they're not "real fans."

Which is a laughable argument...

As coach and GM, Popovich was looking out for his veteran squad come the playoffs against Western Conference opponents- which Miami is not...

The league is promising hell to pay... which we'd like to see, personally... since it's the league's fault for scheduling this mess in the first place...

Here's Barkley's interview with Coach Pop about his decision...
((HT: NBA on TNT))


Let's see...

Which would you choose...??? Getting ready for Memphis in a game that matters in a seven game-10 day stretch, or sitting stars for a TV game against Miami...???

Thought so...

The league should fine the schedule maker and not the Spurs...

SATURDAY UPDATE: But, they didn't...

The league fined the Spurs $250,000...

NBA Commissioner David Stern came out with a statement: "The result here is dictated by the totality of the facts in this case. The Spurs decided to make four of their top players unavailable for an early-season game that was the team's only regular-season visit to Miami. The team also did this without informing the Heat, the media, or the league office in a timely way. Under these circumstances, I have concluded that the Spurs did a disservice to the league and our fans."

San Antonio folks and fans are understandably disagreeing...
((HT: WOAI-TV))