Aurelino

As Hubie Brown noted, it was a beautiful play designed by Frank. The inbounding guy (Nachbar) faked a pass to VC as he was coming off a curl to the left side. He then passed it to Kidd who was in the middle with Calederon on him. As soon as Kidd caught the ball, Mikki set a great backscreen for RJ making Anthony Parker completely lose his man (RJ). As soon as RJ freed himself, Mikki cut right to the basket to the weak-side. On the strong side, Bosh had to come over to help since Parker was late in recovering. That left Mikki WIDE open for a dunk/layup on the weak-side so that could have been an option as well. RJ decided to go at Bosh instead with the intention of using the mismatch to score or at least draw a foul. Even if RJ had missed and there was no foul call, Mikki was in a great position to grab the offensive board for the putback since Parker was trying to change RJ's shot from behind, and both him and Bosh were committed to challenging RJ's shot near the basket.

Great play with three options that could have worked. Three options without VC even being in the mix. It was a tough decision to go away from VC but it worked really well. Kudos to Frank, RJ and Mikki in particular.

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Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

DoctorJay

Interesting note about that play:


"That was the first time in the whole series he scored going left," one of the Toronto assistants told me outside the Toronto locker room.

Even Jefferson himself didn't quite believe he finished with his left hand, asking a TV cameraman in the locker room afterward to play back a shot of his game-deciding bucket with 8.3 seconds left so he could see for himself.

"Well, it's not that I have no left, but I am dominant right," Jefferson explained. "Honestly what's happened is this is the ankle I had surgery on [pointing to his right ankle] and this is the wrist I had surgery on [pointing to his left wrist] in the last two years, so jumping off this leg and finishing with this hand is something that I've probably gotten away from."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime

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"If we stay free of injuries, we'll be in contention to be a healthy team" Chris Morris,'93

Treeman

Well, that Toronto assistant was wrong. Sometime in the second half jumped off his right leg and DUNKED with his left hand. Then, RJ was like staring at his left hand like, "Wow, it's amazing what this hand can do."

DoctorJay

The Toronto assistant didn't say it was the first time RJ used his left hand.

He said it was the first time RJ scored in the series GOING left. RJ usually (and predictably) drives to his right, as he started to do on the play in question as well. But he finished the play by spinning to his left AND finishing with his left.

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"If we stay free of injuries, we'll be in contention to be a healthy team" Chris Morris,'93