How Did Vince Carter Get His 48 Points?

It’s been a trying season for Vince Carter, so to say last night’s 48-point performance against the Hornets came out of nowhere would be an understatement. There were already whispers that the Magic made a mistake trading for Carter rather than retaining Hedo Turkoglu, and they only grew louder after Carter’s horrendous January performance, which saw him shoot just 28 percent from the field and 22 percent from three-point range. Yesterday’s 48-point game won’t erase those doubts entirely, but it will go a long way toward altering the perception of Carter.

For Magic fans, the operative question is how to get Carter to do this more consistently. Carter surely won’t score 48 points every night, but the Magic need him playing well if they want to repeat or exceed their trip to the NBA Finals. What did he do last night that was different, aside from making more shots? SB Nation’s Magic blog Orlando Pinstriped Post pondered this question in their post-game recap yesterday:

The obvious question is, “how did he do it?” For starters, he attacked the basket more aggressively and decisively than he had all year. With Hornets center Emeka Okafor, a defensive ace, saddled with foul trouble—another Howard contribution—New Orleans had no credible shot-blocking presence to deter Carter. He saw the advantage and drove at the likes of Sean Marks, Aaron Gray, and Darius Songaila with impunity. More importantly, the layups dropped. It seems easy to say, sure, but Carter’s made less than half of his shots at the rim this season. Tonight, no misses at the basket that I can remember. Scoring at will.

He also exploited Morris Peterson in the post. The Magic don’t have Carter post-up much, so it was a surprise to see them continually call his number on the left block. He just muscled his way past Peterson or, less frequently, Collison, for a layup, like it was nothing.

But with 6 treys in 10 attempts, it’s also apparent that he did his fair share of bombing away as well. In the early going, Jameer Nelson’s dribble penetration set him up. But as the game wore on, and with Orlando needing buckets on just about every possession, coach Stan Van Gundy put the ball in Carter’s hands and let him run the show. Carter got his own shot off the dribble essentially at will, no matter who the Hornets threw at him. James Posey and Peterson proved to be no match. But it’s also important to note that Carter, to my eyes, took more balanced shots tonight. He launched the occasional leaning or fading heat-check, but for the most part, he shot straight-up, with picture-perfect balance.