"He's been doing that his whole career, but I've never seen it firsthand," Harris said. "I was out there watching it just like everybody else."

Harris' performance came despite feeling a little pukey from his pre-game grilled cheese sandwich. Word on the street is that he left the game, threw up, and came back. All in attendance were glad he did it in that order.

• In other OT news, Dwight Howard had a double-double in Orlando's 100-98 win over Indiana. Howard finished with 24 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks. Unfortunately if your name is Dwight Howard, nobody is impressed. Especially teammate Jameer Nelson.

"It's not a shock to us when he has games like that anymore,'' Nelson said. "He's done it so many times in his career so far, we expect numbers like that from him. He's our guy and we expect him to do great things for us.''

Geez. Tough crowd.

• Elton Brand hit a 15 footer with less than a minute to go to give the 76ers the 89-88 win over the Clippers. This was Brand's first game against the team he jilted with no explanation after last season for an $80 million contract with Philadelphia. LA coach Mike Dunleavy is still playing the woman scorned.

"If he called me up and said, 'Coach, I know I told you I was coming back, but I think a situation came up that's better for my family, I'm going to move on,' then, hey, sorry to hear it, but I wish you the best and good luck," Dunleavy said before the game.

Yeah, right.

• I happened to be in attendance for the Wizards inspiring 103-91 loss to the Rockets. Washington held a number of leads as high as 12 points and managed to blow them all. The high point of the game was the unveiling of Gilbert Arenas' wax statue, a reminder to the fans who may have forgotten what Gilbert looks like in uniform.

• The Knicks took on the Bucks with a limited roster thanks to yesterday's trading frenzy so Stephon Marbury finally got his chance to play. He said no.

• Welcome to hell, Shawn. Dwyane Wade welcomed Shawn Marion to his own personal version of eternal torment yesterday, and I hate to ruin the surprise for you, but it ended in a 104-94 loss to the Lakers - the Heat's 22nd defeat in the last 23 games. The Black Mamba scored 33 for the Lakers, including a pair of freethrows with 36 seconds left that inspired the Miami crowd - all 42 of them - to chant "M-V-P." And we thought Wade couldn't possibly feel any worse. That had to be like coming home from work to find your kids chanting "Go dad go!" while the mailman bangs your wife in some kinky position she totally wouldn't try with you. Pookie had 19 points, 9 assists, and 9 turnovers, and The Matrix did his usual "little bit of everything" with 15 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocked shots. Methinks Mr. Marion better get used to doing a lot and losing.

• Uhm, they're just waiting for the playoffs, right? The Celtics' starting lineup against the Spurs featured both Leon Powe and Brian Scalabrine. Boston also asked Glen "Big Baby" Davis to guard Tim Duncan for most of the game. And did I mention KG is still out, probably until after the All-Star break? (Here's hoping you didn't pre-order Garnett's All-Star jersey.) None of that mattered as the C's knocked off the defending champs 98-90 and improved to 16-0 against the "vastly superior" Western Conference. Paul Pierce told the truth with 35 points, Ray Allen chipped in 19, and Rajon "The Weak Link" Rondo led Boston in rebounds (11) and assists (12). Tim Duncan had 22 points, 14 rebounds, and 6 assists for San Antonio.

• Bob Barker would be proud. The Detroit Pistons did their part to help control the pet population by neutering the Charlotte Bobcats with a 113-87 win. Tayshaun "The Fresh" Prince scored 21 points for the Pistons, who have now won eight games in a row. Meanwhile, Jason Richardson scored 27 for the Bobcats, who have lost six in a row.

• Sometimes it sucks to be King. Carmelo Anthony scored 27 points, Allen Iverson dished 13 assists, Marcus Camby grabbed 17 rebounds, and the Denver Nuggets built a 37-point lead before settling for a 113-83 win over the Cavaliers in Cleveland. Lebron James scored a team-high 30 points for the Cavs, but he also threw a royal hissy fit after his team ended the third quarter down by 26. Bron Bron stomped off the court, plopped down at the end of the Cav's bench, and didn't take part in coach Mike Brown's huddle before the start of the fourth. Not exactly an MVP-like display. Maybe there was a mess in his diaper, maybe he just needed to be burped, we don't know. After LBJ's temper tantrum, Damon Jones released his inner Stephan A. Smith and started yelling at James and the rest of the Cavaliers about their lousy performance. Strangely enough, harsh words from a 6 PPG roleplayer inspired exactly no one.

• Look! It's moving! It's alive...it's alive...IT'S ALIVE!! We may never know what kind of unspeakable crimes against nature Sam Mitchell commited to bring Andrea Bargnani's game back to life - I'm guessing unicorn blood and virgins were involved - but Il Mago has reached double figures in seven of his last eight games, including last night's 16-point performance in a 105-82 blowout of the Timberwolves. The fighting dinos also got 15 points and 10 assists out of "No Way" Jose Calderon, and CBTV's Blane Harrington added 14 points and 9 rebounds. Big Al Jefferson led Minnesota in the losing cause with 18 points and 9 rebounds. After the game, a confused Randy Witmann said, "I didn't see this [blowout] coming." Maybe he's just repressing, but Witmann does know he coaches the T-Wolves, right?

• The Amare Stoudemire Project. Shortly after the Shaq-to-Phoenix trade was complete, The Big Brother identified Stoudemire as his "special project," and Suns GM Steve Kerr said, "Amare respects [Shaq] so much and needs him physically." Needs him...physically? [/shudders] Well, you know what they say: Once you go Shaq, you never go back. Anyway, with his, uh, physical needs finally met, Stat showed off his new sense of personal fulfillment with 31 points, 13 rebounds, 4 blocked shots, and a pair of game-clinching freethrows with 7.5 seconds left. Suns beat Wizards, 108-107. Antawn Jamison paced the losers with 28 points, 10 boards, and a secret wish that Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler were around to meet his physical needs.

Carter is expected to receive big free agent money this offseason, but we really can't imagine why. It would be difficult to find a team better suited to his "talents" than the Nets — he's got Jason Kidd, for crying out loud — and not only has he been unable to raise his team, he arguably makes it worse. Not that it necessarily required the playoffs to expose Carter as the black hole that he is ... but we're certainly all getting a firm reminder.

Are They Still Playing? [Senn On Sports]

The Raptors-Nets series tips off tomorrow, and everyone's talking about the supposed "revenge" factor involving Vince Carter and his former team. We find this amusing that this is the big angle from the series, considering this has to be the first time media folk have cared about Raptors fans.

But we do! We asked Neate Sager of the Out Of Left Field blog — and happy Canadian! — to explain to us exactly why Vince is hated so much, why they can't wait to play him in the playoffs and, generally, just rant, because ranting without inhibition is another of the great, unique aspects of this whole business. One thing is clear, though: Carter hasn't changed a bit.

So, after the jump, take it away, Neate, you crazy Canadian you.

(UPDATE: By the way, as you'd suspect, J.E. Skeets has something to say about this as well.)

———————————————

What chaps our collective Canadian ass about Vin Weasel first and foremost is the whole myth we needed him to teach us about the NBA.

To this day, you hear stuff along the lines of how Vince Carter "literally kept a franchise viable when it wasn't that clear basketball would catch on in Canada," as one Jersey columnist, Dave D'Alessandro, from the Newark Star-Ledger put it the other day.

Well, believe it or not, even hick Canucks who grew up outside of villages of 1,100 people were able to watch those Lakers-Celtics games on CBS in 1980s and those games weren't always aired against a Stanley Cup playoff game or reruns of Bizarre. We knew about the NBA before the Raptors, let alone before Vin Weasel's arrival in 1999. Regardless, we've always had to deal with condescension ever since the '95 NBA Draft in Toronto when some morons from the league in their Manhattan wisdom set up a booth where league staffers explained traveling and double-dribbing. People scoffed, politely; it was Canada, after all.

Vin Weasel, who rode a wave of false hope and blind hype, is the straw man for all that. So since Wednesday night, when his New Jersey Nets locked up a first-round series vs. the rebuilt Raptors, it's been Christmas in April. It's hard to drift off to sleep while imagining how bad 19,800 people are going to give it to Wince once Game 1 tips off tomorrow afternoon.

The Nets aren't even going to stay in Toronto between the first two games. Seriously, when have you ever heard of a team basing it travel plans around how much one player is detested in the opposing city?

What's also grating is that Carter, even when he's having some killer games that make the Nets a very dangerous 41-win team, can still be the same ball-less wonder he's always been. This week has been Toronto circa 2004, with Vin Weasel saying something without saying something. Predictably - pathetically — you keep reading these quotes from teammates - Jason Kidd, Mikki Moore, Antoine Wright — about how bad Carter wanted this series, but when asked about it, he spits up a bunch of pabulum such as, "Now it's the second season. It should be fun."

That's classic Carter - telling his teammates what to say while acting like it's all good. That speaks to why he'll forever be the greedhead whose ego pulled down a whole franchise, for a time, anyway. Sure, it was understandable that a NBA star would have wanted out of the situation the Raptors were in around 2004 B.C. (Before Colangelo), but Wince could never just nut up and say it.

Naturally, only Carter could be so clueless and P.R.-challenged that he let his pout-a-thon occur at same time that every sports fan in the city was already PO'd about the NHL lockout. There was nothing else going on except Raptors basketball in the fall of 2004, so it became a major flashpoint.

Well, in Year 1 of the Great Raptor Redesign, Bryan Colangelo's bunch has homecourt advantage for the first time in franchise history with a team led by an inside scorer (Chris Bosh) and a point guard (T.J. Ford) in their first year together, who are 22 and 23, respectively. Throw in a supporting cast which represents more athletic backgrounds than some NHL teams — José Calderón, Rasho Nesterovic, Andrea Bargnani and Anthony Parker, formerly of Maccabi Tel Aviv — and lovably batshit coach Sam Mitchell, and the Raptors are an easy team to love.

The short synopsis for the series is there's probably no way it won't go the full seven games. Bosh's all-around game in the low post, Parker's emergence as the second scorer and Calderón pushing the ball when both teams have their second units on the floor are going to be enough to put the Raptors over the top.

So yeah, Carter vs. Canada is too good to miss. After what he did to the franchise and the way he dissed the city, this has become the biggest post-season series involving a Toronto team since the Doug Gilmour/Wendel Clark Leafs battled Wayne Gretzky's L.A. Kings in the '93 Stanley Cup semifinal series. All those Battles of Ontario against the Ottawa Senators combined don't matter as much as the prospect to see Vince Carter slink off the floor after the Raptors win the series.

If that happens, it's easy to picture Vin Weasel letting a smirk slip through as he wonders what franchise he's going to wreck next if he becomes a free agent this summer. As my co-blogger Neil Acharya once put it, screw him and the crutches he pretended to walk in on.

"I'm thrilled," Carter said. "It's always a great feeling to be selected as an All-Star and as a starter, so I'm happy."

Huh? Vince, you didn't make it.

"Hey, whatever," said Carter, who's been selected to start six times and has made the team seven times. "It's still an honor to be involved with it."

It's obvious just how much of a "great feeling" it is for Carter to be selected as a starter for the All-Star Game when he goes into his bored spiel even when he didn't make it. Seriously, he's thrilled.

Sorry Vince [New York Daily News]

But Carter's a free agent this year, and get this: He's considering coming back.

"Vince has talked to his agent about the idea," one of Carter's closest friends tells me. "He wonders if he could patch things up with the Raptors. He even wants the idea floated to the Raptors privately.

"Listen, you have to understand that Vince was unhappy with the old management, but he respects (new general manager) Bryan Colangelo and he's always loved Toronto and its fans." And there's no doubt, the friend said, that Carter will exercise his option with the Nets to become a free agent after this season. "Vince owns a mansion in Orlando, so he's thinking about the Magic," the friend said. "But Toronto appeals to him, too."

In other news, J.D. Drew, Scott Rolen and Terrell Owens are all heading to Philadelphia. Should be fun.

Vince And Toronto, Together Again? [The Rim Job]

Personally, we're hardly convinced that's actually Carter; if it were him, he would keel over and grab his hamstring halfway through the dance, when it became clear the dance isn't going to end the way he wanted. But it's funny to think that it might be Vince. Funny enough that it's worth posting, we think.

(Heads up to YAYSports! for getting this up just before we did. We're still a little slow on the trigger.)

(By the way, the clip is from this movie, which does actually have Vince's name in the credits.)

• Chris Mortenson is reporting that after meeting with his mother and his pastor, Vince Young is going to declare for the NFL draft. I think the pastor will be expecting the collection plates to get a little heavier in the near future.

• #7 Michigan State 63, #24 Wisconsin 82. Wisconsin administers a beating at the Kohl Center. Home court advantage appears to be everything in the Big 10. Impressive win for Wisconsin, who has lost only to Wake Forest and the very impressive and very good Pitt Panthers.