Chapter 6: Carter Comes Home
In the 2006-2007 season, the general manager of the Raptors, Crangillo, came to the position, and he ran a number of trades and signings from the beginning, and last year's poor record earned them the 2006 No. 1 pick, so the Raptors used this signing to select center Andrea Bagnani from Italy.
Bagnani is 213 cm tall, he is a typical European style center, playing style after a weakened version of Dirk Nowitzki, his defense is relatively poor, although thanks to very good physical talent, he can often send blocks on the defensive end, but his body is too thin to stand on the inside. Although Bagnani is the top pick, he still has to start off the bench under Mitchell, averaging 11.6 points and 3.9 rebounds per game this season, and his performance is still far from the top title.
This year, the Raptors' second-round pick was PJ-Tucker, the fifth pick in the second round, Tucker actually has a good defense and fixed-point three-point ability, but his rookie season did not play his own characteristics, only playing an average of 5 minutes per game, the standard water cooler administrator, was cut after the end of the season, and then Tucker wandered overseas, and five years later accepted the Suns' contract to return to the NBA, and became the Suns' thunderous starter, Tucker's annual salary this season is $5.5 million, Averaging 8.0 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.3 steals per game in the Suns, plus good defensive ability, this contract seems very cheap.
Mike James, the team's starting point guard this season, switched to the Timberwolves after playing his worth, the Raptors traded TJ Ford from the Bucks, and the person who sent away was Villanueva who later grabbed the position with Yi Di, TJ Ford was the No. 8 rookie in 2003, and the high quality of the draft that year Needless to say, TJ Ford was able to enter the lottery area in this year, which naturally has excellent skills, Ford is known as "the fastest player in the NBA", and his best trick is to dribble directly from the backcourt into the frontcourt, fast as a gust of wind, Even Iverson admits that he is faster than himself, the breakthrough of the positional battle is very lethal, Ford had a game in his rookie season to beat Iverson, after the game Iverson personally admitted that Ford is the only time in his career that he was defeated by speed, although Ford is good, but he has a serious injury history, 2004-2005 because of a serious spinal cord injury throughout the season reimbursement, so the Raptors introduced Ford is definitely a gamble, fortunately, Ford has performed well this season, Played in 75 games, averaging a team-high 14 points and a team-high 7.9 assists per game.
In terms of free agency, the Raptors signed Anthony Parker back from Europe on a three-year, $13 million contract, Parker was a rookie in 1997 and went to Europe to pan for gold after playing with the 76ers and the Magic for three years. The last time he played in the NBA, he averaged only 3.6 points per game, but this season in the Raptors, he has become an indispensable part of the Raptors' starters, and the delicate style of play that he has developed in Europe has made Parker very versatile, and he can average 12.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.1 steals per game this season.
Anthony Parker is not the only gain of the Raptors in free agency, Crongilo also signed defensive center Rasu Nesterovic with a 2-year $15 million value, this brother is Slovenian, plays more rigidly, belongs to the defensive coolie center, as the team's starting center in the new season averaged 6.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game, considering that he only played 20 minutes, such a performance is acceptable.
Team boss Bosh signed a four-year contract worth $65 million with the team in the 2006 offseason, which was the first big contract Bosh obtained, and Bosh donated $1 million to Toronto's charity on the spot at the press conference, which shows that the rough-looking Dragon King is actually very kind in his heart, and this season Bosh has officially become the captain of the team. He averaged 22.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game, and since the beginning of this season, Bosh has tried three-point shooting, and he has shot a total of 35 three-pointers throughout the season, hitting 12 of them, Bosh was selected as an All-Star as a starter for the first time in his career in the 2006 Houston All-Star Game, and the Raptors have won an excellent record of 47-35 all season under the leadership of Bosh! For the first time in team history, they won the title of Atlantic Division! Sam Mitchell was named the league's best head coach and Bosh was named to the NBA's All-NBA Second Team!
This world is really a coincidence, the Raptors' first-round opponent New Jersey Nets, one of them is the former leader of the Raptors, he is Vince Carter, Carter was criticized by the Raptors for a series of inaction in the late stage of the Raptors, so every time Carter goes to Toronto to play away, or every time he "goes home", what awaits him is not applause and flowers, but endless boos and abuse, the Raptors and the Nets have little to do, but it is because of Carter's existence, The Nets became the first sworn enemy of the Raptors since the establishment of the team!
At that time, the Nets were not the only Carter who supported the façade, but also Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson, the three of them were called the Nets trident, with fierce offensive firepower, and they were the small giants of the Eastern Division, in addition to these three, there were also Yao Ming's best friend Persian Jane Nakba, solid interior center Mickey Moore, and Jason Collins, an active professional player who later became the first person in North American sports history to announce his gay identity.
The first game between the two sides officially started on April 21, 2007, in all fairness, the two teams were evenly matched, the Nets had a trident but the bench strength was lacking, the Raptors had Bosh to provoke the starter, the ability to substitute was much stronger than the Nets, the first quarter of the game, Jefferson took the lead, he scored 11 points on 5 of 6 shots in the first quarter, and TJ Ford scored 14 points on 5 of 8 shots in a single quarter, and in the second quarter Jefferson and Carter set off an 11:0 attack wave, and the Raptors fell behind by 10 points at 41:51 at halftime!
In the third quarter of the game, Jefferson scored another 10 points to lead the Nets to a 27-24 lead over the Raptors in a single quarter, and in the last quarter, the Raptors launched a counterattack, Bosh scored 10 points in the last quarter, seeing that the turnaround was in sight, Carter stood up, he hit consecutive free throws, and in the last minute and a half, Carter hit a shot with a big heart and completely killed the Raptors!
Jefferson scored 28 points in the whole game, Kidd scored 8 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists in a quasi-triple-double Nakba off the bench scored 16 points, Carter had a poor performance in the first three quarters, but became a savior in the fourth quarter, he scored 16 points on 5-of-19 shooting from the field, Bosh scored 22 points and 5 rebounds on the Raptors' side, TJ Ford scored 21 points, Anthony Parker scored 16 points and 9 rebounds, Calderon scored 13 points and handed out 8 assists, but it still did not help the team to achieve the final victory.
The second game was a remake of the previous game, the first three quarters of the game, the Raptors trailed the Nets 58-63, but in the final quarter Anthony Parker and Chris Bosh stepped up, they combined to score 20 points, TJ Ford in the final minute of the four free throws was also very important, and finally the Raptors defeated the Nets 89-83 at home, Carter played very hard, 24-of-24 shooting with 19 points and 11 rebounds, Nakba scored 17 points, Kidd scored 14 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assistsJefferson, who played well in the last game, entered a state of gas in this game, scoring only 13 points on 4-of-16 shooting, Anthony Parker of the Raptors scored a game-high 26 points, Bosh scored 25 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, and Ford scored only 13 points in the game.
The third game was moved to the home court of the Nets, and Carter swept away the slump of the first two games after returning to the home court, scoring 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the first quarter, leading the Nets to a 31:196 lead over the Raptors, Calderon also scored 10 points in the second quarter "rarely", but Carter scored 8 points on 3 shots and 3 tough to confront it, and in the third quarter, Ford scored 14 points on 6-of-10 shots in a single quarter in a vain attempt to counterattack, but it was Carter who stood up at this moment, he scored 7 points in the third quarter and 9 points in the fourth quarter, Carter's performance in normal games was impeccable, when the Raptors set off a counterattack, it was always Carter who was the first to stand up and suppress the Raptors, and in the end he scored a full 37 points on 15-of-23 shooting, Jefferson scored 18 points, and Kidd scored a triple-double, 16 points, 16 rebounds and 19 assists! The Raptors were sluggish as a team, TJ Ford scored 27 points on 11-of-22 shooting, and everyone else was below average, and the Raptors lost to the Nets 89-102.
The fourth game is completely a copy of the third game, the Raptors lost to the Nets again 81:102, the big score of 1:3 was in a very disadvantageous situation, Bagnani scored a team-high 16 points, Bosh and Ford both scored only 13 points, no one else scored a double-double, and the Nets, Carter played a good performance again, 27 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, Jefferson scored 23 points, Kidd scored 17 points, 13 assists and 8 rebounds.
The fifth game between the two sides is the most anxious game between the two teams, in the first quarter, the Raptors who have stood on the edge of the cliff are full of firepower, Anthony Parker and Bagnani combined to score 24 points, leading the Raptors to establish a huge advantage of up to 20 points in the first quarter with 33:13, the two teams fought evenly in the second quarter, Carter scored 11 points in a single quarter in the third quarter and led the Nets to recover a 5-point difference, and after the first three quarters, the Raptors led the Nets by 12 points at 79:67!
As soon as the fourth quarter came up, Nakba took the lead in hitting two free throws, and Kidd broke through the layup to score 2 points, and at this moment, Calderon hit three consecutive shots, and the Nets, who had three consecutive mid-range shots, called a timeout, at which time the Raptors led the Nets by as many as 14 points at 85:71!
The Nets' timeout worked, the timeout came back, Kidd hit a three-pointer, Carter hit a three-pointer, Jefferson stole Calderon's fast break, Carter's breakthrough was blocked by Bosh, but he grabbed the rebound in the frontcourt and scored the ball hard, the Nets played a wave of 10:0 scoring in two minutes, and the Raptors were stunned almost instantly, 85:81 only led the Nets by 4 points, at this time there were 6 full minutes left before the game, and it was not yet known who would die!
The Raptors' Bosh began to exert his strength, he grabbed two rebounds in a row in the front court and finally caused Jason Collins' foul, two free throws, Jefferson hit a shot, and the difference was still five points, at this time Morris Peterson stepped up, he hit the Nets inside the line in a row to win free throws, all four free throws, and the Nets were Kidd himself, hit three points, Anthony Parker broke through, the second breakthrough caused free throws and all free throws, Bosh also blocked Carter's layup, and the Nets selected a fatal scoring drought, In the last minute, the Raptors led the Nets by 6 points at 95:89, and at the moment of the fight, Jefferson shot 2 points, and the Raptors led by only 4 points at 95:91. The Raptors' advantage was only 1 point in an instant, and there were only 27 seconds left!
Then the Nets used foul tactics, Bosh hit two free throws, Carter missed, but Moore hit a basket, the difference was still 1 point, and Rabosh made one of two free throws, but Nakba missed three points, the Nets' lore failed, and the Raptors narrowly won!
The game was thrilling for both sides, the Raptors' lead reached 20 points at most, but they were still chased by the Nets to only 1 point, Carter scored 30 points on 10-of-22 shooting in this game, Jefferson scored 23 points, Kidd 11 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds, and the Raptors were all soldiers, with five players scoring double-doubles, Calderon on the bench scored a team-high 25 points on 12-of-20 shooting, Anthony Parker and Banyani both scored 18 points, Bosh didn't play well, Only 11 points and 8 rebounds.
The Raptors chased the big score to 2:3.
TJ Ford was injured in the first 7 minutes of the last game, and could only be treated off the court, Calderon was promoted to the starter in this game, which has also become an important move to change this round of the series, Calderon got a team-high 25 points and 8 assists in the last game, helping the Raptors narrowly beat the Nets, this game, Calderon once again had a good performance, 14 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals and 1 turnover, everything looked perfect, but, it was because of Calderon's only one mistake in the whole game, Bury the Raptors' efforts all season!
In the first quarter of the game, the two teams tied 21, and in the second quarter of the game, TJ Ford, who was injured and left the court in the last game, staged the return of the king, and scored 13 points on 6 of 7 shots in a single quarter to lead the Raptors 25:22 lead the Nets, who would have thought that the situation changed suddenly in the third quarter, Bagnani scored 10 points in a single quarter to help the Raptors score 22 points in a single quarter, but the Nets played a multi-point offensive and scored 32 points in a single quarter! In the fourth quarter of the game, Bosh rode the savior alone, scoring 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting in a single quarter, including a key shot he hit 48 seconds before the end of the game, and it was these two points that allowed the Raptors to surpass the Nets by one point at 97:96, and then, the Nets called a timeout, arranged tactics, and came back from a timeout, Jefferson burst into the basket and sent the ball to the basket under the encirclement of Bosh and Anthony Parker! The Raptors trailed by one point, but there were 8.3 seconds left in the game, and the Raptors had a chance to complete the kill, but all this was buried by Calderon's mistake, he was such a solid guard, and cooperated in the outside pass, that is, he was stealed by Jefferson when feeding Bosh, which eventually led to the Raptors losing to the Nets 97-98 and being eliminated by the Nets with a big score of 2-4.
Although they were out of the first round, the Raptors saw the hope of revival, and they continued to look for good helpers for Bosh, and the Raptors at this time were walking on the broad road of idealism!