At the beginning of the 4th quarter of last night’s All Star game… LeBron James seemed like a pretty good choice for MVP. But then Ray Allen borrowed Dwight Howard’s Superman cape…. and scored half his points in 3 minute span. At that time… the East’s lead had dwindled… and Ray’s heroics saved the game.
Bam! That’s an MVP, right? Not, as TrueHoop points out, if the voting starts before Ray the Assassin started firing from long range…
Several TrueHoop readers have pointed out that fan voting for the All-Star Game MVP started at the beginning of the fourth quarter — before most of Ray Allen’s heroics. If the voting had started after the game, might the fourth quarter king, and high-scorer of the game, have won the top honor? Maybe.
Now… the headline of this post does involve some hyperbole… as I fully understand that the All Star game MVP is a meaningless award… and LeBron’s overall game certainly was worthy of the award. But… since we are a Celtics website… I figured we could put blatant homerism into overdrive today.
The fact is … despite Allen’s shooting … it was Lebron’s spectacular dunk, through traffic in the lane, that ultimately tipped the balance for the East.
No doubt, Ray Ray would’ve also been a solid MVP choice … but, in the end, so was LBJ.
khandor
Regardless of getting the MVP, can Ray Allen please start shooting like that in real games.
That dunk was ridiculous. I mean it was sick. Terminally ill.
The only real argument I have is that the voting starts so early.
As for Ray shooting like that in a game… he has. Its just that he’s had just as many games where he’s 4-14.
I was very happy to see how happy Pierce seemed to be for Ray. The thing I’ve worried about as far as the big 3 goes is the dynamic between Pierce and Allen, I’ve been worried that one of them would be sullied by the success of the other considering they are somewhat similar players(although Pierce has a much more versatile skillset.) I also thought Doc did a perfect job of handing out minutes to both his guys, I remember how bull Pierce and Antoine were when they didnt play much in the year that Isiah coached the team(03?) That was a potential problem that Doc completley avoided.
These guys have always been behind one another. It goes back to what was being said at the beginning of the season… This is the perfect storm for the C’s. Stars at the tail end of their primes (or somewhere in there) who have been on crappy teams and who are desperate for a title. They’re putting egos aside so they can fulfill a mutual goal.
Pat I couldn’t agree more. The best part of last night had nothing to do with the actually game, it was seeing Allen have some success and consequently Pierce’s reaction on the bench. It was perfect. And Ray was the guy who needed the success, so I’m glad it happened that way and not vice versa.
And John, outside of one or two games (Portland I think?), Ray simply hasn’t shot like that. I’m not just talking percentages, I’m talking about the way he shot it.
I hear ya Tim. I think I know what you’re saying now. Just one of those games where you know everything that leaves his hands is going to go in.
I could be wrong… but I felt like he opened the season that way. I mean… EVERYTHING was going right in the first month.
There was that recent story about his ankles… I wonder if that had anything to do with it.
Maybe that performance is just what Ray needed. I think he’s been kind of off all season and I havent really seen him that hot in a C’s uniform. I must be taken into account that about 3 people on both teams combined were attempting defense in that game(Pierce was one of the 3,) but hopefully that game will give Ray confidence ahead of this crucial west coast trip.
Injuries to your legs (e.g. feet, achilles, ankles, calves, knees, thighs or hips) rob a player of his accuracy. When Jesus Shuttleworth’s legs are healthy, he is still the No. 1 in-game shooter in the NBA. :-)
Maybe he needs to take a game or two off during the next month to make sure he’s on point when we need him. I couldn’t give a shit less about what he’s done so far… I care about what he’s going to do.
redsarmy – I agree that at the beginning of the season Ray was on top of everything but there has been a clear slide. Last night made us all feel good about and for him.
Tim – “Regardless of getting the MVP, can Ray Allen please start shooting like that in real games.” made me laugh out loud b/c I was thinking the SAME thing.
I don’t fuckin’ care! It don’t matter to Jesus.
See the rest of my comments from the “Looking Good for Tuesday” post for an ever-so applicable Lebowski reference.
Is PP having a kid or not??
ray allen has actually been like that twice. the first ten games of the season and right after he sat out a couple games. it makes me think more and more its an ankle thing throwing him off. I’d rather him take a game off every 15 games or so and light people up like that than be 4-14 with a quiet 15-20 points every night. ideally though, it was just a nagging injury that he came back too soon from b/c he was excited about the season, and now its finally 100% and he’s going to keep lighting it up.
As Lebron said whe he got the MVP without Ray they would not have won. The dunk was great but it most likely would not give them the win without Rays heroics.
They definitely would not have won that game without Ray Allen . I doubt Ray would have gotten the MVP even if voting had started at the end of the game. Fans are terrible voters. Especially when voting for Baseball All Stars(Cal Ripken every year that he played?)
Does anyone know who was calling the dunk contest with Barkley and screaming “It’s Over” halfway through the event. I can’t remember his name for the life of me, but he was awful. I felt bad for Gerald. After he got outscored in the first round, even though his dunk was better, I knew he was done. Probably why that one announcer pissed me off so much. It seemed like he was rubbing it in. Gerald got screwed on the no-shoes dunk too. That floor has to be extremely slippery with socks on. It would have been easier in his bare feet.
The announcer, in question, was Kenny (The Jet) Smith (former Houston Rocket & current NBA Analyst).
In general, Kenny does a great job on TNT’s ‘Inside The NBA’ & ‘At The Half’ (as the ‘Voice of Reason’, juxtaposed with Sir Charles’ ‘Clown Act’), and writes a solid column for Yahoo! Sports (as an ‘NBA Expert’).