Players and Coaches Discuss Vince Carter’s Performance

Vince Carter put on one of the greatest shows in Magic history. Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy and his players were noticeably very excited and happy for their teammate. The Hornets were very impressed. Here’s what they had to say:

Stan Van Gundy

"“I know one regular question I’m not getting tonight. What’s wrong with Vince? Anybody got that question tonight? That was incredible. I mean, that was unbelievable. 34 in the second half, 16 in the third, 18 in the fourth, most of them didn’t even hit the rim. I mean, there have been better performances, but not a whole lot of them and not one from somebody on my team in a long time. That was absolutely incredible. We had a lot of guys do good things, but quite frankly, tonight they were all overshadow by that. That was vintage Vince Carter. That was really, I mean unbelievable. And everybody wanted him to keep going. It wasn’t like one of those nights where everybody else was like “get me that ball,” no no, everybody wanted to get him the ball. We did not have much energy tonight. We could not keep up with them. Obviously they just shredded us defensively and we needed it. We needed just a great, great performance to get us a very close win and we got it.”"

On Carter’s overall game

"“He was, look, seven defensive rebounds, he did it all tonight. He was phenomenal…I’ll just keep throwing out superlatives. I don’t have any explanation. He had 30 after three and I’m doing one of those sideline interviews, which are great anyway. Really really enjoy doing those during a game because that’s right where my mind is, is talking to the media with 12 minutes to go when we’re down seven. That’s right where I want to be. “So what’s the difference with Vince tonight?” I said “I don’t know,” but I felt like saying “How the hell do I know?” You know, the guys a great player and he got it going. I could have taken credit, “you know, I had a talk with him.”"

Brian Schmitz then asked if Van Gundy did have a talk with him.

"“No. He was just great, he was great tonight. He has had nights like this in his career, you know, it was fun. That place was rocking in there. The only mistake I made was I should’ve had J-Will on the onbound, so they would’ve had to foul him and he could’ve gotten 50, but my mind wasn’t really on that. Vince is a really solid inbounds passer, so I had him inbound it, but I should’ve given him a chance at that.”"

On if anyone saw this coming after January

"“But in February, he’s averaged almost 20 in the three games so two of his three games have been real good…not to this level, you’re not going to see this very often with anybody. Not only a lot of points but 19-for-27, he didn’t miss shots. He was incredible. You’re not going to see that too many times. It’s one of those games that even us coaches, this is one of those games here down the line that if you were here tonight, you’ll talk about it. “Remember the game where Vince got 48?” Unfortunately, most of those games come against us. “Remember when Wade got 50?” So now I’ve got one.”"

Dwight Howard

"“That was Vinsanity tonight. When he’s aggressive, attacking like he was tonight, it opens things up for everyone.”"

Jameer Nelson

"“With Vince playing like this,’you just keep getting him the ball.”"

Peja Stojakovic

"“We got it back together but Vince Carter was too much. He was making tough shots and I think we played pretty good defense. He has done this before so it was not a surprise. We tried giving him different looks, but he was up for the challenge.”"

"“He made some very tough shots over two guys or three guys. He played well. We were able to stay in the game right there. He played an unbelievable game and you have to give him credit.”"

David West

"“He just made some plays down the stretch. There was good defense on him for the most part. Guys were there but he was making tough shots. We just couldn’t keep him contained.”"

Hornets Coach Jeff Bower

"“He’s got such great one-on-one ability and he was so effective coming off that high screen and roll and we tried going under it, over it, switching some, trapping and he was able to deal with and handle it. It was a great night for him. And that’s what they needed.”"

"“Vince Carter himself was able to really read our coverage well. It was a great player making great plays. I see it that was more than us having breakdowns. We really worked it and everybody that covered him really worked hard at it. And he made great plays. When he’s shooting the ball deep from three, and driving the ball with his explosiveness it’s hard to keep him under control when he’s going both phases of his game really going on.”"

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)