Vince Does It Again, Sinks Clips

Vince Carter could hardly believe his eyes, he was so open. And with that, he made his second game-winning 3-point shot this month.

Carter's 24-footer as time expired lifted the Toronto Raptors to a 95-94 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.

Carter, who scored 14 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter, hit a 3-pointer as time ran out to give the Raptors a 96-94 win at Boston exactly one week earlier.

Carter, who made just one of his first 10 shots and scored only four points in the first half, took an inbounds pass from Tracy McGrady, and the buzzer sounded with the ball in the air.

"We called Vince's number in the huddle, so when we came out on the court, he did exactly what we asked him do to," Raptors coach Butch Carter said. "I originally was going to use Vince as a decoy, but there wasn't enough time. Tracy made a great pass."

Lamar Odom made two free throws with 1.5 seconds left to give the lowly Clippers, who lost for the 17th time in 18 games, a two-point lead. Toronto then called a timeout and ran the winning play.

The Clippers opted to zone the inbound pass, and Carter had plenty of room to catch the ball and connect from near the top of the key.

"Everybody was surprised," McGrady said. "It's like they played a zone defense. That was bad coaching, I think. He was wide open, he relaxed on his shot, he knocked it down."

"That was just bad defense, you never play a zone in a situation like that."

Clippers coach Jim Todd said he would take ful responsibility for the final play.

"We tried to switch everything so we could stop the lob inside," he said. "He just ended up being open. It just didn't work."

Clippers center Michael Olowokandi called the strategy a mistake.

"Everybody saw what happened in terms of what decision was made after what was working," he said. "Everybody makes mistakes. We as players make mistakes, also."

Doug Christie scored 18 points and McGrady scored 15 for the Raptors, who won their seventh straight game a franchise record.

Tyrone Nesby and Derek Anderson each scored 21 points, Maurice Taylor had 20 and Odom had 16 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists for the Clippers.

Carter, who finished 9-of-21 from the floor, appeared to make a costly mistake before his game-winning shot, fouling Odom outside the 3-point line when it appeared Odom would be unable to get off a shot before time expired.

"I thought it was going to be a long bus ride to the airport," Carter said. "It turned out good."

Anderson's 3-point shot with nine minutes remaining gave the Clippers an 86-72 lead largest of the game for either team and he made two free throws with 4:54 left to make it 90-79.

The Raptors then scored the next 11 points, the final two on a jump shot by Charles Oakley for his only points of the game, knotting the score at 90 with 1:16 to play.

A jump hook by Olowokandi, who had 10 points and 14 rebounds, put the Clippers on top, but Carter's long jumper with 51 seconds to play tied it again, and it stayed tied until the exciting finish.

Carter has now led the Raptors in scoring in a franchise-record 16 straight games, but he was off his game for the first three quarters, scoring just nine points.

The Clippers took a 12-point lead early in the third quarter before the Raptors went on a 19-5 run to put them ahead 66-64.

The Clippers finished the period by outscoring Toronto 11-3 to give them a 75-69 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Carter didn't score for the first 8 1/2 minutes, missing his first three shots, with the third falling far short, drawing chants of "air ball."

The Clippers scored the final seven points of the first half for a 51-43 lead. Carter played only four minutes in the second quarter, scoring just two points.

Notes