The Starting Lineup: Rudy Gay Brings Raptors Deliverance

I still don’t like the trade from a business standpoint, but Rudy Gay proved his basic on-court worth to the Raptors in a 100-98 overtime victory in Indiana.  Though Gay experienced just mixed success (9-25 from the floor) going one-on-one against a stingy defender in Paul George, he did come through with 17 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, including the game-winning jump shot with 1.7 on the clock.  Say what you will about “hero ball,” but not since Vince Carter have the Raptors had a player capable of creating this sort of shot on a consistent basis. Foolishly, I decided to give up on this game near the end of the fourth quarter, when David West (30 points) made a pair of free throws to put the Pacers up four with 10 seconds to play.  How’d the Raptors pull off the improbable?  Well, Amir Johnson got his Tracy McGrady on, scoring four points in six seconds.  As well as he played, this was basically David West’s fault.  It appears that he was angry about Johnso...