"Anywhere close to the basket, it's pretty much two points" - Vince Carter praised Tim Duncan's ability to score down low in 2013

“Anywhere close to the basket, it’s pretty much two points” – Vince Carter praised Tim Duncan’s ability to score down low in 2013 originally appeared on Basketball Network.

Tim Duncan was pretty hard to stop in his prime, a reason why teams had to make sure they had big men who could handle The Big Fundamental. The goal was to get Timmy as far away from the basket as possible. Failure to do so would almost certainly result in sure points for the San Antonio Spurs superstar.

In a 2013 game vs. the Dallas Mavericks, with most of the Mavs’ big men either ill or playing sparingly, Duncan was unsurprisingly able to operate near the basket. Because of this, Vince Carter, then a member of the Mavericks, admitted that all they could hope for was for TD to miss.

“Anywhere close to the basket, it’s pretty much two points for (Duncan),” said Carter via the Associated Press. “You just hope he has an off night.”

The Mavs were without Brandan Wright at the time due to an undisclosed illness. Samuel Dalembert did play, but he hardly did well against Duncan. Despite the handicap, Dallas still did its best. Later in the fourth period of that game, the Mavericks went on a 12-0 run to cut the Spurs‘ lead. However, that was until Timmy went to work.

Duncan scored three baskets in the Spurs’ next four possessions to diffuse the Mavs’ run. Those field goals did Dallas in, leading to San Antonio’s 116-107 win.

“They made their run, made some turnovers and got back into the game, but we were able to make some good plays,” Tim said

With Dalembert playing sparingly, the player tasked to guard Timmy was a smaller big, DeJuan Blair. The 6-foot-7 Blaur was hardly a problem for the Wake Forest product, finishing with 21 points and 13 rebounds in that win.

Duncan’s intentions at 37

Considering he was already 37 years old heading into the 2013-14 season, Duncan’s performance was remarkable. Although his production was declining, Tim still managed to give efficient numbers for the Spurs.

A look at his regular-season performance showed Timmy averaging 15.1 points and 9.7 rebounds in 29.2 minutes of action. Those were much lower than his MVP years, but TD managed to eke out good games when needed.

Before his huge game on December 26th, 2013, Timmy had a rare 20-20 game against the Atlanta Hawks on December 2nd. What made that win sweeter was the Spurs superstar hitting the game-winner with just 0.4 seconds remaining.

However, the sweetest of them all for Duncan had to be winning the 2014 title. Still hurting from their 2013 Finals loss to the Miami Heat, the two-time MVP was adamant about redemption.

“We have four more [games] to win,” the Big Fundamental told TNT’s David Aldridge. “We’ll do it this time.”

That came to fruition with the Spurs winning the series in five games. Duncan was San Antonio’s leading rebounder and third-leading scorer in that series, enough to help the franchise win its fifth championship in franchise history. It was also TD’s fifth and last title in his career.

After that 2014 championship, Timmy remained a reliable player for the Spurs in the following seasons. He would call it quits on July 11th, 2016, ending a decorated 19-season run.

At that point, Duncan hardly had anything to prove. His basketball resume has it all, from championships to MVP trophies. Given his contributions and success in the game, there is no question that Tim is genuinely one of the greatest NBA players ever to play the game.

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Aug 18, 2025, where it first appeared.

“Anywhere close to the basket, it’s pretty much two points” – Vince Carter praised Tim Duncan’s ability to score down low in 2013

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