Foggy memories of the T-Mac/Yao era. Couple of questions...

JVG relied on Tmac and Yao primarily in a non motion, slow paced offense.

They used like 23 seconds of the 24 second clock.

 

All I remember is Yao couldn’t grab a rebound if his life depended on it and boozer went nuts.

 

The more things change, the more things seem to stay the same.......

 

I believe it was game 7. Only we went 0-27 from 3.

 

I invited like 10 friends over (was in hs). I was the only big big fan, and everyone gave me **** all night and I was a combination of depressed, ashamed, and angry all at once.

But what I remember from that game and era is Yao and Tmac performed, everyone else didn’t. IIRC, game 7 of that mavs series the first year, Tmac and Yao had like close to 30 or more each and nobody else had dbl digits. Too lazy to confirm boxscore. Also, Michael fking Finley.

The Jazz series (what’s the plural of series? Serieses? I’m rtd) were hard fought and we got cheated by some flops.

Ultimately Tmac and Yao didn’t get it done, but there is no doubt that they were significantly undermanned in terms of comparable role player talent. The first year and the last couple (injuries) were the best years in terms of role players, but old ass JB and Bobby Sura couldn’t get it done that first year.

Offense was so different than today (obviously). Midrange jumper galore those early seasons with mac. He was solid coming off that screen, but he stopped moving off ball for shots after the first few years (same as harden).

/ramble

 

With distance I think we were all overly enamored with our players and coach from that era. We hadn’t seen greatness in so long, since 1998 really. It turns out T-Mac and Yao and JVG just weren’t as good as all hoped they would be based on the flashes we received here and there. Harden has been to the WCF three times and people still b**** about him incessantly, but he’s on a different plane than the 2000’s guys.

 

That must have been the year McGrady was supposed to turn Stromile Swift into an all-star. Lmao

 

It was too hard because Cliff Robinson just fronted Yao....

 

I remember not getting to watch that Game 7 vs. Jazz because my college roommate's girlfriend took over our dorm room since it was her birthday. Pissed was an understatement for me.

 

Man if we had Morey as our GM back then, we would’ve had a better shot. Tmac would shoot so many long 2s it really hurt our offensive efficiency. Also, our depth those years really left a lot to be desired. Rafer Alston and his stupid floaters and Luther Head bricking 3s for days.

 

Me sun glass theif

 

The only way he could get a steal...

 

Ahh I remember how frustrating that Jazz series was. Thankful the Harden-Paul era ended a four-series, 21-year playoff losing streak to the Jazz.

 

I hate this Man to this day

 

Replace Tmac with Harden and Yao with CP. Morey never learns

 

Probably the only noteworthy moment from those Utah playoff games:

 

And that:


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Tmac got me pissed with his later rockets years too, but people saying he was a choker in those series... what makes Harden better? Second halfs of G6&G7 against GSW? Spurs series? T-Mac was much more clutch(yes i know on a regular basis Harden is overaly better player) than Harden and wasn't one to fold. He also guarded Dirk and did it great. It was Yao that was outplayed by some Okurs/Boozers + bad supporting cast. I remember T-Mac statisticaly was on Jordan level at one point and we still got eliminated, he was **** later on and regressed dramaticaly but when he arrived he was beast

 

I was older, but remembered thinking that this TMac guy could do it all. Later after watching Harden I realized he was a chucker. We have it good right now. Here's to hope for Houston and Harden is our hope. He's the franchise, the hope, the way.. so let's enjoy the roller coaster.

 

I was at game 7 in 2007. One of the more heartbreaking losses I've attended. I remember Tmac putting us up 5 with like 5 min to go on and and-1 and I was like "we got this." And then we proceeded to not be able to get a single rebound and Tmac didn't attempt a single shot until the game was out of reach in the closing seconds. I honestly don't blame him for that loss too much, he was getting chased around all series and was probably exhausted. We just didn't close it out as a team.

 

1. The Jazz really exploited the lack of depth and really the lack of footspeed for Yao. Yao just had his first injury which was a freak injury when Tim Thomas undercut him when Yao was going up for a block the season before. Prior to that injury though Yao was putting up MVP type numbers and was poised to have his best season yet. Yao was still really good but the Jazz exploited his lack of speed with Okur, Boozer, Milsap and Kirilenko in the front court. There was a sequence late in game 7 where the Jazz were effectively seal the victory because they were able to get multiple offensive rebounds which not only killed time off the clock but sealed the game with the score. Yao could not secure the rebound because they were long rebounds and the jazz were just quicker to the ball.

2. Injuries - Yao started to play like an MVP but then got hurt and then TMac got hurt. Those teams had little to no depth at all. Some of the crazy lineups the Rockets had to play with 10 day guys were ridiculous. The ONLY good things that came out of that year were 1) We found Chuck Hayes and 2) the lotto pick was used to trade to get Shane Battier.