I just wanted clarification whether Tracy said the Atlanta Hawks were roadkill before or after the game? I don't think he did...I just don't want the Charles Barkley karma to rear its ugly head.
Before the game.....just after the last win, he said they were going out on the road to get some road kill and that they were winnable games. DD
wheter TMAC meant it or not, i'm sure tht was bulletin board material for the Hawks....he shouldn't have said that..you could see the energy the Hawks had (maybe becuse of those comments)......eitehr way we should still win games like these..
I think this is just one bad game.. nothing more, we can't win them all. This game should've been a roadkill, Tmac was right.. but instead it ignited the other team not ours.. oh well.. we'll win the next one.
I'm sure that did motivate the Hawks. They are not as terrible as past seasons, so clearly they wanted it more last night. That should be a lesson learned, not to take any game for granted. Even the bad teams have very good players on them, some with a lot of pride. That said, hopefully this was just a small bump in the road.
I think what he said was, "hopefully we can go on the road and take care of business, get some roadkill." Not really slamming their opponents or anything like that, you guys are way too sensitive and have a tendency to overreact. I wish everyone was as focused/on their game as T-Mac last night, we would have blown out the Hawks. Alas, it looked like some of the vets were tired and dragging their feet (Deke, Battier) or just stunk it up and couldn't match up (almost everyone not named Rafer or Howard). I thought it was pathetic that the only guy hustling on both ends of the floor throughout the game was the superstar. When your superstar outworks everyone of his much less talented teammates, you know you're in trouble as a team. I have to also place some blame on JVG and his insistence to run all his players into the ground (Deke and Battier particularly have started to show some signs of fatigue over the past few games; they're not nearly as effective on defense as they used to be). Deke can't play 30 minutes every night at his age and still remain effective; Battier can't play 40 minutes a night at an all-out frantic pace that he's known for. It's especially mind-boggling when you consider the fact that we HAVE legitimate NBA players that can spell the main guys for a few minutes every game (Snyder, Tsakalidis). I don't like JVG's handling of the rotation in Yao's absence and it just pisses me off to no end
The psychology of denigrating the opponent is interesting. It motivates the other team and puts pressure on teammates. It may have helped T-mac's game, but this phenomenon happens to often: the team that talks publicly ends up losing. The teams that win have a healthy respect for the opponent. Stay humble, stay hungry.
Watch and listen for yourself...this is where he said it: http://www.click2houston.com/video/11077775/index.html
thanks man, i agree 100%. i don't think jvg should be giving jake or snyder HUGE minutes. but even spelling deke and battier, or even mac a few select minutes at the right time would be a huge lift. it's all about in-game management. i have no question jvg is the best coach in the nba at prepping his players, but there are serious issues when players are consistently logging more minutes than they can handle even though there's a healthy bench waiting to contribute. i feel bad watching battier and tmac (who i'm sure can handle heavy minutes any given game but wouldn't we all feel more comfortable seeing him play under 40 minutes for the sake of the playoffs) play the entire 1st quarter and the first few minutes of the 2nd. rafer seems to thrive with more minutes and doesn't really get tired so i've given up complaining about getting vspan in to sub him. but battier and mac have quality backups in snyder and bonzi. maybe snyder is really horrible and jvg just doesn't trust him, but the last time he played in a rockets uniform, good things happened.
