http://blogs.chron.com/franblinebury/ The dead cat bounce: Celtics 94, Rockets 74. The Rockets' 22-game winning streak is history. You can look it up. Right there on the all-time list, second-best ever. The Rockets' 22-game winning streak is history. Or it has to be in their minds, if there is still any chance to stay in the middle of the brutal brawl that is the Western Conference playoff race. It was nice for a day or two to stand on top of the mountain and breathe in the fresh, rarified air of the No. 1 seed. But now things get down and dirty. Now the Rockets go on the road for three straight games against contenders - at New Orleans, at Golden State, at Phoenix. Of they don't pull themselves back together immediately, the Rockets could find themselves back at the bottom of the pile. "You forget it about it," said head coach Rick Adelman. If only it were that easy. And it's not just the closing schedule, which has them on the road for 10 of the final 15 games. What the Rockets have to fight now is the natural inclination to ease up off the gas pedal now that the streak has been broken. History says it happens. The Milwaukee Bucks set what was then the NBA record of 20 in a row back in the 1970-71 season. But when it ended, they lost 5 of their next 6 games. When the Los Angeles Lakers' mind-boggling 33-game winning streak the follow season was broken by the Bucks, they lost 4 of 6 games. "It's a natural reaction," said 81-year-old Bill Sharman, who was the Lakers' head coach back then. "We had a good team, a real good team. But when you get that streak going and you keep pushing and pushing it out there, when it finally ends it can take a while to re-group." The Rockets will have to re-group and figure out a way to get Tracy McGrady to be a scorer again. After 4-for-16 for 11 points against the Lakers, he managed just 4-for-11 and 8 points against the Celtics. After the loss, McGrady attributed it to the virtually the greatest defensive effort in the more than a decade since Dr. Naismith first hung up the peach baskets. Then he also said his teammates "have to make open shots." Yes, they do. But these undermanned, overmatched Rockets without Yao Ming also need McGrady to be the T-Mac he likes to think he is. He must drive the ball aggressively, draw fouls, score at the line and find ways to get himself open looks at the basket. Like Kobe. Like LeBron. Like Paul Pierce. He must carry the Rockets. He must not be telling ABC's Michele Tafoya in a halftime interview that he hasn't scored a point because he's "tired." Not when it's March. Not when the playoffs are still a month away. Not when there's too much work to be done just to get there. Not when the streak is history and the Rockets have to avoid the dead cat bounce.
I'm sorry ... where is the quote where he blamed his teammates? All I see in quotes are the words "have to make open shots", and the rest is Blinebury, a notorious McGrady critic.
hmm i may be wrong but i dont recall very many open shots tonight. the celtics are the best 3 point defending team in the league. we didnt get any daylight. our weakness is having our players put the ball down and create their own shot. Battier and Luther arent going to take it to the hole. we need more movement, ball movement. T-Mac needs to stop being a ball stopper.
I wish Hakeem could just come out of retirement and play 10-15 minutes for us. Uncle Mutombo needs the rest.
Its not about jumping off the bandwagon, its about the team superstar T-MAC taking it like a MAN for his sorry A$$ performance!
Idiot! T-Mac said he was tired in the Lakers game. Not today's game. The OP is an attention w**** to make thread title like this.
I won't blame TMac for this. I've blamed him a lot in the past, but credit http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=145153&page=1&pp=20
From scoring 8 points 2 days ago and all the effort he put into the celtics game? This is bad to hear. We need him to give us big minutes in the playoffs if we want to do any damage. He played 48 minutes on friday and is still tired on tuesday?
I might be wrong but none of you guys were calling him McLazy or Mc whatever during the win streak why now? Please if your going to jump off the band wagon go vent your lameness somewhere else please?
wow what a way for fran to take it out of context typical tmac hater for ya. he said the ENTIRE team didn't make shots.