Back-to-back pain A few weeks after Shane Battier and Tracy McGrady were not sure if they could play a back-to-back, they played four games in five nights, showing obvious wear from the schedule. “Four games in five nights caught up with me,” McGrady said after scoring four points, none in the second half, in Tuesday night’s 99-90 loss at Cleveland. “I made it through, barely,” said Battier, who made one of six shots. “I made it through in one piece, but I’m looking forward to a couple of days back off my feet. I get off the plane, and I can barely walk.” Although the Rockets have their full roster healthy for the first time this season, the problem for them is that the portion of the schedule just completed is not an aberration. Between their Dec. 16 victory over the Nuggets and the Jan. 13 meeting against the Lakers, the Rockets will play just one game, the New Year’s Eve tilt against the Bucks, that is not part of a back-to-back. The Rockets play another stretch of four games in five nights, also in four cities, on Jan. 6-10. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6181289.html so for people who think tracy is setting up an excuse to sit again, pipe down. he simply got worn down from a brutal schedule stretch and played ONE bad game. he'll be back. just will battier. both guys are still recovering. hopefully they'll be back to full health in another month or so.
Everyone who is piping up about Tracy and his weaknesses will be the same ones upset no matter what he does. All Tracy can do is truck along through the rest of the season and get healthy. I want him to make his showing at the end of the season, not after 29 games.
Yes, I want him to lay it all out in the postseason--I mean, just go insane attacking, dishing, draining
I know both Battier and McGrady aren't 100% and they both played poorly in Cleveland. But for some reason, I don't question Battier's drive or desire whereas I do McGrady's. I don't know what exactly it is about the guy's body language, but there are games when McGrady just looks like he doesn't really want to be out there. He doesn't move as much and takes himself out of plays. It's as if he's taking pains to show that he's either too hurt or too tired to be playing. With Battier, he may have a sub-par game, but at no point do I feel he's not out there giving his best. For me, there's no question about Battier's drive and professionalism. I know it's a dead horse topic and I'm no body language expert. But that's what I see year after year.
where was the imposed will from our leader? ain't it supposed to be "it's all on me"? oh wait, this is just regular season. it doesn't count. it's ok to take nights off during the regular season. we all know shaq has done that for years. an we've added another guy, you know, who calls himself "the true warier". that fool plays hard even when he is hurt as he wants to have dignity when lose. why not let him try a little harder? it's his contract year anyway. mine doesn't come due next year.
Kobe will be playing his 5th game in 7 days against the best team in the NBA tomorrow. Let's see if he has any excuses. Let's see what his numbers will be.
was kobe injured recently/in the process of rehabbing a bum knee lance? no, so just relax a bit with the incessant tmac bashing. kobe is relatively healthy so he has no excuse, just like yao didnt have to create an excuse this game. its obvious tmac sucked it up in the last game, but he is not close to 100%. a 75% tmac is still an amazing talent and so long as he is close to 100% by the playoffs, i dont care what seed we are, we will go deep. sheesh.
yeahh im pretty sure Kobe didnt come off of knee surgery... so i dont wanna hear that. im proud that tmac got us 3 wins out of the 4 on the trip...
Yes, this is the regular season which has 82 games. It's OK to pace yourself. Does NBA give out rings for winning the regular season? I didn't think so. On the other hand, how do you know T-Mac is just coasting? He may be really hurting. I'd like to see you carry Bob Lanier and Artis Gilmore for 48 minutes.
I said, it is tough to play that many game, tough games because even game against Wolves was close They are getting 2 days of rest now, they will be fresh.
Shane Battier and Tracy McGrady swell so badly on the longer flights, they h ave been wearing these goofy spandex things that look as if stolen from Usai n Bolt and still, they can barely walk when the flights land http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2008/12/cavs_stop_rockets_losing_with.html
Well with that kind of ignorant, narrow-minded thinking, no wonder you're still a rookie even after 1000+ posts...rookie Did you even read the article? Here, let me post the relevant part: “Four games in five nights caught up with me,” McGrady said after scoring four points, none in the second half, in Tuesday night’s 99-90 loss at Cleveland. Yes, the main reason Tmac played a poor game (after giving us 3 excellent games I might add) was because he didn't impose his will. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was injured, or that it was the 4rth game in 5 nights and he was playing roughly around 30+ mins per game. And you know, Artest was 200x tougher than Tmac is, he's a tru warier alright, since he's playing on an injury as well but didn't suck as bad. Because Artest's ankle sprain injury is on the same level as Tmac's knee problem Why don't you get your facts straight first before you start spraying the haterade?
At the end of the day our walking wounded are getting healthier by the week. As I have repeated since the start of teh season untill this day. We will be healthy by the All-Star break and well in reach to get home court advantage for at least the first round. After watching the Lakers every 2 weeks thanks to ESPN Australia, we could evne be close enough to clinch teh Western Conferance. It is tiem for everyone to stop complinaing about every Houston and start being positive. Lets be positive for once!
I still agree with those giving T-Mac a break. I'm very patient, I hope the next games will prove something.
This is how I feel also. It is very difficult to give a guy the benefit of the doubt when he has a history like McGrady's. People who favorably compare Tmac's attitude regarding injuries and effort on the court with Yao, Shane or Ron are being dishonest. Having said that, I think McGrady was in some severe pain on Tuesday night. His body wouldn't let him play so in this case I don't think it was a matter of effort or attitude.