Houston wins 9 of 12; Cavs drop 10th in a row on road HOUSTON (Ticker) -- A lot of people have talked about LeBron James as an MVP candidate, but it is Tracy McGrady that has his team playing its best down the stretch. McGrady collected 31 points and five assists to lead the Houston Rockets to a 99-80 victory over the slumping Cleveland Cavaliers. The Rockets (41-27) have won nine of their last 12 games and trail Sacramento by just one-half game for fifth place in the Western Conference playoff race. Houston took control of the game in the second quarter when McGrady scored eight points in a 15-2 burst that opened a 48-39 halftime lead. The All-Star swingman made all nine of his free throws. Losers of their last 10 road games, the Cavaliers got as close as 73-65 on a thunderous dunk by Robert Traylor over 7-6 center Yao Ming with 9:45 remaining. Reserve Mike James, who scored 13 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter, started a 12-0 with a 3-pointer and layup. McGrady ended it with a pair of layups. James made just 7-of-22 shots and scored 19 points for Cleveland (35-31), which dropped into a tie for fifth place with Chicago in the Eastern Conference. sometimes I wonder if the people who write these articles actually watch the games...okay, yes they're both tall -- but please, enlighten me: other than that, how in the hell could you possibly confuse dikembe for yao? edit: my bad, it's the AP who are oblivious, but even still...
Sheesh. What a bunch of buffoons. It was a good article until they mistook DEKE for YAO! It's ingrained in people's minds that Yao ALWAYS is the one to get dunked on.......and why it's always got to be mentioned and hyped is beyond me.
That isn't the AP article, this is: HOUSTON (AP) -- Tracy McGrady scored 31 points and Bob Sura had 12 points, 10 rebounds and six assists on his 32nd birthday, leading the Houston Rockets over the Cleveland Cavaliers 99-80 Thursday night. Mike James had 15 points off the bench and Yao Ming added 13 points and eight rebounds for the Rockets, who were particularly crisp following an impressive win over league-leading Miami on Tuesday. Houston shot 48 percent, outrebounded Cleveland by 11 and never trailed after the early minutes of the second quarter. The Cavaliers turned in another woeful performance on the road after winning in Brendan Malone's coaching debut against Detroit on Tuesday. Cleveland has lost 10 straight away from home, with its last win coming Jan. 22 at Golden State. Drew Gooden led the Cavs with 20 points and six rebounds, while LeBron James had 19 points and eight assists. McGrady, shooting just 30 percent in the previous five games, clearly outplayed James, although the hyped one-on-one battle between the two never really materialized as the two All-Star small forwards were rarely matched up against each other. A prep-to-pro prodigy himself back in 1997, McGrady would probably never admit to feeling slighted by all the praise heaped upon James. But he sure played like it Thursday. After sharing a warm embrace with James moments before tipoff, McGrady attacked the basket with a ferocity not always seen from the sleepy-eyed All-Star. He drove into the lane almost every time he touched the ball instead of settling for fallaway jumpers, coming up with a handful of highlight-worthy baskets. McGrady made a 360-degree spin under the basket for one layup in the first quarter, and threw down a thunderous left-handed dunk over Lucious Harris in the second. Meanwhile, James never really got comfortable -- typical of his games against Houston. He shot just 7-of-22 from the field, bringing his four-game total against the Rockets to 19-of-64 (30 percent). James was held to a career-low three points in their last game Dec. 29 in Cleveland. He left that game early after suffering a bone bruise when an elbow from Dikembe Mutombo caught him over his left eye. The Rockets really broke the game open early in the fourth quarter, going on a 12-0 run that included seven straight points from James. Houston led 85-65 at that point, and its lead would never dip below 16 points the rest of the way. With the Rockets just a point away from 100 in the waning seconds, the crowd urged them to go for another basket. Instead, James dribbled out the clock at midcourt, laughing as he exchanged hugs with his teammates. Notes: As part of another throwback night, the Rockets wore their uniforms from the 1970s. The Cavs wore their usual white home uniforms. ... Xzibit, rap star and host of MTV's "Pimp My Ride", San Diego Chargers receiver Keenan McCardell and Mathew Knowles, father of Beyonce, were all part of the sellout crowd. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/basketball/nba/03/24/cavs.rockets.ap/index.html I've been trying to find out what Ticker is. The only other place I found that article used was on Canada's TSN.
What was Xzibit doing there? I didn't know he was a Houstonian, or may be he is just here for a concert or something, does any1 know? Anyways, I am sure that he is disappointed that the only Knowles he got to see was the father
I thought this was gonna be another mention about the NBA TV quip about making it the TMac highlight reel
It is used in NBA recap of the game. I haven't watched the game yet. http://www.nba.com/games/20050324/CLEHOU/recap.html
this is true but...they didn't even show the right play, how could you leave out the 360 layup? that was definitely one of the top plays of the nba season.
I don't know if some of you have already noticed at all, but I happened to find OUTRAGEOUS and TOTALLY BLATANT beyond belief recaps right after the games are finished that trashes Yao or discredit him to the core. Some were simply jaw-droppers or eye-openers. ESPN does most of these, and NBA.com ones seem to be sharing the load lately. It is quite funny that everytime after the quotes are added later, the parts of the articles that trashes Yao would be reluctantly rephrased or erased kicking in with the quotes that compliment Yao. For example in the Seattle game, Ray Allen was talking Yao so up that the article had to completely change and add Yao's stat in it. Amazing. Do you guys recall any of these happen? I don't read pre-quote recaps all the time, but the few times I do I find this happen in malicious frequency.
yeah, they totally picked the wrong play. the 360 layup was by far the craziest play of the night, but my second favorite was the barry behind the back.
ESPN was stingy with their top 10 plays. McGrady got the #1 for his dunk over Gooden, but then Barry behind the back and the T-Mac 360 double clutch were omitted. ESPN definitely favors the dunk.
Off topic: A hip-hop act at industro-goth-ass Numbers ? What the hell's up with that? I remember seeing Ministry, King's X and Testament in that place in the 80s (got my car towed from behind it in a parking/wrecker scam). According to a friend who still goes there occasionally, it doesn't attract a hip-hop crowd. It's like booking Nine Inch Nails to play at Billy Bob's. This might not work out well for the artist or the venue.
ESPN sucks! That Barry behind the back pass to T-Mac was awesome. Just goes to show the levels to which the game has declined when spectacular passes like that are not celebrated.
