ClutchFans Game Thread: Raptors @ Rockets 12/21/2005

McGrady is the biggest fan and the staunchest defender of Yao, just ask Mark Stein who had to hear an entire rant from McGrady about this, after MCGrady got fed up with ESPN crap about Yao, read my sig for the actual quote.

McGrady knows the value of Yao, and he ain't shy about letting everyone know it.

Luckily, our two star players admire and respect one another, I am just glad they don't read these boards and buy into our crap.

 

Here's the bottom line. The Rockets need a better supporting cast.

 

Sounds like you need to pick up a favorite habit of Rocket's fans every where. Drinking hard liquor.

 

was at the game tonight, unfortunately.

the problem like it's been stated 45000 times in this thread alone, is that tmac can't do it all.

if teams double and triple team tmac, who's going to beat them?

head? bowen? howard? swift?

hell we don't even have mutombo.

our role players ****ing suck, plain and simple.

 

Figuratively speaking, no you weren't.

 

Did you see the double and triple teams I faced?

My role players ****ing suck.

 

Very well said.

But I think you should have said the same thing to people like ubigred when he was having his bashing party on Yao two weeks ago.

 

yao without tmac and vice versa we are not a playoff team...... in order to have two superstars on one team you sacrifice the quality of your role players... but to defend the rockets most of our bench is decimated by injuries... for those who were bashing Yao's inability to carry the team with tmac out you saw tonight that tmac can not do it either... to further emphasize this point, yao needs to be fed whereas tmac can create his own shot. so in other words the doubles/triples will affect yao more, and in the games that tmac was out, i don't recall if yao had a game quite this bad...

 

Your post are the only one thats worth reading on this board nowadays...

 

Wasn't he the one that had a signature about Yao playing his hardest wasn't enough? yea, I think he removed that sig so maybe he is starting to be a little more forgiving towards Yao.

 

indeed.

 

I think some posters tend to post crap like that intentionally to get a reaction, so I don't tend to make a habit of responding to those.

However, I do defend Yao against bashing that he normally doesn't deserve.

IMO, the whole YOHs is a reactionary movement to the YOFs; one extreme leads to another. Both are equally irritating to me.

 

He's the one who keeps saying "trade Yao" every chance he gets.

 

I tried to stay away from this thread after the game, coz I knew it would be "my daddy can beat your daddy" all over again. But it's hard to ignore all those name calling, labeling and intense argument. After a hard fought and very successful road trip, everyone including posters here take Raptors for a high school team, we have no center at all, our ingury list is long. Yes, TMac didn't win the game alone, and he can't. What's the frigging big deal? MJ's Bulls lost to a Raptors team with even much less talents. I can't stand some Schadenfreude here. Similarily, it's disgusting to see those vicious attacks on Yao during that 0-8 period. Those people who curse Yao and praise TMac as a God, or vice versa, please don't call yourself fan of anything. Coz you are not. Everyone knows how Mac and Yao respect and like each other, from dozens interview, both in English and Chinese. If you can not even respect that simple fact, who are you kidding that you are fan of Yao or Tmac, not to mention the Rockets team? You are basically calling them dumb a$$, coz you simply dismissed the fact both recognized long long time ago, that they need each other.

Fans can critisize players, other fans should not be over-sensitive, and defensive whenever his/her favorite player is critisized. But nobody is dumb, we all know whose posts are mean-spirited, whose are just sharp critism out of frustration or disappointment. People here make fun of Lakers fans, Suns fans, Mavs fans and other, but look at the game threads after a loss. Honestly, it's even worse here from time to time. What a disgrace to this great board! TMac's value doesn't need to be proven by his injury, the reputation, the trade got him proved that long long time ago. Yao's value doesn't need to be proven by his surgery, opponents' defensive plan, his new max contract, praise from coach and teammates proved that. If you can't see that, don't call yourself of TMac or Yao or Rockets or basketball.

I don't even understand what people are arguing about here. Yes, TMac is better than Yao, but we need them both to succeed. Not only that, we also need quality role players to go far. What the heck is there to argue about? Can we just hope everyone is healthy, plays better and better, the team succeeds. I am so puzzled with so many agendas here. Nobody here knows them personally, where is the hate from? If there is no hate, where were those disgusting words used against them from? Both of them succeed means the team does well, which makes us fans happy. Any of them suffers or fails, what good does that do to anyone here? YOu don't gain money, health, respect, love, whatever is out there to gain, you gain nothing. So, why can't we just watch the game, and support the team?!!!!

 

http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/Post_Game_Quotes-162057-822.html


ROCKETS HEAD COACH JEFF VAN GUNDY
(on the game) "Well, defensively we were very poor. They're (Raptors) going
to commit two (players) on the ball to (Tracy) McGrady and we were going to
have to make more than we made."

(on the Rockets's defensive breakdowns) "Well, again, it starts with keeping
the ball out of the paint. We had trouble guarding the ball, helping
appropriately and then closing back to the 3-point line."

(on the play of Toronto's Mike James and Jose Calderon) "I thought Mike
(James) hurt us with some jump shots (and) I thought (Jose) Calderon, when
he was in, he dominated the game with penetration."

(on the play of Tracy McGrady) "It's interesting. He (Tracy McGrady) has
quite a dilemma. If he shoots, when 2 guys are on him, (which) he's (always
been called in his career) selfish. Now that he passes, people want him to
shoot when he's double-teamed. When we lose, he can't win. He can't win. And
everybody is going to look for him to do the opposite. My thing is, he needs
to be very aggressive offensively, and with 2 (players) on him, if we can't
put guys around him that can make (baskets), then that's on us as a
management team."
(on the Rockets's season) "It's now time to change course. This season is
slipping away right now. This is the time. It doesn't matter when those guys
(injured players) come back in 3 weeks, we have to hold the fort right now
for 6 weeks or 10 weeks."

TRACY McGRADY

(on the Rockets's difficulties on the defensive end) "I'm not concerned
about the offense. My concern is the defense. Defense is where we fell off
tonight and that's a problem. We played so well on the road, and we came
home were we should be energized, but the intensity on the defensive end was
poor. They (Toronto) did a phenomenal job of shooting behind the arc, but we
didn't make those guys work. They were going in for lay-ups and we didn't
put bodies in front of them."

(on scoring drought tonight - 7 points) "It's kind of tough when you've
always got 2 guys on you, so I think they did a good job of double teaming.
With all of these guys being out (Rockets injuries), that's pretty much all
I'm going to see until those guys get back. With Yao (Ming) being out, they
try to take the ball out of my hands and make other guys make plays. I'm
going to continue doing what I do. I'm not necessarily going to force any
shots, but I will continue to try to get these guys (teammates) the looks
that they got tonight. The most important thing is that we have to play
defense. With the defense that they were playing, I didn't get a chance to
find any seams. Every time I was coming off of pick and rolls, they were
waiting and forcing me to pass back."

(on the Rockets's player rotation changing due to the rash of injuries)
"You've got guys who are playing a significant amount of minutes and
mentally they get a little fatigued and when that happens, you don't really
know what our rotation is and what our schemes are. The guys who haven't
been playing that much are trying to step in and fill the role, not knowing
what our rotation is. It's tough. Nobody's going to have any sympathy for
us, so we're going to have to find a way."

JUWAN HOWARD

(on the Rockets's being shorthanded due to injuries) "I'll tell you one
thing, we can't be sorry for ourselves. We can't hold any pity parties or
anything like that. We're not looking for any teams in the NBA to feel sorry
for us because we know that they're not. We just have to roll with what we
have and as professionals, that's our job and that's what we're going to do.
We're going to play hard no matter what. We're not going to be sulking and
worrying about who's not there. We're going to play hard with what we have."

(on the loss) "It was a disappointing loss. Toronto played better. We could
have played better than the way we did out there. I think there were times
when we allowed too many points in the paint, a lot of guys came in making
lay-ups, and that's something that, as a Rocket team, our defensive team
strategy is to not allow teams to score on us in the paint. Tonight we
didn't follow through with our game plan."

TORONTO RAPTORS HEAD COACH SAM MITCHELL

(on defending McGrady) "Mo (Peterson) and all the guys moved their feet well
and we stayed connected to him the entire game. Our guys recognized who
their shooters were and made the right defensive moves. We had to do
everything we could do to get the ball our of Tracy's hands and make him a
passer."

(on his team's play) "When we move the ball well we are a good team. James
and Calderon did a good job moving the basketball. I am proud of our guys.
They played well. Our guys did perfect for our game plan and followed it to
a T. When Houston made a run, we executed our offense and came back and made
a shot. At half-time I thought our guys played good defense and was suprised
by the percentages. This was a good win for our team."

MORRIS PETERSON

(on defending Tracy McGrady) "It's a good feeling because we got the win and
I held him under 10 points. It was an overall team effort and I took the
challenge. I'm just trying to stay in front of him and make him take tough
shots. After our double teams I tried to not let him get the ball back."

(on the win) "It was a great win for us. This definitely will give us
momentum and we're trying to turn things around and this was a good start."

CHRIS BOSH

(on not being the team's leading scorer) "It was good. You can't score every
game and all I care about is the win. If I take my time and work on my
passing then I can get my teammates more involved."

(on the win) "It was really special to get this win. We need to stick to our
game plan and keep getting better each game. We need to figure out how to
get some wins at home."

(on stopping McGrady) "Double him and keeping two guys on him all the time
and trying to get the ball out of his hands. We never took our focus off him
and kept double teaming him all game."

MIKE JAMES

(on defending McGrady) "The main thing was to try and make every shot
difficult for him. There is so much pressure on him with Yao (Ming) out and
the other injuries, and I think he was fatigued. It will take a toll on
anybody to be double and triple teamed all game. I don't want to take
anything away from MoPete's (Morris Peterson) defense but there is so much
more pressure on him (McGrady). Tracy is a great player
and don't be suprised if he comes back and has 60 points the next game."

(on his return to Houston) "My focus was just on winning. It felt really
good. I built a foundation here in a short time and to come back and play
well was positive."

 

Of course I'm disapointed after seeing the Rockets loose, but it was a great experience to see them play live. Unfortunately they don't play another home game during my stay; that's why I enjoyed every single moment at the Toyota Center, I even took pictures with 2 of the Power dancers at the end of the game, they were really nice...
It was heartbreaking to leave the arena (I even picked up 2 empty cups with the "R" on it ) but, I hope I'll be able to come to attend an NBA finals game very soon at the Toyota Center.

 

Best post I have ever read so far this season!

 

"(MJ on defending McGrady) "The main thing was to try and make every shot
difficult for him. There is so much pressure on him with Yao (Ming) out and
the other injuries, and I think he was fatigued. It will take a toll on
anybody to be double and triple teamed all game. I don't want to take
anything away from MoPete's (Morris Peterson) defense but there is so much
more pressure on him (McGrady). Tracy is a great player
and don't be suprised if he comes back and has 60 points the next game."

Hmm...Mike seems to like Tmac. He gives him the respect he deserves. Strange, because last year, he'd wave off Tmac a couple of times. He's a good player though.

 

Even T-Mac is not 100% recovered. If Rockets can win 2 games in the next 2 weeks, T-Mac should be sit and start Head, Graham, Swift, Baxter, Howard. Train the young players and get a good pick, at least create some value to the next season.

 

YOH brings A LOT more negative effect.

I am a YOF by definition and I don't think there is anything wrong with it, I am a fan of many stars in NBA, Tracy, Kobe etc., but I like Yao the most. I started to realize only by Rockets winning more games, getting deeper in playoffs can give Yao more exposures, thusly I became a Rockets Fan, this is indeed a side-effect but it is very positive, Rockets wins, Yao contributes, everyone's happy.

YOH, on the hand, is completely destructive. Their entire motivation is nothing but to be head to head against YOF and baselessly bash Yao. They
actually turned many YOF to YHH.