http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/marty_burns/01/09/mcgrady.rockets/index.html CHICAGO -- To hear Rockets swingman Tracy McGrady tell it, his rather quiet start to the season had nothing to do with his balky back or having lost a step. It was all about Yao. "Coming into the season I was willing and able, but I wanted to defer to him," McGrady said of Houston's 7-foot-6 center. "The guy was averaging 25-26 points. There was no need for me to go out and play the way I'm playing now. I was more than willing to take a backseat, force-feed him, play inside out, defer to him and be more of a playmaker. With him out, I need to score the ball." Like Rocky Balboa, Larry Brown and the Democrats in Congress, T-Mac indeed is back. McGrady had 31 points, eight assists and six rebounds Monday night to lead the Rockets to an 84-77 victory at Chicago. It was T-Mac's sixth straight game over 30 points. More important, it was Houston's sixth win in eight games without the injured Yao. "We're a team that hangs in there," coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "We've been without Yao or McGrady or both since [early December]. It hasn't been a situation of woe is me. We've tried to fight and claw, play good and find a way to win on a given night." As Van Gundy also noted, it helps to have a player like McGrady around to pick up the slack. At the start of the season, the two-time All-NBA first-team selection made news when he told SI's Ian Thomsen that he felt he had "slowed down" after nine seasons and was glad to be part of a team where he didn't have to carry such a heavy load. McGrady, 27, then went out and pretty much played like it the first two months. Deferring to Yao, T-Mac averaged about 22 points and 5.5 boards, the lowest numbers since his Toronto days. But he did dish out nearly six assists, most in his career, as he used his driving ability to draw defensive attention and free up Yao for easy baskets. These days, however, T-Mac is back to being his old high-scoring self -- "like I did in Orlando," he said. While the back spasms that recently forced him to miss seven games remain a concern, he said he is healthy enough to shoulder the load. McGrady certainly looked up to the task last Friday against the Jazz, scoring 44 points to go with nine boards in a 100-86 victory. He also came up big against the Bulls, shaking off a dismal first half to almost single-handedly carry the Rockets offensively. He showed off his usual repertoire of step-back jumpers, fadeaways and vapor-trail forays to the rim. His 22-foot jumper over Andres Nocioni with 1:19 left gave Houston the lead for good at 79-77. "Tonight was a little tough because I was getting tired," McGrady said. "I don't know how I made it through this game. ... [But] I think I can do it. I did it before so it's nothing new to me. I feel I still got it. I didn't want to do it this way but [our] big guy is out so I have no choice." For McGrady, it might have been easy to hang his head after Yao went down. After all, this was supposed to be the season the Rockets stayed healthy and finally challenged for one of the top spots in the Western Conference. Now they're just trying to stay afloat and make the playoffs. Making it more frustrating for him is the fact that he has yet to win a playoff series in his career. The Rockets blew a 2-0 series lead against the Mavs in 2005, losing 116-76 in Game 7 at Dallas. McGrady knows how important it is to have home-court advantage, but Houston could have a difficult time nabbing a top four seed with Yao out until at least early February. "It's a part of the game," McGrady said. "It's just an unfortunate situation for us. Why us, you know? I went down, and then Yao went down. ... It's unfortunate, but you've just got to keep going, not get down. "This is our job. I think it's important for everybody to stay upbeat despite the injuries." Houston's morale should be fine as long as T-Mac can continue to shoulder the scoring load. But if his back troubles flare up again, it could be a different story. There is only so much a team can take, especially in the unforgiving West.
Nice article, I'm feeling it. Everyone, including T-Mac, finally starting to think he is back to what he was before. I just hope this keeps going, I will be a much happier person this year if it does.
So he was playing terribly because Yao was playing great? Why didn't he take it to the bucket if his back was ok? Why were his jumpshot and freethrow percentages so awful? He's either downplaying some early physical problems or he just slacked off for a good 20 games. Deferring to a big man is one thing, but Tmac was not aggressive at all early in the season. Maybe he had some rust in terms of the outside shot, but there's no excuse not to go to the basket if he was healthy. He probably said what he said to make him look like a team guy, but to me it seems like he took it easy on himself.
yup i love tmac. and he's a awesome player when he's playing the way he is now.. but one thing is his personality and attitude toward the game. he jsut doesnt have that kill everyone fire and drive like kobe.. when shaq was as dominant as ever kobe didnt take a back seat. he still took it the hole strong and played lights out basketball everytime he was on the flooor.. tmac needs to stop the crap about deferring to yao and watching the big man play.. its fine if yao leads the team when he gets back but we need both yao and tmac to play at the highest level to win a playoff series out west. They can both be dominant Shaq and Kobe did it and so can tmac and yao.. i just hope when yao gets back that tmac doesnt go back to the way he was playing on earlier in the season..he needs to not be lazy and play agressive like he is now..
If anything, this article is another indictment on JVG's inability to bring the best out of the none-superstar players when one of the two superstars goes down. The lack of production on a consistent basis from 2nd- and 3rd-tier players on this team is going to haunt us in this year's playoffs (assume we make it) and near long term. JVG is banking the team's short-term sucess solely on the fragile back of TMac. Terrible coaching philosophy. Fire Gundy.
Congratulations, you get the Old Man Rock memorial award for driving this thread headlong into a pile of hysterical anti-jvg dung. Well played.
Huh? What about the last 7 games? 6-1 hasn't gotten production from the role players? Besides the festering sore known as Rafer, what about Shane, Juwan & Deke along with a stifling defense that keeps us in every game? All of this is being done with Snyder or Bonzi too.
The record is excellent, but it is largely due to one man's heroic. Shane, Juwan, and Deke are all vets. Knowing their roles and capabilities, they can perform steadily on any team. JVG has little to do with their performance and production. Other than these three, the rest of the role players have been inconsistent at best. Head appears to head to a sophomore wall. Padgett all of a sudden doesn't how to shoot. Novak's shooting touch is nowhere to be found. VSpan has lost all his confidence, and is rumored to return to Europe. Bonzi is still a MIA. So there you go with all the depth under JVG.
This magical new defintion of coaching success is sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. I guess that means the best coach in the league is now Isiah Thomas since he gets a lot of production out of his 1st and 2nd year players.
It's called being unselfish and a goodteamemate. . he is trying to defer to yao so yao can get better and better. i the circumstances are willing, tracy is gonna take over even with yao in there, but throwing it into a 7'6 beast who has incridible post skills, seems like an good idea to me.
if you don't think deke has had a rebirth playing for the rockets and for van gundy you're out of your mind. he's playing ten times better than he did years before we ever got him. same for juwan. the rest of the post was a whole bunch of bullsh!t you're half-ass speculating on that's not worthy of a response. a loss is because of van gundy and a win is in spite of van gundy huh?
You're going to blame inconsistent play from the likes of Luther Head, Padgett (a 35% shooter last year), Novak (a freaking second-round rookie), and Spanoulis (how many players from Europe play "consistent" their first year?) on JVG?
yea he is unselfish./ but there were a lot of games early on in the year where if Tracy stepped up a bit more we could have won those games. He definately does not look like the Tmac we have now. So all im saying is in order for us to go far Tmac cant return to how he was playing on early in the year but he needs to play at the level he is now along with a healthy dominant yao.
It's gonna depend on matchups. some nights yao is gonna get 36 and other nights tracy might go for 50 points. they've got to creat a blance. say from tip off, we'll go to Yao and around the 5th mark, we'll let tracy take over. same thing for the rest of the 3 quarters. the great thing about tracy is, he can contribute in so manyways. he can pass the rock, rebound, defend and obviously score with anyone. he is as versatile as anyone in the league.
As great as Deke has played recently on the defensive end, his offensive production in terms of scoring can only be characterized as "measly." Instead of speaking in such hyperbole as "playing ten times better than he did years before we ever got him," you need to check on Deke's career stats. Save for one year, Deke was a consummate double-double guy in the first 11 years of his NBA career on three different teams. Then in 02-03, when he was hampered by injuries, was traded to NJ, and played less than 1/3 of the season. In the following year in NY, Deke again played only partially. Since joining JVG's team in Houston, Deke at best was only half of his old self in that he never upped his offensive production (which is at the lowest of his career). You may credit JVG for rekindling fire under Deke after he was pwned by Jeff Foster in the Indiana game. But "ten times better"? Only if you want to dwell on a pile of your own sh*t. Like Deke, Juwan is a seasoned professional whom any coach can count on for reasonable production. I am not arguing about win-loss record of JVG, but his ineptitude to develop new talent and to bring out the best from players of less-than-perfect "character." My opinions with regard to the performances of Head, Padgett, Novak, Bonzi, and VSpan are all backed by facts that you and other guys chose to ignore.
