Tmac has been the BEST player in the NBA in the playoffs the last 8 seasons. Name one player who has played better in the playoffs during that stretch and back it up with stats. How much were you disappointed by his performance in the 04-05 playoffs? It's a losing argument
T-Mac lived and died by the three the exact same way the Mavs as a whole lived and died by it. T-Mac was hot in the first half and they were cold. The Mavs were hot in the second half and T-Mac was cold. Lord knows you couldn't pay one of those creampuffs to go inside or drive to the basket.
ATTENTION I cannot make threds so i'll post it here, I've gone to ESPN site and for some reason next to the Rockets game report there is a Stein: T-mac Tweaks his back!! I am very concernred , CAN ANYONE with ESPN INSIDER tell me what Stein says about Macs back?
T-Mac tweaks back; enter Novak by: Marc Stein posted: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry filed under: NBA, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, Tracy McGrady, Steve Novak DALLAS -- Even as president of Steve Novak's fan club, I was rooting against this. Even though I claimed Novak as my own during summer league last July -- before anyone in Clutch City, I assure you -- I never wanted to see my favorite rook getting into a game because Tracy McGrady's back seized up. Yet that's basically what happened here Tuesday night. An evening that began so magically for T-Mac, looking a lot like McGrady did in that unforgettable 53-to-48 scoring duel Dirk Nowitzki won on this very same floor back in December 2004, ended with Houston in surrender mode. McGrady scored 16 of Houston's first 18 points and had 29 of his eventual 45 by halftime. But his back stiffened in the final few minutes of the Mavericks' 109-96 comeback triumph, after a second half that saw T-Mac hounded all over the floor by trapping, switching, denying Dallas defenders who either forced the ball out of his hands, wouldn't let him catch it or made him take increasingly tougher shots after a 12-for-15 start from the floor. The lasting image of his outing, sadly, turned out to be McGrady getting pulled from a lost cause with 2:14 to play and trudging to the visitors' locker room for treatment shortly thereafter. Novak, John Lucas and Kirk Snyder promptly took the floor to play out the clock, with Nowitzki's Mavs having erased Houston's 65-52 lead to comfortably claim their 18th victory in 19 games. Fresh cause for concern? McGrady scoffed at the mere suggestion. He called this first real setback in his latest comeback "nothing major" and insisted that it was increased defensive attention from Dallas -- not his back or fatigue from carrying an offense that was getting scoring from almost nowhere else -- that prevented his being in a "zone like that" from producing, say, 60 points. However ... Jeff Van Gundy left little doubt that the club, or at least the coach, has not stopped worrying about McGrady's health just because he's been so spry lately, ever since discovering Waco-based rehab specialist John Patterson. "With his situation," Van Gundy said of McGrady and his chronic back woes, "I always consider it day-to-day." Oh. I didn't particularly enjoy hearing the Novak update, either, but there's a crucial difference. That's a disappointment I was expecting. Van Gundy permitted himself a pregame chuckle when informed that I'm yet another one of those Novak guys convinced that the marksman from Marquette should be playing more often. A shooter with the sweetest stroke in his rookie class to loosen things up for McGrady might have been particularly helpful in the second half against the Mavs ... and a tasty subplot since Dallas considered drafting Novak at No. 28 in the first round before going for Maurice Ager and leaving Houston to snare him at No. 32. But Novak, not exactly lighting it up when he does play at 7-for-24 (.292) on 3s, is the first to acknowledge (with me not far behind) that he's going to have to improve his defense and rebounding if he wants to make the leap from second-round selection to rotation regular. "We've got a great group of veterans and we're winning," Novak said. "I'm just taking it all in and learning and trying to do whatever I've got to do to get on the floor. From what Coach Crean [of Marquette] had told me Coach Van Gundy was going to be like, I knew it was going to be a defensive mindset and that it's going to be about perfection when you're out there. He told me, 'You're going to get what you deserve [in terms of minutes].' He was right about everything he told me." Said Van Gundy: "If you're just talking about an individual guy like Ager, he'd be better served if he was on a lottery-bound [or] injured team. Then he'd get to play and everybody would say, 'Great pick.' If you have a guy like Steve who's a second-round pick and you're trying to win and you have guys that I feel give us a better chance to win that are in front of him, then he doesn't get as many chances. "He has one great skill. He's trying to add dimensions to his game. Over time, we'll find out if he can do that. ... If you could pick and choose the best parts of each guy's game, everybody could get on the floor. [Novak] had a very good preseason, [but] as we all know, preseason and regular season are different just as regular season and postseason are different. I think at times people can get carried away with their expectations of young players based on preseason."
your a champion mate. I thought it was a more indepth report that he had screwed his back over or something.Now i can breath easier
the dallas denial defense was spectacular tonight. and they always recovered too. no overly open shots. i agree that relying too much on tmac eventually wore him down, he had no one else contributing, and it seemed like all our 3's were contested, as opposed to those wide open looks we always seems to get. it sucks that they can focus on mcgrady all the time, they obviously wouldnt have been able to do that had yao been in there.
Umm...no actually you're wrong. He started the game 9-12 shooting, and then went 8-17 the rest of the game...I wouldn't call 8-17 shooting "going cold" by any stretch of the imagination. Heck, I would take that percentage from him every single night. It would be more accurate to say that he stopped his insanely hot shooting in the first half and finally came back to earth, which was mostly when Dallas started doubling him and forcing him to pass it, which he did and collected 7 assists in the process despite the fact that his teammates couldn't shoot straight for most of the game.
More garbage He didn't have an off-shooting night, he shot the ball very, very well. "Shoot himself back in the game"? Quick, what did he shoot the rest of the way after his 9-12 start? Don't let facts get in the way...
i saw the look alright.... 2:15 to go in the game I saw him in obvious pain while being stretched by Keith..... Fokker....out!
I should add one more thing: you guys need to give Dallas their just due, they are a GREAT team, we're not near their level just yet (certainly not shorthanded), and even at full strength we would be heavy underdogs in a 7-game series. They are the best team in the league because they're the most consistent team in the league, they have players that bring it every single night and if they don't then others will step in and they won't miss a beat...they're incredibly deep. I think they have to be heavily favored to win it all this year. We shouldn't be sore losers, we need to give credit when it's due. There is no shame in losing to the best teams in the league, we put up a hell of a fight.
What made you think he's a YOF? He didn't say anything against Tmac. The only reason for you to say that is because you're a TOF.
He went cold (as did the rest of our offense) during key stretches. The 15-2 spurt that tied it in the 3rd and the 20-4 stretch that put the game away. During those spurts he kept firing up those difficult three point attempts, the same ones he was making earlier that all of a sudden weren't falling, and on the other end the Mavs started getting hot and finally hitting their 3-pt attempts after going something like 1/11 in the first half. If you watched the game you should understand what I am talking about. I am by no means bashing T-Mac, just simply acknowleding he got cold in the second half when the Mavs made their runs. He was absolutely fantastic but it just proves how much we really miss the big fella and that even being the best player on the floor sometimes isn't enough against a team that good and deep.
